In my control panel, in the Friends and Family section, I have a "fan" (thanks Doc!).

What is a fan? What does this mean? How is that different than a "friend", and how do I indicate that I am a "fan" of other smugmug sites?

Originally Posted by cmason In my control panel, in the Friends and Family section, I have a "fan" (thanks Doc!). What is a fan? What does this mean? How is that different than a "friend", and how do I indicate that I am a "fan" of other smugmug sites?

These are people that added you as a friend or family. You can go to their homepage and add them if you so choose.

Originally Posted by cmason In my control panel, in the Friends and Family section, I have a "fan" (thanks Doc!). What is a fan? What does this mean? How is that different than a "friend", and how do I indicate that I am a "fan" of other smugmug sites?

They're smugmuggers and admirers. They went to your page, and clicked on a link "this is my friend" and now you see them as a "fan"

Go ahead, try it :)

http://www.smugmug.com/help/friends-and-family

Originally Posted by cmason What is a fan? What does this mean? How is that different than a "friend", and how do I indicate that I am a "fan" of other smugmug sites?

When you add someone to your friendlist, but this person doesn't have you on his' friendslist in return, you're a fan of this person.
To make 'Doc' from your example a friend you've to add him too.

Hope this helps,
Sebastian

EDIT: How's that for a record - 3 answears in 6 minutes after the thread was created.

Originally Posted by Sheaf These are people that added you as a friend or family. You can go to their homepage and add them if you so choose.

d0h - I'm so lagged. Thanks sheaf

Originally Posted by Andy d0h - I'm so lagged. Thanks sheaf

OK understand, but if I didnt ask here, I would never have guessed that...why not have a message or comment that says " Doc added you as a friend, click here to visit Doc's homepage" or something like that?

Also, can someone please put a note in the Friends and Family FAQ with info about how this works when someone adds you to their own list? At least a reference to 'fan". I had no idea this happened in this manner, and feel kinda bad....

Uh oh... we are heading the route of myspace. First ranking photos and now fans. :-) Myspace seems to revolve around the number of friends you can add to your page.

I first saw the fan part when Markham helped me out with something this weekend. He started showing up as a fan. I tried to research it but gave up when I saw only friend and family as an option. I chalked it up to Markham working for SM and that he was watching our site to see what I did with it.

cmason, I added you as a friend after some of our mutual discussions here on dgrin. I liked your work. That friend link can possibly help your google ranking.

Originally Posted by docwalker Uh oh... we are heading the route of myspace. First ranking photos and now fans. :-)

Since October of 2004 we've had this feature
http://www.smugmug.com/aboutus/news.mg

Some of us just have not paid attention to it. Also, A lot of people have customized so much that features like this get hidden.

Besides, I did not say it was a bad thing

Originally Posted by docwalker Besides, I did not say it was a bad thing

I know - just wanted to say that it's been 'round a while