[Swizec]

You only have a finite amount of decisions you can make in a day. Do you really want to spend them putting labels on people?

Also you should remember that "putting labels on people" is generally considered kind of a bad thing to do. It certainly isn't something we openly brag about in the real world ...

Personally I only have one circle and everyone goes in.

[sanderjd]

We constantly make these decisions in the real world. Who do I invite to dinner tonight, whose 4th of July barbecue do I go to, who would be interested in going to see this movie, who wants to geek out over some LOTR Risk while drinking cheap wine (only 4 players!), and on and on and on. Perhaps it's unfortunate that, while we don't have to actually attach any sort of text (which I'll allow you, definitely is a label), on the internet we do. But, as an earlier reply said, these generally aren't the possibly-offensive labels referred to by the common wisdom against labeling people, they merely represent the real disconnect between various groups of people that we like.

Is anyone out there putting people into circles like "Losers", "Smelly Nerds", or "Jerks" rather than "Friends", "Coworkers", or "Family"?

[chwahoo]

I doubt many people are using G+ circles for the value judgments your post seems to imply. Labeling people as "family", "sorority sisters", or "coworkers" is not such a tough decision and I think few would say its a "bad thing to do".

On the other hand, perhaps there's some use for having a circle of people unlikely to be offended by your dirty jokes or political rants, but even applying those labels doesn't seem too onerous or harmful (there's a safe default for tricky cases).

[danssig]

wtf man, this post is full of nonsense and bizarre assumptions. Circles aren't for stereotyping people! No one has groups called "Blacks", "People who are intolerant of other people's cultures" or "the Dutch" (why would a racist follow people he/she hates anyway?).

Circles are for providing context. Every time I go to facebook I see a post from someone I don't remember knowing. I look in my list and see that they are apparently a friend of mine, but from where? In Google+ this problem doesn't exist. When I add them I put them in the context that I know them by (e.g. "Close Friend", "Family", "Photography class", "WoW Friends", etc.). When I know them in multiple contexts I can put them in each one that applies (e.g. "Colleague" and "Friend" means they see everything I say to friends and everything I say to colleagues).

>It certainly isn't something we openly brag about in the real world

You haven't even used the service, have you? It's not something we brag about because no one knows what circles we have! All other users see (if we allow them to) is how many people we follow total. Basically the same info facebook shows.

>Personally I only have one circle and everyone goes in.

To each their own, but I don't even see how this is possible. You're going to put people like Robert Scoble (someone you might presumably follow but not post baby pictures to) in the same circle as your grandmother? I think if you behaved this way in real life you would end up under various restraining orders.

[JoeCortopassi]

No need to downvote someone who has a differing opinion. Last thing we need is for HN to be an echo chamber of people we agree with

[danssig]

This person's post was bizarre and potentially offensive. They're basically saying that people are using circles to stereotype (wtf!).