Facebook oddity

[emmline]

Facebook can be weird.

I recently got "friended" by someone whom I've never heard of. The person is listed as being a graduate of my 700+ member
high school graduating class.
I did not respond right away, not knowing who this might be. A week or so later, I check the person's friend list and see several
other members of my high school class there--people I do recognize.
Still, this is strange for several reasons:
The person has posted no profile or other photos, but is presumably male based on the generic profile choice made.
The ONLY people on the person's friend list are 15 other members of my HS class, males and females.
The person's birthyear is listed as 1971. The class of '79 were actually born in 1961 or thereabouts.
There are only 2 other postings on the person's wall, both saying something along the lines of: "Exactly HOW do I know you?"
This person's name does not appear in my yearbook.

What do suppose is going on? A weird social experiment?

[chrisoff]

Bear in mind you're under no obligation to accept friend invites on these sites.

A couple of months ago I got friend requests from a few people I went to secondary school with, which isn't really unusual as many of my facebook contacts fall into that bracket. What was unusual about most of these ones was that I didn't actually like these ones or spend much time with them when I was at school.

So I ticked ignore request and left them off my friends list. I don't mind people I liked at school knowing what I'm up to these days but people that were dicks to me at school can just bugger off.


Anyway, the moral of the story is just ignore the request unless you actually know who it is. There's also the off-chance there are more sinister, but less frequently seen, motives behind the request.

[dwinterfield]

Sounds like some sort of scam in the making to me.

[emmline]

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. I don't feel obligated to accept friendings, and am quite willing to cull people from the list as needed,
but the strangeness was that I knew everyone else--at least peripherally--that the person has friended, and nobody appears to actually
know him.

[Denny]

but ya didn't mind bad math?

[Innocent Bystander]

"Thou shalt not promiscuously befriend on Facebook."

But some people do. Like Chris, I will Ignore and, if necessary Block people I don't want to contact there.

[Innocent Bystander]

Some people deliberately enter an incorrect DoB in an effort to prevent identity theft.
Trouble is, you have to remember what incorrect date you put in. Ten years out would do it.

As a character in Saki said "I can't pretend to be more than fourteen if my mother is insisting she's twenty-nine..."

[chrisoff]

but the strangeness was that I knew everyone else--at least peripherally--that the person has friended, and nobody appears to actually
know him.

Perhaps they're not as discerning with their facebook contacts as you are?

I friend of mine was complaining recently about someone he didn't like phoning him. The guy had got his number of facebook, so I asked if he'd accepted his friend request to which he replied yes. I told him it was his own fault then.

[Innocent Bystander]

Putting your phone-number on Facebook is asking for trouble.

[anniemcu]

On the 'pro' side, they may have gotten married, or remarried, so the name might not match. They may have mis-typed the birth year - not a difficult thing to do. They may not have been an actual friend of yours back then, but may have remembered you and just want to connect with as many people from that time as possible.

On the 'con' side, there are a lot of folks who mess with everyone they can.

If you don't care to take the risk to find out, don't. No onus. Don't feel guilty, because if you don't know the person, you don't know the person.

On the other hand, I actually got a 'friend request' the other day from a gal from my highschool that turned out to be someone who obviously did know me then, and though I can't yet recall her, it's been a nice trip down memory lane to hear from her. I ended up accepting the friend-ing, and we've had some really nice exchanges.

Just don't let yourself be pressured into anything on facebook. It's loads of stuff and we just don't have that much time or energy to put into everything available there. (I keep telling myself that, hoping I'll listen)

[Charlene]

There's one person on my suggested friend list that I don't recognize - it says we both know one of my other friends, but the name doesn't ring a bell. I wrote and asked him who he was but haven't accepted him as a friend.

On the other hand, there are 2 of you C&Fers on my suggested friend list that I haven't gotten around to accepting yet. I know who you are, just haven't actually clicked yes yet.

Right now I'm just trying to get the photo app to work properly - I want to rearrange some photos, and I can pick them up, but when I click again to set them in the new spot it won't drop them there, just keeps moving them around. I suppose if I go away and come back later it will work eventually.

[FJohnSharp]

I'm using Facebook for networking and I don't refuse friending very often as long as they have some peripheral connection to writing or people I know who write. As such I don't offer up a lot of personal details or pics.

[jsluder]

Gah! Friend is not a verb! Gah!

[anniemcu]

Gah! Friend is not a verb! Gah!

It is now.

[MTGuru]

Gah! Friend is not a verb! Gah!

It is now.

Friend has been verbed!