I was under the impression that search engines couldn't (not didn't choose to, but couldn't) get to friendslocked posts.

They can't, but you can avoid compliant search engines without friendslocking, which is why I asked.

I use LJ more and more extensively as an aggregator

I aggregate in two places, LJ and Bloglines -- with some overlap. And then there are still blogs I visit by hand, because both aggregators mangle the presentation, and I like going round and visiting. In fact, sometimes I visit LJs that I've friended so I can see it in their format, not in my format, and not squished next to everyone else's. Aggregating kills browsing for me, and takes away some of the individual feeling.

I emailed Aimee a list based on her own FLs. I think when she had Em, she lost track of who was who. I am behind now, though. If I can find the email I sent to Aimee, I'll send it to you, but I bet there aren't any surprises on there.

The problem with LJ's setup is that friending both adds that person to your reading list, and allows them access to your locked entries. And to me, those two actions don't always go together. There are people whose blogs I find interesting who I don't think need to know about my personal life. (The solution is to add them to my Bloglines roll instead of my LJ friendslist, but it's not ideal.)

There are a few people on my flist who I've lost track of who they are here. I never ask because I don't want to look insensitive/stupid.

Jessica, I think you can group lj friends, and then make your friendslocked entries only accessible to those in certain groups. So you could have a "read 'em, but don't wanna tell 'em about my love life" group and a "TMI buddies" group and so on.

They can't, but you can avoid compliant search engines without friendslocking, which is why I asked.

Google's blog search was showing friendslocked posts for a few days, but I believe they've fixed it now. (If you clicked through to the locked post, you got LJ's "you don't have sufficient permission" page, but the first few lines did show up in the search results.)

Jessica, I think you can group lj friends, and then make your friendslocked entries only accessible to those in certain groups. So you could have a "read 'em, but don't wanna tell 'em about my love life" group and a "TMI buddies" group and so on.

Oh, believe me, I've got filters up the wazoo. But it's a PITA to custom-lock every single entry.

my lj ID is riani1. I keep thinking of changing my name here or there, but LJ is just a little too open for me to use my real name over there. Sure, this is a public form and all that, but it's a bit more exclusive and harder to find, and I always keep in mind that that's my name there. I seem to be lacking in the fear of internet stalkers and whatnot.

There are people whose blogs I find interesting who I don't think need to know about my personal life.

Yup. That's why I use custom friends groups heavily.

But it's a PITA to custom-lock every single entry.

So yes. I'd really love it if LJ separated the "people I read" and "people who can read me" lists.

The problem with LJ's setup is that friending both adds that person to your reading list, and allows them access to your locked entries. And to me, those two actions don't always go together. There are people whose blogs I find interesting who I don't think need to know about my personal life. (The solution is to add them to my Bloglines roll instead of my LJ friendslist, but it's not ideal.)

Yes. This. And of course filters are a way around that, but they can be cumbersome, if like me, you make basically useless filter names and then have to go look through to see who is on it, and then have to decide if you want to share the personal thing with all those people.

I usually get over my need to post the private stuff before I feel like creating a new filter.