NOTE:
! This is an excerpt from one of our blogposts and will be rewritten to fit the style of a documentation.
! Blog url: https://github.com/orgs/flame-software/discussions/12

Friendships, how do they work in Flame?

Our platform stems around giving you the power to decide, and thus we don’t think you should be limited to grouping the people you interact with in batches of ”Friend”, ”No Friend” or ”Blocked”. That might work in most cases, and will be the default standard for any user, but that doesn’t mean everyone wants it that way. Maybe you want a group of besties, or a group for business contacts, or a group of folks part of a party. “Say, this sound awfully a lot like just asking friends to join a server”

True, it does, but how often do your friends agree to join a space like that? It takes up more room on their side too, despite acting as a list only for you. It’s just way too overkill for the situation. Deepdive, what is possible with this?

This grouping functionality brings with it tons of possibilities, all of which we want to explore. Note the following few rules that will exist for grouping users:

You can control per-group what permissions users in that group have. The Blocked group list by default will have everything turned off, so those people can’t interact with you at all. You may make user groups public and show them off on your profile. One group may contain an ”everyone” rule, setting the kinds of permissions any person has with your profile. One group may contain an ”users” rule, setting the kind of permissions a user of Flame has. For example you might lock your profile only to be seen by users, and not any unregistered stranger. A group may be set to allow invites, so that strangers can ask to be included in it. For example people can ask to be your friend or bestie. A group can have tags that describe its contents. This can be used to pin groups to the top of your friend list so you see them often, for example for your best friends.

Wow, that’s a lot! But actually these rules just define the common patterns any Friend and Block list have, but this time we give you the power to organise them as you wish. For example you might:

Create an invisible group of people you want to be reminded to stay in contact with and tag it with #pinned to keep it at the top of your friends list to remind you to do so. Make your friends list public so anyone can see it on your profile. Make your profile hidden to everyone except friends by removing all permissions from the Users and Everyone groups. Control what parts of your profile are visible to regular friends, and only allowing good friends to see every detail. And everything else you might consider!

As you can see, this is powerful stuff for the real power users. Many might not need this kind of extensive customisability, but it’s all about the choice if you need it at Flame.

Do you like this structure, or do you have some critique? We’d love to hear it all!