Also, it's deceptive -- it looks so neat and tidy and organized that you say "I can afford to join sixteen more communities and friend these other 23 people" and then the filters won't help. You'll still be overwhelmed.

I'll keep that in mind in red, shiny letters! Because friending is so simple, and defriending when the reading load becomes overwhelming almost hurts me physically. Though I dunno if it isn't preferable to never commenting and hardly having the time to read...