LJ curiosity

[bladespark]

When someobdy you don't know adds you to their friends list, what do you do?

Do you:
1. Ignore them.
2. Read some of their journal, and friend them back if they look okay.
3. Friend them back automatically regardless.
4. Friend them back automatically unless they're somebody you already know of and don't like.
5. Ask them why they friended you, and then friend or not accordingly
6. Something else entirely.

For the sake of completeness and honesty, I shall say that I used to do #3. My journal was 100% friends only at one point to avoid two or three specific individuals, so unless you did something that upset me so badly I never wanted to speak to you again, I'd automatically add you, no matter who you were, because I'm pretty open about most of what I post, and I don't care who sees it.

Now, however, I tend to do #2. Mostly because my friends page was becoming a nightmare that I wasn't keeping up with properly. It's still pretty scary, but manageable, and I do at least skim everything my friends post, and read almost everything in detail. And as I post 90% of my content publicly, I don't feel I'm shutting anybody out by failing to friend them, they're still free to read my stuff and comment on it, so I only add to the list if they look like somebody very interesting.

I sometimes feel weird not friending people I know are perfectly nice, but.... dunno. They're nice, but they tend to lj about stuff I don't care about, is generally what it is.

Anyhow, answer me! What do you do?

Comments

[catwoman69y2k.livejournal.com]

For the most part I choose #2...not because Im suspicious but to find out more about how the person might of found me. Usually people randomly find me through groups or through mutual friends. Only time that I am suspicious is after I check them out and find no journal entries AND no userinfo (not even "hi, Im new to LJ") AND/OR I find they are members of the troll breeding ground type communities.

Occasionally I do #5 (whether they have detailed info about themselves in thier journal or userinfo). Why? Maybe they just have a few interests in common with me, maybe they found my art and want to know more about it, or maybe they are just a real friendly person. I love to meet new people.

-Kat

[graydown.livejournal.com]

#3, with one exception: That freak who friends furries and molests children. Otherwise I'll friend them, and then go read their journal.

[reiko-sazanami.livejournal.com]

I do a mix of 2 and 5, myself. I'm always welcome to new people being able to get to know me (whether they know me through gaming, furry, art, whatever), and tend to only friend if it is mutual with very few exceptions. About the only thing that will deter me from friending a person back is if I get a bad vibe off them, or if they have serial added me.

I only do 5 when if seems REALLY odd. And if I decide to not friend them, I ask politely to be removed from their listings. If they refuse or ignore me after a month, only the ban list they go for the sake of keeping my user list tidy.

Sorry I rambled a bit, but LJ is my nexus for keeping tabs on everyone. ^_^

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

duke?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Not duke. I forget his name, a kind of reverse troll. He posts offensive posts, and then serial friends people, to get them to come into his lj and flip out about the really creepy nasty stuff he's posting about. (Pedo, incest, stuff like that.)

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

eep. LJ will close the account if someone reports him.

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

It's only happened a couple of times to me, but usually 1. The things I want to say in locked entries I only really want to say to people I know (and I usually filter that down, too) *shrug*

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I think he's been shut down already. Not sure. But in any case he wasn't posting that he'd done those things, he was just posting "thoughtful" discussions of why they weren't all that bad, and stuff about how he'd given his niece a backrub, or something like that.

[rakul.livejournal.com]

Usually #2 for me ^^ but sometimes there are exceptions *hugs* Especially if I have known the person already and like them and found out they have LJ, then they get added :P

[nsdragon.livejournal.com]

1), unless I know them and make themselves noticed, or they tell me they added me. I don't pay much attention to the list anymore.

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

#2 with the rider that if I know you by name from another source, you get auto-added. But I guess that counts as #2 in a different cause, sooo...

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Personally No. 3. I friend them back and look around for a while. I tend to leave them friended unless the prove themselves to be objectionable or there's another reason to defriend them (in one case, I like the person and his psots but he is so prolific he eats my friends list).

My friends page is huge, but I tend to skim and occasionally spend a day reading the last week or so

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

A mix of 1 and 2. I haven't ever had entirely random people friend me but I don't think I'd friend them. In fact if they friend me and never leave a comment, I'd find it really creepy. Generally, I won't friend back unless I do know them or really trust them enough with my f-locked posts.

You can take people off your reading list without unfriending them by making a new friend-group called "Default View" and putting only the ones you want to read regularly in it. Everyone else will still be able to read your F-locked posts but you won't see their posts when you view your F-list posts. You can still see what they write by using View>All Journals.

