Facebook friends that you don't know

Most of my facebook friends are people I've known in person. There are a few that I met on internet message boards, but we had been talking on the message boards for quite a while and we have something in common (the subject of the message board) so I felt that we were already friends in a way before we were friends on facebook.

Sometimes I get friend requests from people I've neve heard of before. Sometimes they are friends of friends; sometimes I don't know why they decided they wanted to be my friend.  I turn them down because I think it's kind of weird that someone wants to be my friend just based on the information in my profile and/or my photo.

Am I just being old-fashioned? What do other people do?

I've turned down a couple that I didn't know.  I think you're being smart.  I also turned down someone at work who is a notorious gossip.  Not because I post anything gossip worthy but it's the whole world colliding thing that I don't like - plus I don't want it announced to work every morning what I put in my status.

I have photos of myself, my daughter & my husband on my facebook and I am REALLY particular about who should have access to them. My Myspace is the same way. I don't friend anyone that I haven't met personally or through another medium (such as UKY). I use mine mainly to keep up with family back in the states and old co workers...so if I haven't directly known someone in real life or on here then I don't add them.  

I just have this image of a sick pervert getting ahold of my DD's photo and where we live and something happening...so I don't add people that I don't know...even friends of friends...I just don't do it.

There's nothing wrong with turning people down. When I do it, I usually send a little message saying thanks, but explaining that I only friend people I know.

I turn down quite a few people for the same reasons about there being pictures of me and my family on my profile. I often get friend requests from people i went to high school with but never spoke a word to in my life--i turn them down because the one and only reason they're requesting me is to be nosey, not because they really care how im doing or what ive been up to. If they send me a nice message though asking how i am, i usually add them though.

I was a bit hesitant of adding people i work with, but one girl added me and shes a friend of mine so i accepted.. then one by one everyone else started adding me. Now they're all on my page, I just don't post anything private. I even took down a picture of me on holiday in my bikini because of them.

I'm careful about the content I put on Facebook, so I don't ever have anything there that I don't mind anyone seeing.  However, I don't think there's anything wrong with refusing requests from people you don't know at all.  I got one a while back from a girl who asked if I was someone she had met in India.  I've never been to India, so I sent her a message saying sorry, you've got the wrong person.  DH has friends he doesn't know, but who share his last name.  I don't think that's the greatest idea.  They're probably perfectly normal people, but why risk it? 

I got one a while back from a girl who asked if I was someone she had met in India.  I've never been to India, so I sent her a message saying sorry, you've got the wrong person. 

I've had that before - I got a friend request and a message from some high school kid in Texas, saying that it was nice to see me recently and was I going to Prom (or something to that effect)! I messaged back saying that he had the wrong person, since I was 23, had lived in Europe for over 20 years and had never set foot in Texas in my life!

Recently I got a friend request email from a guy I'd never heard of before - it wasn't until I clicked on the link and saw his FB picture that I realised he was a friend of a friend and that I'd met him the week before. I decided not to accept the request because I didn't really know him, but randomly enough we had another mutual friend in common - one of the girls in my primary school class from 20 years ago! I looked at his profile and it turns out he's the same age as my younger brother and is friends with several of his friends, about 30 in total - they all went to the main high school in my town, round the corner from my parents' house (my brother and I went to a different high school in the next village over).

If I don't know them, I don't friend them.  Same goes if I don't like them

Usually though, if you click on them you see the people you have in common.  Usually I'll know the person, just not their new married name. (It's confusing when people don't have their maiden name on their info)

You're definitely not being old-fashioned.  With sites that are all about YOU, your activities and your personal info, it's smart to be selective about whom you "friend."  With my MySpace (which I no longer use), I would indiscriminately approve every friend request I received, and my wall and inbox quickly cluttered up with nonsense that I didn't care about.  I decided to be more careful with Facebook and I'm so glad for it.  Everyone on my friends list is someone I know in person or have interacted with on another forum, and the only clutter I get is notices for my friends' bands' gigs.

There's nothing wrong with turning people down. When I do it, I usually send a little message saying thanks, but explaining that I only friend people I know.

Just an FYI- if you send a message to someone (even if you aren't friends) it gives them access to your profile for a month on fb. I've had some students try to "trick" me into writing them back because they know I'm not going to approve their request but if they write a note, maybe I'll respond there. Yeah, I don't respond....

Just an FYI- if you send a message to someone (even if you aren't friends) it gives them access to your profile for a month on fb. I've had some students try to "trick" me into writing them back because they know I'm not going to approve their request but if they write a note, maybe I'll respond there. Yeah, I don't respond....

That doesn't really bother me so much, to be honest. There's nothing that special on my profile. And a month isn't much in the big scheme of things. I just don't like my friends' list being cluttered with people I don't know.

That doesn't really bother me so much, to be honest. There's nothing that special on my profile. And a month isn't much in the big scheme of things. I just don't like my friends' list being cluttered with people I don't know.

Ok. Yeah, if it's people you sort of know from another life or whatever, it's not a big deal. I've had people that I don't know at all ask to friend me. I'm just suspicious that maybe they are fishing for some info/scammers. I'm a bit wary since my fb got hacked about a year ago, though.

I'd rather not accept a friend request than to accept one and have to unfriend a person later. I usually don't respond to FRs, I ignore them -- that way there's always a plausable excuse later if I need it. (Oh, your request? My Spam folder must have eaten it.)

I'll usually look at the list of friends in common first to try to figure out how they know me. Then, I'll send a message asking how they know me and if it's from a message board if they could tell me their handle. If I don't get a response within a reasonable time (like 5 days), I decline the friend request since I assume they were just trolling for friends.

I'm tired of the "friend suggestions" that list a random person and then underneath say "you both went to x high school". Well, SURE, but since they graduated in 2005 and I graduated in 1997, I guarantee I have no clue who they are! Or it wants me to add siblings or spouse's of my friends.....why would I add someone I don't know just because they are related to someone I know?

But, I have to say I love Facebook. 2 girls I was only friends with casually started responding to my posts and I feel closer to them than when we were in high school!

I'm tired of the "friend suggestions" that list a random person and then underneath say "you both went to x high school". Well, SURE, but since they graduated in 2005 and I graduated in 1997, I guarantee I have no clue who they are!

Yeah, or "you and [so-and-so] both went to the University of Washington."  Dude...thirty-three thousand people attend UW every year!  The likelihood of me knowing the person suggested is ridiculously slim!