Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that sounds good in theory but leads to a pretty awful experience in practice.
Here's an example for you: You are a private user on the social network. You post on a friend's wall (or equivalent).
Can that friend's other friends see your post? If not, that's going to make it seem like there's no activity on your network.
Can that friend's other friends request to add you as a friend? If not, that's going to prevent people from making new friends. But if they can, then you've confirmed your existence on the network every time you've done anything.
It turns out that if you want to be a private person, you don't get a lot of value out of your social network, and the social network doesn't get a lot of value out of you. Your best option is to not join a network at all--and, indeed, if you target your network to users who mainly want privacy, you'll find that is what will happen.
Comments
Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that sounds good in theory but leads to a pretty awful experience in practice.
Here's an example for you: You are a private user on the social network. You post on a friend's wall (or equivalent).
Can that friend's other friends see your post? If not, that's going to make it seem like there's no activity on your network. Can that friend's other friends request to add you as a friend? If not, that's going to prevent people from making new friends. But if they can, then you've confirmed your existence on the network every time you've done anything.
It turns out that if you want to be a private person, you don't get a lot of value out of your social network, and the social network doesn't get a lot of value out of you. Your best option is to not join a network at all--and, indeed, if you target your network to users who mainly want privacy, you'll find that is what will happen.