Friend Requests on Facebook

[ThaiNotes]

Sorry to appear so naïve, but I started using Facebook a few days ago to help raise the profile of my hobby website.  Since then I've received a number of "Friend Requests" from total strangers.  Being totally clueless about how Facebook works, and the associated etiquette, can anyone please explain (a) why someone I don't know would send such a request, and (b) whether I'm likely to cause offence by ignoring such requests? Are these people like Nigerian princes who are about to try to scam me?

 

Of course, the obvious answer would be to (somehow) send a message to the people concerned asking "why?" but again I fear this may be a breach of etiquette.

[sanemax]

Look at their profile and see who they are .

You can accept or ignore freind requests , entirely up to you .

You can also delete friends anytime 

Maybe they are interested in your hobby ?

[Peterw42]

As others have said, look at the persons profile before you accept a friend request. Often they may be friends of your other friends. Nothing wrong with sending a message (before you accept a request) asking who they are and how they found you etc. If the profile was created 10 mins ago and they have no friends, photos, history, then chances are its a suspect profile, report and delete.

[Chicog]

^ Wot they said.

Also, just because they are friends of friends, if you don't know them, just ignore if you are so inclined. Such people send these things out willy nilly and don't really worry about who answers. Just attention seekers.

 

 

Edited November 8, 2016 by Chicog

[JHolmesJr]

They might be bots. 

[sniffdog]

Or friend collectors. I usually report them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dddave]

BTW, the person sending you the Friend request does not get a notice that you refused to "Friend" them.  They just don't get a confirmation that you accepted the friend request.

You will also find FB fishing through all your contacts and "suggesting" friends to you...don't mistake these for actual friend requests.

[guzzi850m2]

Yes I also mostly ignore those friend requests.

 

My 14 year old daughter have over 1000 "friends" , crazy.

 

Other than that it's a great way of keeping in touch and see what your friends are up to and you can join specific groups for the things you are interested in.

 

I am a member of a certain group of expats in Thailand, where you have to be a citizen of our old country in order to join and some info I got there is gold to me. 

[seancbk]

I don't understand why anyone would accept a friend request from someone they don't know in person and have known in person for at least a few months.

A friend is someone you know.    Not some random person online who you'll probably never meet.

 

 

[lucky11]

4 hours ago, guzzi850m2 said:

Yes I also mostly ignore those friend requests.

 

My 14 year old daughter have over 1000 "friends" , crazy.

 

Other than that it's a great way of keeping in touch and see what your friends are up to and you can join specific groups for the things you are interested in.

 

I am a member of a certain group of expats in Thailand, where you have to be a citizen of our old country in order to join and some info I got there is gold to me. 

 

 What is this group called?

[chicowoodduck]

The more friends you have the more requests you receive.....just delete anyone you do not know...simple and works like a charm.....I''m down to 5-6,000 friends at the moment....slow week.....?

Edited November 11, 2016 by chicowoodduck

[Soul Foam]

35 minutes ago, chicowoodduck said:

The more friends you have the more requests you receive.....just delete anyone you do not know...simple and works like a charm.....I''m down to 5-6,000 friends at the moment....slow week.....?

 

It must be, considering the friend limit on Facebook is 5,000 lol.....

Edited November 11, 2016 by Soul Foam

[alien365]

I regularly get friend requests from people I don't know. I look at their profile and they are always women, who have about 15-20 other friends with two or three pictures on and details of when they started school, college and became 'business owners'. Clearly I just delete the requests as I assume they are scammers or prostitutes

[whatproblem]

I got 14 friends on Facebook ,my current lady and previous ones don't like that I not accept their friend requests , but I use it for contact my friends in the uk ,I don't want Thais on there ,they want as many friends as they can get ,makes them feel important 

[ToddinChonburi]

You will find that most of these are not real.  Do Not friend someone you do not know. They will use your friends list to further what ever they are doing.

[tifino]

you can also have your Settings such that: only Friends of your Friends can Request to be added...

[Retiredandhappyhere]

The trouble with Facebook is that information and photos posted on your page can be read by all your friends and if they tick "like", they can also be read by the friends of your friends, which widens the circle enormously.  Of course, there are ways to restrict how far your information can be circulated, but how many people take advantage of that?

 

Once I started to receive "friend" requests from people I had never heard of and was also being asked by Immigration to reveal my Facebook name, I decided to delete my account completely and now enjoy a feeling of privacy.

[Laza 45]

On 11/8/2016 at 6:55 PM, sanemax said:

Look at their profile and see who they are .

