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Facebook is all about connecting with other people and making friends. Yet friend requests are delicate and can quickly get you in trouble with Facebook. While you probably won’t get banned How To Get Banned From Social Networks How To Get Banned From Social Networks The Web has opened up lines of communication that were previously closed for the vast majority of the world. Anyone with an Internet connection can now head online and talk to someone on the other. Read More for inappropriate friend requests, many people have been blocked from adding more friends. And even if it was a mistake, the block cannot be lifted early. It really does help knowing the unwritten rules.
Facebook is complex, and this might be necessary for friend requests. Unfortunately, it’s a tough place for beginners because innocent mistakes can lead to drastic consequences Banned: What Happens When Facebook Doesn't Like You [Feature] Banned: What Happens When Facebook Doesn't Like You [Feature] When I interviewed Mark S. Zuckerberg, I thought that he was a charming, polite guy. When he talked, he did so with a typically Midwestern drawl. He has raised a large family and has a. Read More. So here are a few Facebook friend request tips to help you and people who request your friendship avoid unintentional punishment and generally make the most of all features around Facebook friends.
Basics for Beginners
Here is a little refresher on how to add friends for those of you not too familiar with Facebook. Everyone else, please skip ahead.
You can see all your pending friend requests via the Friends icon in the top right of Facebook.
Clicking the icon will open a menu that shows all pending Friend Requests and a list of People You May Know .
Click Confirm to add a friend or Not Now to hide a request. The sender won’t be notified.
You can also search people, open their profiles, and if they accept friend requests from the public or friends of friends add them by clicking the +1 Add Friend button located on their profile to the right of their name.
To cancel a friend request, go back to their profile, hover over the button that now reads +1 Friend Request Sent and select Cancel Request from the menu.
You can also remove a friend via their profile or your friends list. Facebook does not notify people if you remove them. However, it is possible to track your friends list with third party tools and receive alerts when people remove you Are You Being Unfollowed? Check With These Apps and Plugins Are You Being Unfollowed? Check With These Apps and Plugins In my opinion, one of the best things Facebook ever did was to let users "unfriend" each other without any notifications. There have been numerous examples where I’ve regretted "friending" someone, and I’ve avoided tons. Read More .
And with that you know all the basics about Facebook friend requests. Except that you should
Connect Before You Add Someone
Facebook wants you to add only people you know in real life. If your friend requests frequently remain unanswered or even if just one person reports your friend request as unwanted, Facebook may conclude that you have sent friend requests that violate their Community Standards. especially the point addressing bullying and harassment. As a result, you will be blocked from sending friend requests for a period of time.
To avoid being blocked from adding friends, follow these guidelines:
- make it easy for people to recognize you, i.e. use your photo and real name
- try to add only people who you have mutual Facebook friends with
- send your desired contact a message introducing yourself before you add them
In other words: don’t look like a fake account How To Spot a Fake Facebook Account & Stay Safe [Weekly Facebook Tips] How To Spot a Fake Facebook Account & Stay Safe [Weekly Facebook Tips] According to a fairly recent estimate by Facebook, there are around 83 million fake accounts on the social network. Sure, a few of these are duplicate accounts or businesses using personal accounts instead of pages. Read More. don’t be a stranger, and don’t add random strangers!
Add Friends Conservatively
You will often want to add a new friend immediately, even though you don’t have mutual friends on Facebook. And it might be more awkward to send a message first than to add them directly. That’s cool. Just be sure you don’t add too many people without common friends at once.
If you don’t know someone, just want to know what they post to Facebook, and if there is an option to follow them, give that preference over adding them as a friend. This allows you to see what they are up to, but your Timeline is not shard with them.
Review Hidden Friend Requests
Facebook doesn’t immediately delete friend requests that you choose not to confirm. When you click the Not Now button, the request is merely hidden. You can see all hidden requests on your Friend Requests page. Here you can either confirm or delete requests. The sender won’t be notified.
If you delete a request, Facebook will ask whether you know that person outside of Facebook. Keep in mind that if you select No. the person may be penalized. And that person won’t be able to send you another friend request.
Block Friend Requests from Strangers
Facebook allows you to limit who can send you friend requests. Applying the limitation will keep those strangers desperate to connect with you out of trouble. From the Friend Requests menu in the top right, click Settings and choose Everyone or Friends of Friends from the drop-down menu.
Alternatively, open Privacy Shortcuts Make Sure You're Secure With Facebook's New Privacy Settings - A Complete Guide Make Sure You're Secure With Facebook's New Privacy Settings - A Complete Guide Facebook also means two other things: frequent changes and privacy concerns. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Facebook, is that they’re not really concerned about what we like or our privacy. Nor should they. Read More from the top right (next to Home button), expand Who can contact me? and choose Everyone or Friends of Friends under Who can send me friend requests?
Review Friend Requests You Have Sent
Click the Privacy Shortcut button in the top right (next to Home button), expand Who can see my stuff? and click Use Activity Log .
On your Activity Log page, click MORE underneath Comments to expand all Facebook sections. Click Friends. You can now browse all activities related to adding, accepting, and removing friends.
