Friendster

English

Etymology

From friend +‎ -ster.

Noun

Friendster (plural Friendsters)

1. (Internet) A friend on the social networking site Friendster.
   • 2003 October 1, Nora Koch, “Social networking a mouse click away”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, 175th year, number 123, page E1:

     Count my Friendsters: 48 with 4 pending.

   • 2004, danah boyd, quoted in 2008, Cliff Landis, “Friending our Users: Social Networking and Reference Services”, in Sarah K. Steiner, M. Leslie Madden, editors, The Desk and Beyond: Next Generation Reference Services, Chicago, Ill.: Association of College and Research Libraries, →ISBN, page 81:

     danah boyd, speaking about the social networking site Friendster, shows that users are aware that there is a difference between friends and Friends: “Overheard conversations might include statements such as ‘She’s not my friend, but she’s my Friendster’ and ‘Did you see that Alex is Drew’s Friendster? (boyd 2004).

   • 2004 February, Spin, volume 20, number 2, page 18:

     DON’T MESS WITH ME OR MY 346 FRIENDSTERS / Is Friendster more addictive than crack? Shit, yeah (“Can We Still Be Friendsters?” November)! […] Todd Dalton […] “I’d love to give Dave Matthews a makeover to look like a goth singer circa 1983. Only then would I accept him as my Friendster.” Audrey Levy

   • 2005, Chuck Klosterman, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, Scribner, →ISBN, page 164:

     Uma Thurman hugs me good-bye, and we agree to become Friendsters.

   • 2005 April 17, Laura Steele, “Do you want to be my Friendster?”, in South Bend Tribune, page A1:

     Do you want to be my Friendster?

   • 2008, Anna Broadway, Sexless in the City: A Memoir of Reluctant Chastity, Galilee, →ISBN, page 212:

     But once I’d clicked the acceptance button—and found out it was not Hippie but our other, Virginia connection that inspired Posse Pal’s overture—I found myself wondering whether I might find Poster Boy among his Friendsters. […] But when I responded by asking about those mission trips I’d heard about—and mentioning my own excursion to India—Poster Boy fell silent, though he added me to his Friendsters.

   • 2012, Rachel A. Sauerbier, “Social Networking”, in August E. Grant, Jennifer H[arman] Meadows, editors, Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals, 13th edition, Focal Press, →ISBN, section IV (Networking Technologies), page 276:

     It was Abrams’ original intention to have a website that hosted pages for close friends and family to be able to connect, not as a virtual popularity contest to see who could get the most “Friendsters” (Milian, 2009).

2. (Internet) A user of the social networking site Friendster.
   • 2004, Esquire, pages 44 and 46:

     Most Friendsters aren’t trying to meet anyone they don’t already know; […] Friendsters seem totally comfortable with strangers assuming they cheat on their wives and sketch portraits of unicorns in their free time, but they don’t want anyone to think they watch According to Jim unironically. […] For those unfamiliar with the site, the big draw within the Friendster universe is the testimonial, in which other Friendsters post enthusiastic endorsements of your relative awesomeness.

   • 2006, David Pogue, J.D. Biersdorfer, The Internet: The Missing Manual, O’Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 332:

     You also get your own email inbox on the site, as shown in Figure 17-1, which you can use to send notes to other Friendsters. (This is a safer way to meet new people than passing out your email address to online strangers.)

   • 2007, Meredith G. Farkas, Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication, and Community Online, Medford, N.J.: Information Today, →ISBN, page 113:

     Friendster also lets users create individual blogs, share photos and video, post to discussion boards, and chat with other Friendsters.

   • 2008, Matthew Fraser, Soumitra Dutta, Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work and World, Wiley, →ISBN, page 36:

     Most “Friendsters” – as the site’s members were called – had joined the site, in keeping with its name, to validate themselves socially by collecting a maximum number of “friends”.

   • 2010, John K. Waters, The Everything Guide to Social Media: All You Need to Lnow about Participating in Today’s Most Popular Online Communities, Adams Media, →ISBN:

     The deal put a Friendster app on the Yahoo! website, promotional placements for Yahoo! products on Friendster, enchaned search results for Friendster user profiles and Friendster Fan Profiles within Yahoo! Search, and the ability of Friendsters to link their accounts on the social network with their Yahoo! accounts.

3. (Internet) An account on the social networking site Friendster.
   • 2005, danah boyd, “Autistic Social Software”, in Joel Spolsky, editor, The Best Software Writing I, →ISBN, page 42:

     Consider the hundreds of students from Singapore and Indonesia who create Friendsters for their teachers so that they can write testimonials about them.

   • 2010, Jasper Flores Aquino (Kuya Jap), Poems for You, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN:

     You are the profile picture in my Facebook; you are my only friend in my Friendster.

   • 2011 May 19, Amy Bartner, quotee, “the burning question: If you could recycle/redo/reuse anything in this city, what would it be and how would you do it?”, in Metromix (The Indianapolis Star), page 4:

     I really, really want to go back in time and recycle my Friendster.