Before you start reading this, we want you to know that this process will take less time than it does to read it. Once you do this procedure a few times, you will see it takes less than 3 minutes to process each friend request.
If your habit is to accept friend requests because there is a high number of mutual friends or because you have good friends who already accepted them, please stop doing that. If you aren't willing to stop doing that, stop reading because the rest of this post will be of no use to you.
If you get many friend requests per day, it is very tempting to save time and go right down the list and click CONFIRM on every one of them. But don't do that.
By accepting them without looking them over, you are telling your friends that they are OK to friend. There are people who will send friend requests to 'anyone' whether they have a common interest or not. There are people who may think your profile picture is pretty so they send you a friend request, but they don't play your games and you have nothing in common with them. If your account is primarily for games, not for social friends, then you are going to end up with people occupying a friend space that would be better for a gamer. Don't accept friend requests without looking them over FIRST.
If you get many friend requests per day, it is very tempting to save time and go right down the list and click CONFIRM on every one of them. But don't do that.
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| Look them over, and delete those you don't want. |
By accepting them without looking them over, you are telling your friends that they are OK to friend. There are people who will send friend requests to 'anyone' whether they have a common interest or not. There are people who may think your profile picture is pretty so they send you a friend request, but they don't play your games and you have nothing in common with them. If your account is primarily for games, not for social friends, then you are going to end up with people occupying a friend space that would be better for a gamer. Don't accept friend requests without looking them over FIRST.
Far too many players confirm friend requests without looking them over and they are the same people who are later complaining that they don't know why they are getting so many strange friend requests, or that they are getting friend requests from Scammers, or that they are getting friend requests that have porn on their accounts.
Just because your friends accepted their request doesn't mean they checked them out and found them to be OK. They probably accepted them because they saw that many of their friends had also accepted them.
Do your own homework.
Check their Facebook account out for everything - from the good to the bad to the very bad.
When you receive a friend request from ANYONE, make sure you check all the major arteries.
When you receive a friend request from ANYONE, make sure you check all the major arteries.
- LIKES list
- Profile Picture
- Timeline posts (Content and last date)
- Photo albums content
- Group list
- Friends List
- About, Intro and Bio sections
1. LIKES LIST
Start with the obvious. If their profile picture is an avatar for your game, immediately go check their LIKES List to make sure your game is on it. Look everywhere for evidence that they play your game.
Notice the nature of the other LIKES on the list. If there are Pages for porn or sex topics, you can expect to get friend requests for people who have that topic on their LIKES list too - even though you don't.
It's because Facebook puts friend suggestions in your sidebar who are grouped according to LIKES and how many mutual friends there are to you.
Let's try to explain this another way so you know how important it is to vet your friend requests before accepting them. Let's say your new friend Sam plays your game and is also a motorcycle enthusiast. Because Sam is a new friend to you, all your friends will be seeing Sam's name as a friend suggestion in their sidebars with you being the only mutual - whether they like motorcycles or whether they play your game or not.
You, on the other hand, will start to see friend suggestions for people who are motorcycle enthusiasts who most likely don't play your game. They will be people on Sam's friends list and on the friends lists of his friends. For your non-gaming friends who have no interest in motorcycles, they will wonder why they are getting Sam as a suggestion. It's because he has you.
Facebook isn't going to make sure that every friend suggestion plays your games. They are in the business of matching similar LIKES to help people make connections. Facebook's robot looks at LIKES and Interests - of yours and of your friends and makes suggestions for connections. This is why it is important to be discriminating in who you accept.
Notice the nature of the other LIKES on the list. If there are Pages for porn or sex topics, you can expect to get friend requests for people who have that topic on their LIKES list too - even though you don't.
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| Sooner after friending, you will get suggestions based on this guy's LIKES, just because you accepted his friend request. |
It's because Facebook puts friend suggestions in your sidebar who are grouped according to LIKES and how many mutual friends there are to you.
Let's try to explain this another way so you know how important it is to vet your friend requests before accepting them. Let's say your new friend Sam plays your game and is also a motorcycle enthusiast. Because Sam is a new friend to you, all your friends will be seeing Sam's name as a friend suggestion in their sidebars with you being the only mutual - whether they like motorcycles or whether they play your game or not.
You, on the other hand, will start to see friend suggestions for people who are motorcycle enthusiasts who most likely don't play your game. They will be people on Sam's friends list and on the friends lists of his friends. For your non-gaming friends who have no interest in motorcycles, they will wonder why they are getting Sam as a suggestion. It's because he has you.
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| To dismiss someone as a friend suggestions, click REMOVE. This also takes your name off their end so they don't continue to see your name as their suggestion. |
Facebook isn't going to make sure that every friend suggestion plays your games. They are in the business of matching similar LIKES to help people make connections. Facebook's robot looks at LIKES and Interests - of yours and of your friends and makes suggestions for connections. This is why it is important to be discriminating in who you accept.