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

2

[kyoshyu.livejournal.com]

7. Wonder wtf is that, searching for info on this unknown LJ user, and blacklisting it if I cannot find this person in my close online circle.

[kyoshyu.livejournal.com]

Besides, all my posts are f/only by default.

[gungho-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Since I have a completely Friends Only journal if someone adds me I usually wait for a comment on my Friends Only LJ post. If they don't comment with a little blurb about who they are, I usually won't add them. I may peek at their journal and poke around- try and figure out of I know then from anywhere... but for the most part they're ignored until they comment. Once they comment I'll add them no problem. Even if their excuse is as simple as "you looked cool." After reading the journal for a few weeks/months I may defriend them because they don't interest me.

I try to keep my friends list pretty clean and short- I don't like to spend hours on LJ. So if I don't actively talk to a person and read their entries, I'll probably eventually remove them- unless I'm watching someone because of their art, but that's rare. I think I'm only watching Thornwolf and Kyoht in that aspect.

[graydown.livejournal.com]

No, not Duke. Spark has it right. I do wish I knew what Duke's story was, though; he friended me out of the blue one day.

I did report the creep, too. LJ said that they couldn't do anything about it. I'm hoping that he was just making things up to piss people off. Still, it was a bad day.

[silveradept]

Generally #2, mostly because if the username isn't from one of the crowd that would actually know that I'm here, I wonder how they found me. So after I do a bit of #2, I usually do #5 and if the excuse is good and I can trace the origins, I've got a good case for friending.

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

#2, generally.

Although, honestly, it's only happened twice.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

If they've made a comment somewhere with a little introduction as to why they might friend me (and the reasons to friend are usually not really based on much--stuff like "I think you're cool" or "the stuff you write about is fascinating") and ask permission to friend me or ask me if I want to friend them back, then sure. I'll friend them, as that's the protocol I use to friend random people I think are cool.

I check LJ every day, now that there's no school or work, and when there is, LJ is usually the only source of free time I allow myself. So a large friend's page with lots of communities and friends isn't a problem for me; there's always filters if I find it too incredibly long for the time I've got that day. I've had two people so far friend me without making some kind of a comment, and both are people I didn't end up friending. I think that courteous comment is kind of just common courtesy. Regardless whether they comment or not, I'll go over to their page and see what kind of mood they exude. If it's something like that one guy (I don't remember his name as his account has been deleted; Hooray!) or I don't like the nature of their icons (Icons are a good sign, as I can skim over text, but if I have to see that image over and over...), I'll ignore them. They can read my public stuff, I don't care, but I really do care what goes on my daily reading page.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

dukes story is a little much to explain here...

[graydown.livejournal.com]

Somewhere else, then? (Yes, I am too curious for my own good.)

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

ill add you to my LJ. some of it is explained in the most recent post there is.

[cow.livejournal.com]

#2 or #4, mostly. My friends list is currently too big for me to truly keep up with, and I feel kind of bad about that, so I try not to add anyone who I truly find uninteresting.

But I make almost no friends-only entries, so not friending someone back doesn't prevent them from seeing anything.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Duke has 700+ people friended, he friends /everyone./ (And he's a spaz, but Harli can say more about that than I, I've never actually had a run in with him.)

[graydown.livejournal.com]

Wow. That there is a lot of drama.

[graydown.livejournal.com]

That's... messed up. There are some real weirdos on the web.

Thank you.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

sorry about that. i added you and then saw that he was on your friends list so i had to take you off.

[graydown.livejournal.com]

*points at original post* Company policy -- People who friend me get friended back, except for that one creep. ^_^; Duke's behavior is pretty messed up, though.

I hope I haven't offended you. I'm kind of new to the subculture, and I don't know the personalities yet.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

no worries, ive added you back. im pretty hard to offend really. nice to meetcha, id love to see these puppets you make ^-^

[coyoty.livejournal.com]

If I recognize the name and know they're okay, I'll friend them back, otherwise 2.

[artyskox.livejournal.com]

#2 for me, but I set most everything to friends only which make it a little different for me. If I dont add them back they see one post every 2-3 months. If they're just covered is online quizzes or obviously annoying.. I dont reciprocate unless I can tell they're going to be an amusing idiot (in reference to other peoples replies)

[keplilly.livejournal.com]

A mix of 2 and 5 for me. I tend to post friends only so I like to check out where they find me from.