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afaik, LiveJournal (i.e., Brad Fitzpatrick) invented the follower/following pattern, except they just called it "friends of" & "friends".

LJ was the direct inspiration for Twitter, at least according to this interview: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/02/twitter-c...

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Friends is bi-directional, no?

Or did LiveJournal have a way for me to be your friend without you being mine?

> Friends is bi-directional, no?

Not in Livejournal lingo - remember, this is pre-Facebook.

Livejournal's 'friend' and 'friend of' worked exactly the same as Twitter's 'following' and 'followers'.

That would seem to be prior art for that element then, depending on the dates. Though now we'd have to dig into the rest of the elements.

And apparently I'm getting downvoted for not being familiar with LiveJournal, so that's something someone else would have to do.

Isn't h2g2 significantly older than Livejournal? They've had non-bi-directional friendships for years (and you're automatically subscribed to your friends' journals (blogs)).

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