I’d encourage a change of labels away from “friend/foe”. It may seem minor but the subtle loaded nature of those paired terms encourages an adversarial stance rather than one of productive discourse. It’s not catchy so there’s probably better than this but, just as an example— “engage/ignore” could better signal to the user a neutral “do I want to bother with this person?”

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logicprog 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Agreed, independent of where the terminology came from, I think if you're trying to promote healthier engagement both for yourself and others using this extension, then not having such adversarial names it's probably a good idea. It should just end up being a sort of web of trust to help you decide what's worth engaging with — and sometimes perfectly valid people that you're not actually enemies with or anything just aren't worth your time engaging with because of fundamental axiological or positional differences.

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jacquesm 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's just Slashdot's influence. They did the same thing at some point.

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ineedasername 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Ah, okay-- though that doesn't mean the author can't do better, if I'm not just being too nitpicky.

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jacquesm 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The last thing HN needs is to become more like Slashdot.

	▲	avadodin an hour ago \| parent [-]
		In Soviet Russia, Slashdot becomes HN!

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Lerc 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Dot product of opinions? Using a fancier term for the same thing might be a significant axis though.

	▲	globalnode 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		maximize your projection onto like minded commenters, create that bubble you always yearned for but until now have never had the add-on to empower the inner-you! finally, you can ignore that filthy plane of delusional outcasts and banish them to the orthogonal abyss forever.

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unethical_ban 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I've wanted something like this for a long time and also thought of the slashdot system. This is directly from that.

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raddan 25 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Bring back hot or not!

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tyre 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

favorite / potato

Although there are some commenters I would want to follow because they are potato.

There is something so magical about some of the more delulu Take Havers around here.

	▲	pavel_lishin an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		potato / tomato?
	▲	scrozier an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		As a boomer, I had fun trying to decode your last sentence!

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ting0 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's such a friend thing to say!

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rustystump 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I like friend and foe far more than engage and ignore. A foe isnt someone you ignore. Ignoring is what builds bubbles. A foe can often be right even if you disagree.

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ineedasername 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A foe is also someone you might preemptively punch in the face if they get too close before you could determine if they actually meant you harm right then.

I'd prefer not to label things such that I'm justifying the label's negative potential by the disproportionately small "even if" range of positive ones.

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XorNot 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

People I want to ignore I usually disagree with as well, but that's not the problem: the problem is they are repetitive and boring.

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rustystump 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I sure hope the disagreement to ignore ven diagram doesnt look like that. If u never engage, how will you ever know you were wrong about something repetitive and boring?

	▲	XorNot 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Which is not at all what I wrote. Most things are interesting if you look deeply into them. People on the other hand can be repetitive and boring about them. Which would extend to the excessive use of meta-argument: complaining people aren't listening but also not actually saying anything of substance.

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WorldMaker 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Follow/Distance?

	▲	wartywhoa23 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Arian/Non-Arian

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3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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groby_b an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd suggest to move even beyond "engage/ignore".

This is HN. The focus should be "does this person provide interesting or thought provoking comments", not "relationships" or "engagement".

There are plenty of HN commenters whose opinions I absolutely dislike (I'm sure it's mutual ;), but I still read them - they are at least well reasoned or point out missing facts. I don't have to like them to learn from them.