Six Simple Steps to Creating Friend Sets

One of the most exciting new features of Gather's latest upgrade is the ability to create "friend sets."  Friend sets provide you with a way to group your friends on Gather (formerly known as "connections") into your own personalized categories.  No longer will you be confined to the labels "friend," "family," and "colleague."  Here are a few big changes I want to call out right away, regarding friend sets:

-  The use of friend sets is completely optional.  There is nothing you have to do right now.  Your original friend sets of "friends," "family," and "colleagues" have been left intact for you, but you can change these at any time.

-  Your friend sets are your own.  You can name your friend sets whatever you like, and no one needs to see them.  You and another member do not need to agree on a status – she can be in your "sworn enemies" friend set, while at the same time you are in her "poker buddies" friend set.

-  You can place the same friends in more than one friend set.  For example, your friend Dave could be one of your "bowling pals" as well as one of your "colleagues."  Conversely, you do not need to put each of your friends in a friend set at all.  They can be unaffiliated with any friend set.

Now let's get started! 

Creating new friend sets is easy.  Follow these simple steps, and you'll be on your way!

1. Like with most activities on Gather, you will need to be signed into your account.  So first, go to the Gather homepage (www.gather.com) and sign in with your username and password.
   
2. Click the "People" tab, and then click on the "my friends" sub-tab over to the right.
3. Your current friend sets will be listed in a box on the left side of the page.  If this is your first time adjusting friend sets, you should see your old sets of "friends," "family," and "colleagues."  Click the orange "Edit Friend Sets" button at the bottom of this box to manage your friend sets. 
4. To create a brand new friend set, click the "create a new friend set" link.  In the box that pops up, enter the name of your new friend set, and click "Save."
5. You should now see two large boxes – one listing all of your current friends, and one should be empty.  Simply click on any of your friends in the left box in order to add them to your new friend set.  When you click on a friend, their name will be added to the list on the right.  To remove a friend from this friend set, click on their name in the right-hand box. 
6. Click the "Save" button at the bottom, and you're finished!

Now, I'll bet you're wondering what some of the benefits are to organizing your friend sets.  Here are two key things: 

-  When publishing an article, image, or video, you may not want the entire world to see what you're posting.  With friend sets, you can decide exactly which of your friends can see this content.  You can choose as many friend sets as you like, and only your friends who are included in one of the friend sets you choose will be able to see your work.  This gives you much greater privacy control than before.

-  When updating your profile, you can customize each field of information so that it is only visible to the friend sets that you choose.  Some things you may want to share with everyone.  Others, you may only want to share with those you are close with.

We at Team Gather are very excited to introduce "friend sets" to the larger Gather community.  We feel that this is big step forward towards giving Gather members a greater degree of privacy and control over your own experience.  We'd love to hear what you think, please leave us your feedback on this article.

If you have any questions about the use of "friend sets," don't hesitate to write us at support@gather.com.  Enjoy!