You can accept or ignore freind requests , entirely up to you .

You can also delete friends anytime 

Maybe they are interested in your hobby ?

Good advice.. If you are not sure.. ignore.. no worries..

[Guitar God]

My Facebook rule is that I only friend people I know in real life. 

 

I don't add people I don't know who send me requests and I'm especially suspicious of friend requests from new accounts with minimal info, few friends and no mutual friends. 

 

I assume those requests to be from people trying to circumvent my privacy settings and view content only available to FB friends. Could be scammers,  competitors, government, tax department, immigration etc. 

[ykatz0]

I don't know. I do some marketing online and have many many contacts. From time to time I actually meet some of them. I sometimes think I'll build up to 5000 FB friends and then turn it into a follow page and start over again! Of course I'll invite my close friends to follow me. Many posters here speak like marketing or online sales is evil, I guess in the sense that we need to make money from it it's evil...but then everyone that would need to make money from any sale would be evil in the same category...oh well. I also do online services, my clients don't think I'm evil...perhaps when I feel depressed after posting this I'll call one up to console me!

[thundercatbob]

Make a 'Page' about your hobby, and let people follow (Like) that page where you post anon as a 'page' not your real FB self. Or you can even just make a second email account, and create a second facebook to use semi-anon. Some people add 1000+'s to make marketing pages and sell on FB. Some blindly add 1000 friends, because they think they are getting famous or something. It's a dangerous loop, beware!

[thundercatbob]

And if you need any further help - Let me know by message! 20yrs IT exp. with very up-to-date social media and web knowledge on and off in TH currently in BK, can help on task small or big  :)

[ykatz0]

Yeah, sometimes I spend a bit of time removing some that have crept in that are no good or non productive or not even friends. I had some really crazy ones the last time I did that, not sure how they crept in. But for the most part we are good. Considering the time it takes to add a few hundred I won't be adding 1000's any time soon.

[DSJPC]

Facebook sucks!!!...dump it...it will invade ur life...

[williet98248]

Some are just 'collectors'.  Their self esteem is predicated on how many 'friends' they have.  I got a friend request from some guy and when I checked his profile he boasted of 43,000 'friends'.  Uh, no thanks.  But others may be friends of friends or interested in your business.  Accept or not.  I check my FB account about one every six months,   Rarely post.  Who cares what I had for dinner anyway?

[williet98248]

 

FB can take over your life.  Don't let it.  I have turned off all notifications and rarely check my page.

[seancbk]

8 hours ago, williet98248 said:

Some are just 'collectors'.  Their self esteem is predicated on how many 'friends' they have.  I got a friend request from some guy and when I checked his profile he boasted of 43,000 'friends'.  Uh, no thanks.  But others may be friends of friends or interested in your business.  Accept or not.  I check my FB account about one every six months,   Rarely post.  Who cares what I had for dinner anyway?

Given that the maximum number of 'friends' you can have on a Facebook account is 5000, I find this a bit dubious.  

Just accept that people are different, some people are more sociable than others.  

 

I only allow people to be friends on my Facebook account if I've know them in person for long enough to call them a mate.  I still have over 1000 friends on there because I am a very social person in real life.  

 

[neeray]

19 hours ago, Retiredandhappyhere said:

The trouble with Facebook is that information and photos posted on your page can be read by all your friends and if they tick "like", they can also be read by the friends of your friends, which widens the circle enormously.  Of course, there are ways to restrict how far your information can be circulated, but how many people take advantage of that?

 

Once I started to receive "friend" requests from people I had never heard of and was also being asked by Immigration to reveal my Facebook name, I decided to delete my account completely and now enjoy a feeling of privacy.

"Privacy" !  Exactly why I never joined in the first place.  I like flying under the radar and keeping my private life private.

I don't need to ask fake friends to "like" me either.  I prefer real friends.  They like me (I think).

[KonaRain]

You're pretty safe from friends of friend's requests. I have over a thousand 'friends' that I've never met, all music industry folks. Sometimes a friend of a friend will request from scanning their

friend's list.. No harm unless You are a child. 

Promoting a craft or business, go for it.

I've clicked on hundreds of friends that are recommended to me by fb algorithms.. Pure fun..

Aloha

[KonaRain]

Sorry, like doesn't make it visible to others.. share does but you can control that with privacy settings.  A world symbol is public, but the little people holding hands is friends only and when I try to share it, it warns  me that only your common friends can see it. (again)

Aloha