Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Poll: Should I accept Facebook friend requests from strangers?

I've had a few interesting friend requests on Facebook lately. All have come from people I've never met or worked with. I've never interacted with them in any way. And I've never even heard of them, to the best of my recollection. They put the "Total" into "Total Stranger". (I'd say they put the "Strange" in there, but I'm reserving judgment.)

Friends of mine may have recommended they contact me and ask to be friends. Or, maybe not. Maybe they just think I'm globally influential. Or really hot.

These people range from someone who went to the same college as me (within a year of me), to a record company executive with an impressive resume.

I may have been recommended to the former by some mutual alum, but I never got a Facebook notification about it... just the straight-up friend request.

The latter — the music industry man — has something like 2,300 people on his Friends List. Now, although I happen to have a couple of shiny sales awards on my wall, I really doubt I can be of any business-networking aid to this fellow... since I haven't done anything musical in something like a decade. And I never was "in the business." Which makes me wonder why he would send a friend request to this particular stranger. I mean, my profile page isn't one of those "celeb" things where people collect "fans". On the other hand, we do have 6 mutual friends, from two totally different circles in the entertainment industry. Again, no friend referral notice... just the out-of-the-blue request.

My notion of the Facebook profile and the Friends List has always been that you only add people you know personally. And people who are willing to tolerate your idiosyncrasies — or the flip side of that coin, people with whom you're probably relaxed enough to be yourself.

If I expand my FBFL sphere to allow anyone who asks — spammers excluded — should I / will I have to start editing my profile to make it super-businesslike, for fear of random funny posts besmirching my ever-so-serious [*koff*] industry rep?

So my poll question is this: Who do you accept as a Facebook Friend? And/or what would you suggest I set as my standard?

1) Only the people who know where the bodies are buried— and brought a shovel.
2) Fellow gravediggers, plus hearty party partners.
3) Gravediggers, party partners, plus anyone who can pimp my career.
4) Gravediggers, party partners, career pimps, plus casual hand-shakers
5) Anyone who has enough computer skill to click on my name— except spammers.
6) Every Tom, Dick or Harriett who sends the word "Friend" to within a 1,000-mile radius of me.

What say you? Insular, promiscuous, or somewhere in between?

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