Decide Who Can See Your Friends List and Friend Activity
In the Friends Activity Log described above, you can further refine your privacy settings by choosing who can see your friends list and where your friend activity will show up. Click the respective icons in the top right of the Friends Activity Log and choose your settings. By deselecting every option for where your friend activity can show up, you can effectively friend someone and hide it from your status updates.
For more tips on how to guard your Facebook privacy, see this article on how to hide your personal information How To Hide Your Personal Information On Facebook How To Hide Your Personal Information On Facebook In the age of the Internet, privacy is a luxury and you have to constantly be on your heels to maintain it. Facebook makes it particularly hard for users to guard their personal data. Despite. Read More .
Conclusion
Friend requests on Facebook are inherently awkward. Whether you add your best friend, someone you know from school, your mom, or your boss, everyone is your friend. Well, obviously not! And Facebook does acknowledge that there are different qualities among your contacts, which is why they offer default lists Using Facebook Friends Lists For Interests Or Circles [Facebook Hack Or Tip Of The Week] Using Facebook Friends Lists For Interests Or Circles [Facebook Hack Or Tip Of The Week] Is Facebook driving you crazy? Most people who use Facebook generally view the home feed in its unfiltered form, which means they're seeing updates from friends, acquaintances and pages all lumped in together and shown. Read More like close friends, family, and acquaintances.
Unfortunately, you cannot add a custom message along with a friend request. It would give you the chance to explain why you want to add that person as a friend. So if they don’t remember you or disapprove of your approach, they will most likely deny your friend request; without any explanation of course and Facebook won’t even notify you. Instead, Facebook may block you from adding further friends. Thus it’s worth being careful with your friend requests.
Do you have a policy for adding friends and have you ever had issues with friend requests?
68 comments Write a Comment
Thank you for the update, Latoya.
People can choose to follow you if you enable this option, but they can still ask to friend you. If you would like to convert a follower to a friend, you have to send them a friend request I believe.
June 21, 2016 at 7:07 am
its annoying since I sent an friend request to someone I know in real life, like from the christen friday's bible study and also from the saltworks school club. but it seems that my friend request was blocked either by that old friend or facebook itself, can't message that person either to remind them where I know them from, since it been a few years since I went to it since moving towns etc..
June 7, 2016 at 9:53 pm
I received a friend request from someone whose name I did not recognize and I declined it. The next day, through messenger, I found out she was my 4th grade friend and we lived on the same block and went to the same school. So now I want to friend her but FB won't let her send another request or let me even find her in search friends. Is there nothing we can do to connect now?
I think I have inadvertently sent a friend request to someone I don't know personally but know of, while I looked into her FB page. I did not mean to send any request!
Now, I think she blocked me.
I looked through my friend requests in order to revoke it but it's not there.
Does anyone know if we can still see a friend request among the sent requests (and revoke it) when the person blocked you?
I always check their page/wall. If I see pics of a bunch of friends and LEGITIMATE posts going back several years, I know it isn't fake. Clones who send requests are easy as heck to spot. But, if they block the view of their info, even if I think I might know them, I don't accept.
May 18, 2016 at 10:22 pm
I want nothing to do with anybody who uses Facebook. Which is EVERYBODY. People I thought I like I actually don't like when I find that what they do most is "share". I have since unfollowed them and deselected "Get Notifications". Facebook encourages people to stop being friends. Also Facebook is certainly not a way to reconnect with somebody. People are more likely to deny a friend request, and they will also click "Mark as Spam", despite Facebook's entire purpose is to spam. Once they deny the request then you cannot send a request ever again. To avoid people deleting the request, I like to send a message along with it. BUT There is no way to send a message along with the friend request, and no way to contact the person. Sometimes the message button is gone. The rest of the time it goes into "Message Requests" folder. I have no idea if people check this or not. I assume they DO, because it really isn't that hard to find. One person I messaged "Do you remember me?" She replied "Yes" about a month later. Also I really hate it when people have multiple Facebook accounts, at least FOUR of them! I am not going to keep up with those accounts, and frankly How Do YOU Keep up with them. I don't know how other people use Facebook. Do they check the Friend Request Light, the Messages (envelope) light, and the Notifications (globe) light? Do they just scroll down their news feed and timeline? And why is there no way to click "Not Now" any more. One time I did not feel like approving requests at the moment so I clicked the Friend Request light and then I clicked it again and then the light turned off and stayed off. It wasn't long that "Confirm Friend Request" links started popping up all over the place where Group Suggestions normally would be. The only choices were "Confirm" and and X. What would have happened if I cliked the X. And what does "Mobile" and "App" facebook look like. The last time I used it, the Pending Friend Requests light was gone.
The last time It is very sad that people usually use "phones" to access their facebooks, Phones come with a number. USE THAT. And you have to use your phone number or an Email address to sign up for facebook. USE THE EMAIL INSTEAD. But people spend much more time on "Social" networking. I guess there isn't any "fun" games nor things to "share" with phones and emails.
Facebook won't ever go away. I remember when everybody was on Twitter all the time but now they all stopped and went back to Facebook. And make Instagram go away also.