> designed to create and make use of a graph of relationships between people.
I assert that a universe of people maintaining killfiles is exactly this. It is the default-trust map of social network, in which one imagines that the exceptional cases are those whom one wishes to shun.
I think a requirement that one be able to "follow a person", that is to say watch all the things that individual says, is excessive. We're getting down into the weeds here, but I think following topics and threads are much more useful than following humans.
What was more useful wasn't the question. Social network and social media emerged 20 years ago when people needed a name for following humans.
Usenet was not designed for kill files. Kill files were designed for Usenet. You could construct a very limited social graph from everyone's kill files. But no one had everyone's kill files. And you could construct a limited social graph from everyone's tax records also. Are taxes a social network?
> designed to create and make use of a graph of relationships between people.
I assert that a universe of people maintaining killfiles is exactly this. It is the default-trust map of social network, in which one imagines that the exceptional cases are those whom one wishes to shun.
I think a requirement that one be able to "follow a person", that is to say watch all the things that individual says, is excessive. We're getting down into the weeds here, but I think following topics and threads are much more useful than following humans.