We recently measured the average distance of users in the Facebook graph,
spurring comments in the scientific community as well as in the general press
("Four Degrees of Separation"). A number of interesting criticisms have been
made about the meaningfulness, methods and consequences of the experiment we
performed. In this paper we want to discuss some methodological aspects that we
deem important to underline in the form of answers to the questions we have
read in newspapers, magazines, blogs, or heard from colleagues. We indulge in
some reflections on the actual meaning of "average distance" and make a number
of side observations showing that, yes, 3.74 "degrees of separation" are really
few
