adding as friend

friendship request

Do you approve the friend requests of those you don't know?

Turkey

March 4, 2010 3:51am CST

Hello myLotters, You all may have experienced this. Someone adds you as friend. You look at his/her photo, information but you don't know him/her. You don't have mutual friends also. Would you approve the request? I know some people who approves it if the photo looks pretty enough :) There is one more situation. Someone you don't know adds you as friend. But you have lots of mutual friends. Then you visit his/her profile and see he/she has hundreds, thousands of friends. You think that he/she adds everyone on some networks, gruops or something else. Later, the chain grows. Your friends approve the request one by one. Because they see mutual friends and don't think about it. I am a bit cautious about the second situation. Do you think they can steal profile information to sell spammers? Looking forward to hear your opinion. Have a nice day :)

3 people like this

23 responses

@rapunzelcat (271)

• United States

4 Mar 10

I don't, although I sometimes stretch the definition of "knowing" them. People whom I have met sometime in my life even if we were kids at the time. I have some cousins who are a lot younger than me whom I don't really know, but I think we have probably at least been at the same family gathering a time or two. And I have an aunt I've never met, from out of state, my dad's half-sister, whom I'm trying to decide whether to add as a friend. Several family members have her on their friend list so I will probably eventually do so. I have a couple of friend requests from people I don't know, who must have seen me on a mutual friend list, whom I have ignored. So, I guess, unless they are related to me, I would not add someone I've never met.

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@rapunzelcat (271)

• United States

4 Mar 10

I just read my response and realized it wasn't very clear. I do add relatives I don't know very well, and people I haven't seen for a long time. Just yesterday, in fact, I found my best friend from 6th grade! We haven't seen each other in about 30 years. We added each other as friends, how much we will actually keep contact will remain to be seen. It would be nice, though, if we got reacquainted as adults.

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Oh okey now I understand :) You're right it would be very nice.

• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I agree with you about the people you don't know. But I approve a friend request if he/she is my relative, childhood friend or someone else who we shared something to talk about. I added and was added by many people from my childhood and primary school. Talking them about past days feels good :)

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Rubeena Bashir Kunju

@rubyriaz007 (4188)

• India

2 Sep 18

I never accept friendship of people i never know. Sometimes I get requests from my friends friend,but I never accept it. We don't know how they are, so it better not to accept.

1 person likes this

• Turkey

4 Sep 18

Thank you for your response. Exactly my thoughts

1 person likes this

Rubeena Bashir Kunju

@rubyriaz007 (4188)

• India

5 Sep 18

@zhorak You are most welcome. It is always better not to accept friend request from strangers.

1 person likes this

@aweins (4199)

• India

5 Mar 10

hi zhorak, my dear friend, i do approve the friend request that i get. i dont think that i have denied . this is a social networking site and here people come to meet and know and make friends. so i think to make friends, and know about them, their country and their culture, this is a best way,what ya say, :-). i love to know more and more about other people, their tastes, liking, dis likings and the way they behave in certain situations or to write it properly, the way they deal certain situations . i love to communicate and i think this is the best way.

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• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. Yes, you talk about nice things. Learning new cultures, knowing about new people are good. I approve any friends request here in myLot because of this. I would answer any message here. But Facebook is different for me. I share my photos, ideas, plans there. Don't you worry about your privacy? I think everyone should keep their personal information hidden.

@youless (112586)

• Guangzhou, China

5 Mar 10

I always accept the friend requests from people who I don't know at all. But this is for the social networking only. As to the chatting software such as MSN, QQ etc, I don't like accept the friend requests from strangers because usually they are so bothering. I love China

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• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. As long as you don't share much information about yourself on social networking sites, I agree with you :)

@sublime03 (2339)

• Philippines

5 Mar 10

I do not. My facebook is intended to have me keep in touch with my friends that I know. I do not add people just so I can have more friends than others but to just keep track of how my friends are doing whom I know. So definitely no. I am still narrowing down my list of friends to whom are dear to me.

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• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I liked the way you use your Facebook. I agree with you, having many friends there means nothing unless they are really your friends :)

@jade_herrera (37)

•

5 Mar 10

i joined facebook because i had so many invites but later on i found so many long lost friends from way back when i was in elementary and i get the chance to look for more friends. I usually accept only friend requests from people i have connections with. Anyway, i haven't really had any requests from complete strangers. come to think of it, my profile might seem boring.LOL for me not to get requests from strangers. Anyway, perhaps it's just as well because there are a lot of wackos out there. and you can never really tell whether or not they are sincere since you only meet them on the internet. I had been solicited from another site and for awhile there he really made me believe he was interested until my defence radar started sending me signals and i just told him straight to go to hell. So i think we still should be careful.

1 person likes this

friend requests

internet friends

• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. My profile isn't so enjoying also but I have a few requests from some suspicous people. I think they aren't interested in my profile. They probably want to invite me to their groups or whatever. And yes, you can never trust one on internet. Can be friends but not trust completely :)

@drakesuyat (1063)

• Philippines

4 Mar 10

yes i do it everytime. it is where friendship starts. i never even care of the country from which he/she is. i have made a lot of good friends from different countries here in mylot alone and it makes me happy being able to do it even if i am way way far from them.

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• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. Happy to hear that you made good friends online. I have worries about people I don't know personally. I chat to them, message them but I don't want them to see my personal information until I trust them. So myLot is a good place to meet new ones :)

@jlamela (4897)

• Philippines

5 Mar 10

When I was still a new member, I accepted every friend request I got, but right now, I stopped accepting and I have more than 80 requesting pending now, I am tired accepting friend requests because my profile page is already loaded with friends I don't know and I find it very useless because we won't exchange words very often nor responded to every discussion friends' posted.

