I pared down my combined AIM/ICQ/MSN/YIM list to a mere 21 names after deleting 82.

Debating on if I want to do anything similar on here. The problem is, which most people don't take into account, is that "friends" here on LJ serve two purposes... inclusion into your own "friends" page for reading, but also inclusion into your friends list for security purposes (i.e. them being able to read your friends-only posts). So even if you don't want to read someone else's LJ, they have to be on your friends list if you want them to be able to read yours. Of course, that's where friends groups, Default View, and filtering come in, but eh. There's really no real way to "clean" a friends list on here... even if you delete people, the fact that they still have you added clutters up your list anyway so what's the point in deleting them... unless you specifically want to exclude them from reading your protected entries, why not just exclude them from your Default View group and ignore it otherwise? Which is the only good solution I think... it's too much hassle to deal with otherwise.

I guess I'll do that now... my default view group needs work.

through custom groups ... I didn't realize that you could filter who's posts that you read? I'll have to look into that!

They're the same thing. Like I have a group called sxc... I can use that group to post things that only people in the group will be able to read, or I can go to http://medlir.livejournal.com/friends/sxc and it'll only show me the posts of the people in that group.

The Default View Group is slightly different... if you make a group called "Default View" and put people in it, only those people will show up on your normal friends page, instead of everyone on your lists list.

I finally got Trillian - my list got culled big time too, it was just too much in one little window. My friends list on LJ gets cleaned every few weeks - some people you read, but you don't comment, others you skip because they point blank bore you and if they bore you 90% of the time, chances are you bore them too and they're only keeping you on to be polite... well that's my theory anyways :P