Etiquette for Ignoring Friends Requests on Facebook

I've recently starting getting a lot of friend requests from people in high school. I'm a way different person and don't really want to reignite old friendships.

I feel rude just ignoring their friend requests. I wish them all well but don't care to keep in touch.

I thought about emailing each person that sends a request and telling them I hope they are doing great and explaining why I'm not accepting their invite but I'm afraid that's just a way to ease my guilt.

Would you just ignore them or explain why you aren't going to accept the invite? Or do you think I should just accept the invite and deal with it.

I think sending them a message with well wishes but a polite refusal/explanation is perfectly acceptable. Besides, if you accept them all and "deal with it" you will probably just end up hiding them from your updates anyway, and you'll end up ignoring all the "Cause Invitations" they send you, and all the....well, you get the picture! Good luck!

I would just ignore them.

Click "ignore"

Forget about it.  It's not like they get a message saying you ignored their request.

You could also accept but only give them access to a limited profile.  If they want to pursue it and send you a message, either ignore it or send a polite response discouraging future communication. 

I just flat out ignore them. My boss, who I also went to high school (but not college) with, sent me a friend request and I just never responded.

Honestly, if I wasn't friends with them in high school or college, I don't feel bad about ignoring them. Odds are, they woudln't take the time out of their day to bat an eyelash at me so I'm not going to do it for them now.

shrug I don't really care if it's rude or not. Normally I try to make everyone happy, putting myself last but I'm getting older and it's really draining. I'm going to be one majorly cranky old lady one day!

Meh. Very few of those kinds of associations pan out. Once you both realize you have very little in common anymore the novelty wears off. That said I don't ignore any requests unless I can't figure out who they are.

Original Post by jblarghp:

I would just ignore them.

+1

I ignore them.

i would ignore them and put my privacy settings so that you can't be searched by name or picture.

I do ignore a few requests, but like KG, only from people I can't identify.  I usually just add all of those old friends even though I know our friendships won't be rekindled.  The most that's happened is that a message is exchanged each way, talking about what we're doing in our lives now, and then going forward, the only interaction is completely passive - seeing the other person's status updates (which you can block, if you truly aren't interested).

I add people that I knew and genuinely liked from high school (that's 2 people so far), and after, but I ignore friend requests from all the people that I have ever met anywhere.  If I don't know you or communicate with you I don't need you as a friend on FB.

You can't put this much thought into frickin facebook.

Original Post by schnooder:

You can't put this much thought into frickin facebook.

HA apparently you can.

You could friend them and then assign them to a restricted category where they do not have access to your information, wall posts, etc.  I have found that there are some "acquaintances" from the past who have found people that I do want to reconnect with and would not have been able to find otherwise.

Original Post by andie-1:

i would ignore them and put my privacy settings so that you can't be searched by name or picture.

 This is exactly what I do with my private facebook. I do have a more 'public' one that is used for my business and clients but I'm pretty picky with the ones I approve on there, as well.

I just ignore...but I have a question. If you actually click the ignore button, doesn't it reply back to them they have been ignored or whatever? I heard that..so, I Just leave the requests dangling in cyber heaven.

I don't think it sends a message saying you've ignored them!

To be honest I think someone might not even notice you've ignored their request while if you send an email saying why you're declining their request they might take that as an excuse. And if you're going to the bother of the emailing, then I don't know just makes it sound like you really don't want to be their friend to me.

At least I once added someone and he sent a message about how he doesn't accept invites from undergrads because of exams blah blah blah, where if he'd just ignored my request I definitely wouldn't have checked up on whether he'd accepted me or not. A week later he added me....strange man.

Don't ignore them. But don't accept them either. Just let it sit in the queue. I do this for people that I do not want to accept as a friend but that I may see or run into later on. Also if you ignore them, they find out that they have been ignored and can also resend the request over and over if they wish. If it sits in the queue, they cant do this.

I realize though that having unresponded messages and things in facebook might bother people. It doesnt bother me too much and it saves people from hurt feelings and I never feel guilty. :)

Original Post by jblarghp:

I would just ignore them.

ditto.  be done with it.

I just ignore them...if I don't want to be friend with them, I really don't care what they think.

Original Post by schnooder:

You can't put this much thought into frickin facebook.

 I LOVE this reply.  Seriously. 

Ignore.