You can add friends several ways; one way is to click on Manage Friends and scroll to the bottom of the screen, where you'll see this set of boxes. Here, you can type in a potential friend's username, specify the foreground and background colors that their username and userpic will appear in on your Friends Page, and ta-da! With a click of a button, they're added to your Friends Page!
The other ways of adding a friend include:
The above image shows what a context box looks like when you hover over a user's icon (userpic) or their username. This box may also display additional information, such as if they're online in LJTalk.
The above button strip appears on every person's and community's profile page. From left to right, the links are: Add Friend, Post an Entry, To-Do List, Memories (view the Memories of that user; this button with a "plus" sign may appear on individual entries, or on the Comment View of an entry-- that icon means you can Add Entry to Memories), Tell A Friend, Search This Journal, Track This, and Give a Gift!
Tell A Friend lets you email a link to a journal or entry. Search this Journal lets you search a journal (community or individual user) for specific terms. Track This lets you keep an eye on a particular entry or page, and be notified whenever it's changed. And if you're feeling generous, you can give a gift to the user!
How do you find a friend? You might already know a LiveJournal user-- you can search for them using the search function on the homepage, or on any of the journal settings pages. You can also use the Explore LJ to search for other users according to their location, interests, and much more. This also applies to communities.
One of the neat things about LiveJournal is that you can create Filters for your Friends Page, so your Friends and Communities are sorted out into groups. You can name these groups whatever you wish, and you can certainly have more or less than 9, but that's just the example I have here. When you click on the link or on the checkbox next to a link and then "View!" you'll be taken to that custom Friends Page. For example, you can have a group that only includes communities in it, so when you click on that group name, you will ONLY see your friends page with the communities you've joined displayed. Likewise, you can customize it however you see fit.
But in order to set up these filters in the first place, you need to Edit your Custom Friends Groups:
When you click on Edit Custom Friends Groups, this is what your page will look like. In the box on the left, you'll see the name of your Friends Groups. If you've never made any before, this box will be blank. You can create new custom groups by clicking on NEW below that first box. If you want to delete or rename a group, click on that group's name in the leftmost box, then click the appropriate button below that box (Delete or Rename).
When you click on a group name, the boxes to the right will display what users on your friends list (including communities) are NOT included in the group, and which ones are. You can add or remove members by using the >> and << buttons inbetween the two right-side boxes.
You can also specify whether a group is public (other people can see it) or private (only you can see it).
Make sure to save your changes when you're done!
To edit your friends on a more individual basis, you'll go to the Edit Friends page. Here is where you can see who has friended you (blue arrows) and who you've friended (green arrows). If you see the double-sided arrow that's both blue and green, it means you're mutual friends (you have each other on your friends list). You can check or uncheck the box to the right of a username to add or remove that person from your friends list.
The username is on the left, with their name (which can be changed at any time, just like a Journal's title), and then the checkbox. You'll notice that this list also displays your custom friends colors, as mentioned above in the Add Friends section.
You can join communities much the same way that you add friends. For that reason, I'm not going to repeat anything that's equivalent from above. If you have any questions, always check out the LJ FAQ for the most complete, official answers! The only difference between adding friends and adding communities is that you get an additional method of adding:
When you go to a community's profile page, you'll see this: Below is information about the "username" community on LiveJournal. To join this community, click here. You may leave the community at any time.
Thus, just "click here" to join the community. Some communities have closed membership, though, which means you won't be able to add it right away-- you have to be approved. Others don't want you to join at all-- instead, you can Watch the community by just adding it to your Friends List, just like you do with single users.
When you click on "Manage Communities" in your main menu, this is what you'll see. If you don't manage or co-manage any communities, there will be nothing in this list. But if you do, here's a quick briefer on what each of the links mean:
Like the Friends Management page, this section divides up communities by username, title, and then the actions you can take. If you click on Account, you'll see the status of that community's account. Is it Basic, Plus, Paid, or something else? Find out, and upgrade if you desire. If you click on Info, you can edit that community's userinfo page, which includes the name, interests, bio, and more. Click on Settings to modify Membership, Entry Moderation (do entries get posted right away, or must someone approve them before others can read them?), and Member and Non-Member Posting Restrictions (who can post in the LJ? Any LJ user, or only those who join the community?). You can click on Invitations to invite others to join your community, and Members to see who's already a Member (and to remove any troublesome users).
<-- Start || Customizing || Posting -->