1 person likes this

• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I had a lot of friends here at the begining. Then I tried to keep my friend list clean and deleted the ones who I don't message. Then I got tired of this and let it be :) I haven't recieved or sent any single message for months :)

@myramae19 (667)

• Philippines

4 Mar 10

yes, I always approved friend request..The more the merrier, and we can also learn things, cultures and beliefs from all over the world

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. Those are good ideas. But I advise you not to share personal information with everyone. There may be spammers out there looking for emails and phone numbers :)

@shadowkissed14 (92)

• Philippines

4 Mar 10

There are times that I do add someone that I personally don't know like people whom I've chatted a couple of times before or friends of my boyfriend.However if its someone that I don't have any knowledge about then I just ignore it. It is scary because theres a possibility that your information may be used or copied for their own personal benefit so.

1 person likes this

• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I totally agree with you. I generally approve friends of my friends even though we haven't chatted, as long as I trust the mutual friend of ours.

@louisefrank (356)

•

4 Mar 10

I haven't been a member of myLot for long so don't have many friends yet. The ones I have requested have been people who have responded to my discussions in a way I liked, or those whose discussions I found interesting. As a "newbie" I was delighted to get my first request for friendship and accepted with alacrity - but then found he was only trying to get me to respond to - what looked to me - like some dubious websites. I learnt a lesson from that and now, I hope, all my friends are interesting people.

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• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. Yes, some people just add you to make you read their discussions and respond them. Unfortunately, there are people here whose only goal is to reach the payout :) How about your Facebook friends? Actually the main subject here is Facebook :)

• India

4 Mar 10

well zhorak,before adding anyone in my account as friends , I check who they are by visiting their profile link, their page, well it is not wise to Judge a person by his/her photo , it can easily be fake, as they say you cannot judge a book by its cover, same theory applies here...so i am always careful..

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• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I agree with you. I check their links, pages, networks too. And you're right about the profile photo.

@Shylambert (276)

• Philippines

4 Mar 10

Hi, Zhorak! Yup, I do approve whoever adds me as a friend here in MyLot. For me, this is my place to know and communicate to people from other countries, who knows? I might miss my destiny/future best friend just because I didn't accept his/her invitation here. Besides, I have Facebook where I only accept those people that I personally know.

1 person likes this

• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thanks for your response. This is exactly what I do either :)

• Pakistan

4 Mar 10

on facebook i only add people who i personally know and have met. Usually the people in my locality, old friends, distant relatives that type of stuff. For socializing there is micro-blogging (twitter). i specifically use twitter for socializing with people all over, all ages. I think its fun reading there tweets. Moreover myspace is also a good place to socialize and make friends with complete strangers. So basically what im trying to get at is that it depends on the reason you chose to create the account, be it just making friends with complete strangers or keeping in touch with the people you know. personally i like to do both!

1 person likes this

• Turkey

5 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I liked the idea of using twitter for meeting new people, and facebook for people you know personally. I don't use twitter but I may, whenever I have some free time :)

@donna22 (1116)

•

4 Mar 10

When I first joined facebook I only accepted people I knew as in had met before. Now if I get a friend request and they look familar and/or we have a few mutual friends it really depends. Generally I accept most people but defiently not people whose profiles are all in a foreign language.

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. You are right. Unless they leave a message why they add you, a foreigner always looks suspicous. Not everyone who use your language is trustable so you should be more selective about them too. Just my opinion :)

@abbypringles (1613)

• Philippines

4 Mar 10

Not exactly right away. Sometimes, I have a look at the mutual friends list to see whether they are someone i have met in the past, but don't remember. BUt I often ignore the ones from whom are complete strangers.

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I also check the mutual friends and try to find the link between them, the one who added and me. For example if he/she is a friend of all my friends from high school, I approve the request. Let's say you have tens of mutual friends but it looks like they are randomly selected. What would you do?

@Posey1234567 (203)

•

4 Mar 10

I tend not to add randomers as I call them,I don't add mutual friends either.

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. I will call them randomers too from now on :) I never accept randomers like you do. It doesn't make any sense that someone adds anyone they see. They must have a reason.

@Hazelrose (2179)

• Philippines

4 Mar 10

Hi zhorak,Yes I do,I always approved all friend request even though I don't really know them without seing their profile.Because I believe that it can be a simple start for a good friendship.By the way I dont expect to be added in some of their networks.I just approve them because they send friend request.Who knows? they may become a true friend of mine.Good luck.

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. This is a very optimistic view but don't you think there is a risk of having your personal information stolen and traded? I approve a request if I think he/she is friendly. But approving without being suspicous doesn't look secure to me.

@binagupta (627)

• India

4 Mar 10

not exactly, when the request comes again and again then i add then otherwise i dont.

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. That looks like a good way to filter the spammers. If it is someone that knows or wants to know you, he/she will add you again. Probably with a message this time.

@Nirishasol (879)

• India

4 Mar 10

Yes i do approve the friends whom i don't know because if i add them i can make friends from far and learn many more things from them so i always approve friend request whom i don't know.

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• Turkey

4 Mar 10

Thank you for your response. As long as they look friendly and they have a reason to add you, I would approve them too. Otherwise I think the people you don't know shouldn't see your photos, status updates, personal information like email, phone number because they may be used in bad way. On MyLot, I don't give any personal information so I feel free to add friends. And having friends from far is really a nice experience :)