"Is the hassle of adding your friends to the site going to be far smaller than the benefit?" Good point. If it's more useful to you to have more of your friend

"Is the hassle of adding your friends to the site going to be far smaller than the benefit?" Good point. If it's more useful to you to have more of your friends on the site then you will try to recruit them. But if it's still not vauable at all to them, then they will just think you are sending them junkmail. I think the most thriving online communities are the ones that grow organically. History shows us, it doesn't matter what the tool is, if people can use it to communicate with one another, they will find a way.