Understanding XFN Relationships
establishing connections with people online is a basic aspect of teh modern web experiance.XFN, which stands for XHTML Friends Network, provides a standardized way to define the nature of yoru relationships with others. This allows you to categorize the people you link to, offering a richer context than a simple hyperlink. It’s about moving beyond just *knowing* someone online to *defining* how you know them.
Social (pick at most one)
- contact
- Someone you have a means of contacting, such as an email address or phone number.Symmetric.
- friend
- Someone you consider a friend. Symmetric and often transitive.
- colleague
- Someone you work with. Symmetric and typically transitive.
- acquaintance
- someone you know, but not well. symmetric. Often not transitive.
Professional (pick at most one)
- coworker
- Someone you work with currently. Symmetric and transitive.
- boss
- Someone who supervises you. Not symmetric or transitive.
- employee
- Someone you supervise. Not symmetric or transitive.
- mentor
- Someone who advises you.Not symmetric or transitive.
- student
- Someone you teach. Not symmetric or transitive.
Romantic
- muse
- Someone who brings you inspiration. No inverse.
- crush
- Someone you have a crush on. No inverse.
- date
- Someone you are dating. Symmetric. Not transitive.
- sweetheart
- Someone with whom you are intimate and at least somewhat committed, typically exclusively. Symmetric. Not transitive.
Family (pick at most one)
- child
- A person’s genetic offspring, or someone that a person has adopted and takes care of. Inverse is parent.
- parent
- Inverse of child.
- sibling
- Someone a person shares a parent with. symmetric. Usually transitive.
- spouse
- Someone you are married to. Symmetric. Not transitive.
- kin
- A relative,someone you consider part of your extended family. Symmetric and typically transitive.
Geographical (pick at most one)
- co-resident
- Someone you share
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