"I never had an open policy on Facebook, but decided about a year ago to winnow it down even further to actual friends and family, unfriending ~150 casual acquaintances and continuing to unfriend anyone who's solely using it as a marketing channel. (No! I'm not flying to Calilfornia for your poetry reading. Stop inviting me!!!! Also, stop adding me to groups!) It's partly because I don't trust Facebook as a corporate entity, and partly because it has always made filtering and privacy an unnecessary hassle; a nice side benefit is my main stream has become a lot more relevant and has kept me engaged despite my desire to ditch it completely. It comes down to use case, really. As a syndication channel for your public activities, the new Subscribe option seems to work nicely (I don't use it myself, nor have I activated it for my own profile) and bypasses the 5,000-friend limit. As a public/private hybrid, aggressively winnowing your friends while offering up the "subscribe" option, and..." - Guy LeCharles Gonzalez