Thursday, December 4, 2008

No More Facebook Friends for Washington Capitols Owner Ted Leonsis

So popular that he's inching precariously close to the 5,000-friend limit on Facebook. As of this afternoon, he had 4,995. Better scramble to get those last few slots in his digital Rolodex. He said on his blog late last month that he will have to start delisting people and rejecting future requests. It's not surprising he's a highly sought-after acquaintance. After all, he owns the Washington Capitals and is one of the region's most prominent investors, a business adviser and a tech guru. But even the most well-known folks get tired of being so, well, well-known. A while back, when he only had a mere 2,500 friends, I asked Ted about his rapidly expanding online network. He indicated it was a little overwhelming and that his online social circle was getting out of hand. "Who has 2,500 friends?" he asked. He told me he would get several dozen friend requests a day. To limit who he would allow into his sphere, he only accepted requests from people who had at least five friends in common with him. His pet peeve, he told me, are people who friend him and then immediately ask him to invest in a company or give to a non-profit group. In August, he wrote on his blog,"I have too many 'friends' and because of it, Facebook is becoming something of a nuisance for me. It is a lot of work to keep up and it is a lot of messages per day from folks who all seem to need something and ASAP!"
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2008/12/no_more_facebook_friends_for_t.html

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