If they don't have your game listed on their LIKES, you might want to stop vetting them and not check any further. But you have to remember that some people only show the games to their Friends. Some people don't want to have LIKES for games on their list because of privacy for employment or family.
In that case, you can accept their friend request, and see if they have the games on their LIKES list after friending.
It's important to know that because you were a friend to them - even for five minutes - your friends will now get their name as a suggestion in sidebars. The way to remedy that - if you care at all - is to block them after you unfriend them. This cuts your connection to them and removes their name from the sidebars of your friends.
2. Check their name.
Make sure that a male name matches a male profile and that a female name matches a female profile. Notice the gender. If the account has a male name but has female profile pictures, or vice versa, you should be moving on to your next friend request. They aren't confused on their gender -- they are masquerading as someone they don't want others to discover who they are. It was their dumb luck that they didn't know enough to change the gender to match the name they picked out to use.
3. Check their timeline.
- On male profiles, you are looking to make sure there's not a majority of female friends, looking for posts and photos that might be against your views or morals, for posts/photos of glamour girl types with "come hither" type of invitations, for those posting as sex bloggers, anything with scam tags, for regular or scammy posts or photos that have excessive tagging of others, for neighborhood check-ins, for sex video invitations, or any questionable videos.
- On female profiles, you are looking for a majority of men friends, for posts and photos that might be against your views or morals, for neighborhood check-ins, for shares of social Apps like nametests dot com, scammy posts tagging their friends, shares of various Pages and websites. These are all precursors to getting scammed or hacked.
- On both genders, in addition to all of the above, you are looking to see if there is an empty "Status box" at top of timeline which allows others to post directly on their timeline. Allowing others to post on your timeline is a back door for hackers to get into an account because they are exposed - not locked down. Coupled with other unsafe security measures, they are very susceptible to getting hacked.
- Look at the timeline for Public posts for your game - and anything else that they posted as Public. Thoroughly check their timeline for content, scroll down at least one full year of posts - if you don't like what you see, delete friend request, block them, and move on.
- Notice the date on the last timeline post in 'their own" name -- before and after friending. If it is 3 months or more, this doesn't mean they are inactive - after all, they just sent you a friend request! It means they probably play their games, talk in their groups or use Messenger far more than they post on timeline.
After you accept them, don't forget to go back to their timeline and see what they posted for Friends setting. Some people show one side of themselves at Public view, and really let their hair down at Friends view.
4. Look over their photo albums. All of them.
You are looking for photos that you find objectionable, photos that have a lot of tagged names, photos related to porn, super-tagging, Scam photos and tags, lots of check-in locations, changing of their profile picture several times a week (a precursor to being hacked), and if the photos are mostly posted and/or tagged by other people. If they are overzealous in tagging their friends and family on posts or pictures, you can expect them to do it to you too.
5. Look to see if they are a member of your groups.
Are they active in your groups or are they wallflowers? Do they friend only in your groups or do they send to anyone? When you are looking at their timeline, see if they are asking for friend requests. Do they suggest others for friending? Look at timeline for Public posts for the game - and anything else that they posted as Public.
After you accept them, don't forget to go back to their timeline and see what they posted for Friends posts
6. Look through their friends list.
If their friends list is set to ONLY ME, you will only see the names of "mutual friends" - people that you both have as friends. If their list is set to Public or Friends of Friends, then you will see the whole list of names. You are looking for hacked or deactivated accounts. I have found those kinds of accounts this way - long before I ever saw them on my own account because I look at the friends lists of other people more than I ever look at my own.
7. Look to see what is posted under About, Intro and Bio sections.
You are mostly looking for any kind of evidence that they play your games. Often players will use the name of the game as their employment, as a nickname, or their school.
But you are also looking to see if they are going to be a safe friend. That means look to see if they show their phone number, screen names for other social medias, their address, a long list of previous residences or employment, live links to family members and their relation status.
Anyone who reveals that information is a hack waiting to happen. If you are on their friends list, you are on the hacker's radar simply because you are a friend. Anyone who lays it all out there on social media should be avoided at all costs.
If you are happy with your findings, accept their friend request, send them a game gift.
For the next few weeks, keep an eye on your sidebar to see what kind of friend suggestions are being offered to you. When the topics cross over to something you find objectionable, you will know to look over who you recently accepted as a new friend.
But you are also looking to see if they are going to be a safe friend. That means look to see if they show their phone number, screen names for other social medias, their address, a long list of previous residences or employment, live links to family members and their relation status.
Anyone who reveals that information is a hack waiting to happen. If you are on their friends list, you are on the hacker's radar simply because you are a friend. Anyone who lays it all out there on social media should be avoided at all costs.
If you are happy with your findings, accept their friend request, send them a game gift.
For the next few weeks, keep an eye on your sidebar to see what kind of friend suggestions are being offered to you. When the topics cross over to something you find objectionable, you will know to look over who you recently accepted as a new friend.
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