Multi-friending: Is it overload or no?

Brandon asked me a question a while back that I’ve been meaning to address:

A future internetiquette article I’d like to read is one about something I call “multi-friending”.

Say you send messages back and forth with someone on Viddler, and they send you a friend request. Do you then add them on all the other sites you’re both a part of? It might be creepy for some people to all of a sudden get slammed with Facebook, MySpace, Last.Fm, Flickr, Pownce, Twitter and Brightkite requests based off a “friendship” on one other site… whereas some people may want that (after all, isn’t that what these sites were created for?).

I’d love to see what you have to say about this, because I’m on the fence.

This is an interesting question, and one that I’ve asked several people about with mixed results. Some people say that it’s overwhelming to open one’s email and find fifteen alerts, all along the lines of “So and so wants to be your friend on such and such service!” all from one person.

Personally, I do this pretty often, because when I stumble upon someone who happens to really peak my interest and I really want to know everything they’re willing to share online, I follow cookie crumb trail of linkage, and I add all of their content to my online world of consumption at one time, sometimes even adding a comment (if it’s offered when friending through a service) along the lines of “hey, it’s me again, just adding you to all of my online networks! *wave*”

The advantages for me involve several things:

1. I don’t have to wander around finding every profile later if I just sit down and use a profile that has a lot of linkage, and add the person to all the sites I currently use.
2. I’m showing all of my internet profiles and content to this new person as well, giving them a crash course in my online presence and allowing them to quickly get a feel for how much we do or don’t have in common in several places. A quick look at Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter, Brightkite and FriendFeed will really give you a pretty good feel for a person’s location, interests, and how they use the internet (do they Twitter spam, are they local to you, do you both like the band OK Go?)
3. I’m showing the new person that I really want to immerse myself in what they’re all about, that I’d like to share my own interests and activity with them, and that I’m willing to let them in to all of my social networks.
4. I may find some online networks or sites that I didn’t know about and in the process of multi-friending a new person, I could find myself being introduced to some cool new sites, a few of which I might want to sign up for myself and then will already be getting to know one person on that site.

I’m sure there are disadvantages to inundating a person with “This person has added you to their friends” email alerts for all of their networking profiles, but does it really say anything other than, “Wow, you are really interesting, and I want to get to know you so I’m making sure that you’re a part of my entire online social scene!” when you really think about it?