As usual it is what you make it. I only make and accept friend requests with people that I know and have met in real life, and where I am actually interested in knowing what they're doing in life.
I like getting status updates so I get a feeling for what my friends are doing, but serious communication always goes over other channels, phone, IM, email, etc.
I don't really see how Facebook promotes either my use or the friend-hoarder use, to me it's a neutral tool.
Exactly - and anyone on HN should be easily able to use the Friend Lists stuff within facebook. Chat Status, Privacy settings and just the ability to filter down into smaller subsets.. So while I am 'friends' with 320 people.. I see almost everything from the people I'm truly close with, while occasionally dipping into the greater stream from of other acquaintances. While facebook could do some better outreach on some of this stuff (my Dad was overjoyed to find out last week you can block applications -- no more farmville in the news feed), we on HN should be able to use it properly. There's plenty of reasons to complain about fb, but cheapening friendship is not one of them.. it is completely about how you use the tool.
Also - (at least among my general circle - mid 20's, Australia, almost completely non-tech) - Serious personal conversation is now almost predominately facebook. Almost every party (excluding weddings/engagements) is a FB event (with maybe SMS invites). IM = Facebook chat. And email = Facebook PM.
I like getting status updates so I get a feeling for what my friends are doing, but serious communication always goes over other channels, phone, IM, email, etc.
I don't really see how Facebook promotes either my use or the friend-hoarder use, to me it's a neutral tool.