Degrees

Idea for a script along the lines of Conversation List. This page may move location as it's a web service more than a Drupal implementation.

Frustrated that you can't read the conversations the people you follow have with their friends? You can't see the replies to people you don't follow. ConversationList creates a list based on whom you reply to, so why not create a list of people of the people you follow and the people they follow!

Algorithm for such a script:

• 1. retrieve list of people you follow in an array ($friends) (say my Twitter account is "sillygwailo")

  2. create an array called $their_friends

  3. foreach $friends as $friend using barackobama (i.e. @sillygwailo follows @barackobama, so we're about to get a list of @barackobama's friends)

     1. $their_friends['SenJohnMcCain'] = 'followed' // the idea is that if the array key exists, it will be overwritten. If the array key doesn't exist, it will get created.

  4. convert array keys of $their_friends into array with array_keys()

  5. delete the 'degrees' list on your account

  6. create the 'degrees' list on your account

  7. add everybody in the array created in #4 to the 'degrees' list

Does it scale?

• • what if you follow 150 people on twitter, and the average number of people they follow is 150? You have the potential for a list with 22500 people (which is a maximum, since there will likely be some overlap)

  • what if you follow way more than 150 people?