What does having friends do on MFP?

Options
2»

Replies

  • vetvicki
    vetvicki Posts: 62 Member
    Options
    What's a Stickie?.
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I enjoy my friends on here. Sometimes they're down and need an encouraging word, others are inspiring for how dedicated they are to exercise. I like to see what they're doing. It's not necessary, and you can just "lurk" the boards and learn a lot. There's no hurry to make friends, and some may ask you. The posters that are very knowlegable and have been around a long time may not accept FR. Don't be insulted, they can't follow hundreds of people. If you ask a question, they will answer though. Read the stickies so you don't ask things that have been asked a million times. If you do make a FR please write a note explaining why you'd like to be friends.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,429 Member
    Options
    vetvicki wrote: »
    What's a Stickie?.
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I enjoy my friends on here. Sometimes they're down and need an encouraging word, others are inspiring for how dedicated they are to exercise. I like to see what they're doing. It's not necessary, and you can just "lurk" the boards and learn a lot. There's no hurry to make friends, and some may ask you. The posters that are very knowlegable and have been around a long time may not accept FR. Don't be insulted, they can't follow hundreds of people. If you ask a question, they will answer though. Read the stickies so you don't ask things that have been asked a million times. If you do make a FR please write a note explaining why you'd like to be friends.

    Posts in the "Most Helpful Posts" section of each forum topic area. Written by users, nominated by other users to stick around long-term, thus "stickies". Gold in there, I swear.
  • allieeveryday
    allieeveryday Posts: 85 Member
    Options
    Friends are great if you're like me and not self-motivated for long without outside influence. Seeing other people's "have logged in for X number of days" is really inspiring to me and encourages me to stick with this even when I don't wanna.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,022 Member
    Options
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    I will be the dissenting voice in this conversation. I dont find having "friends " on here helpful. I motivate myself and frankly dont care what other people do.

    No you werent the only dissenting voice - I said early in thread that some people find it motivating although I myself do not and am not interested in this feature

    For some odd reason, mods removed the post?? - part of it was replying to another now removed post but rest was just saying that.

  • shadowofender
    shadowofender Posts: 786 Member
    Options
    For some people, having friends adds accountability. I find myself to be a mix of finding it useful and finding it not. Knowing people can see what I'm doing makes me more likely to hit finish on my diary for the day, even if I'm never going to talk to or meet any of these people for real.

    Sometimes it's motivational. I have a friend with a 4 year streak and damn that's crazy. It makes me want to have a 4 year streak.

    Sometimes people are nosy, or too chatty, or whatever and that annoys me. But you can always remove someone that isn't working out for your style.

    Also I guess after having spent the past 13 years on FB I'm addicted to the feed?
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    Options
    It depends on what you want to get from this.

    It is one of many tools that help me stay motivated, dedicated, and honest.

    I seek out motivated people and draw inspiration from seeing other realize their goals, learn from their failures, and communicate this with everyone. This is one of the key points where virtual friends are better than real friends. I cannot make it to the gym everyday with someone in real life, but I have a number of friends on MFP with similar goals and we can talk about our strategy and performance and work out problems.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
    Options
    I’ve been here a long time now (7 years). I’ve had some friends for years-I’ve met a bunch of them IRL-I’ve traveled across the country to run assorted races/events wirh some of them. We talk about life things, day to day happenings, we joke, share fun things. We talk about fitness pursuits (mostly because of shared interests and/or shared celebration/disappointment when someone has been working hard on a particular goal).

    My feed is nothing like the forums. No one is really asking any questions or looking at what anyone eats (unless they post a pic of something delicious), or talking about calories/carbs/etc. Occasionally someone will mention weight loss, gain, etc. Most conversations are about the day to day challenges and people working on specific fitness goals.

    Most people on my FL don’t wonder why they aren’t losing (if they want to). They don’t wonder how. Most people are battling 16 hour work days while traveling and living out of hotels and maybe also caring for aging parents and college tours for their kids and what not. It’s less about the how and more about the challenges of implementation. It’s the daily grind of the work.

    That said-no one on my FL is looking for someone to hold them accountable or motivate them or any of that. But sometimes having people along for the ride makes it a little easier to do things you might not be in the mood to do. Seeing that it’s normal for 50 other people makes it seem normal for you.

    On the rare occasions that someone does ask a question, they will get answers from a wide variety of people whose stories they know and who may or may not have relevant insight to something in a different way than happens on the forums.

    Idk-it’s a different vibe than the forums.
  • 2O2OisMyYear
    2O2OisMyYear Posts: 27 Member
    Options
    Having friends who comment on my updates or congratulate me on my victories is all what support networks are about to me. I get more out of friends interacting on my page then forums
  • 2O2OisMyYear
    2O2OisMyYear Posts: 27 Member
    Options
    What’s the point of joining a support network if you don’t NEED support then?
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    I will be the dissenting voice in this conversation. I dont find having "friends " on here helpful. I motivate myself and frankly dont care what other people do.

  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,022 Member
    Options
    What’s the point of joining a support network if you don’t NEED support then?

    Well, MFP is many things - I guess it depends if you joined it for the support network of friendships or for something else.

    Me personally - I joined for the calorie counting/meals recording/progress tracking part and I joined the forums because I like reading and posting on different topics - some are informative, some are more light hearted.
    I like the sense of online community - but the 1:1 motivation of individual friends - not so much for me.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,988 Member
    Options
    2O19isMyYear wrote: »
    What’s the point of joining a support network if you don’t NEED support then?
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    I will be the dissenting voice in this conversation. I dont find having "friends " on here helpful. I motivate myself and frankly dont care what other people do.

    I didn't join a support network. I signed up to use a tool that makes it far easier to track my calories than relying on paper and pencil and checking a package or a book every time I eat something, even though I looked it up when I ate it yesterday or last week.

Categories