Blocking Friend Requests?
HASWLRS
Posts: 8,001 Member
Just wondering if there is a way to block someone from sending you a friend request? This particular account, matthewjones232020, has sent me a friend request numerous times, and each time I decline. He's a desperate friend collector at best, and at worst (but more likely) a phishing/scamming account.
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Replies
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Report it to a staff member.
How do you know he's a friend collector? His profile isn't even public.
I mean, he's only been on the site for two weeks...maybe he has some issue with his account that's causing repeated notifications? It may be an innocent mistake.
I just Decline all friend requests. It takes like one second ::shrug::0 -
So, the answer is no, then?
You are right, I do not KNOW that he is a friend collector, but what do call someone who keeps their account completely private and sends friend requests without notes and without any previous interaction whatsoever? And "this" account may only be two weeks old, but he has been doing this for a while now.
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I accept friend request and then immediately review their feed. If they look legit, I keep them.
If they appear to collect women, I keep an eye on them. I am somewhat surprised myself that some of my male friends who have mostly female friends actually share good info and are encouraging. It just freaks me out to see a roster of hot babe friends in their feed, and then kinda wild to see them redeem themselves (and my faith in huMANity) with good participation. Of course with “62” in my user name, they’re also unlikely to send me suggestive stuff, ROTFLMAO.
If a new friend is randy, obnoxious, creepy, spamming a product, or fake, I immediately delete them.
If they come back quickly with a “hi, how are you, what are you doing, or how is your day”, I delete them. That’s just a copy and paste attempt to engage me in convo.
TBH, friend collectors usually collect from initial enthusiasm, and approach weight loss the same way. They’re the ones who eat nothing, and exercise their butts off, burn out, bitterly complain that “this isn’t working for me” or “I’ve plateaued” (after a week or three in the app 🙄) and usually vanish within a month.
The “collectors” (with a handful of irritating exceptions) are the least of the worries.2 -
So, the answer is no, then?
You are right, I do not KNOW that he is a friend collector, but what do call someone who keeps their account completely private and sends friend requests without notes and without any previous interaction whatsoever? And "this" account may only be two weeks old, but he has been doing this for a while now.
It is a little sus since he has never posted in the forums, I agrre. So like I said, report him to a staff member or moderator. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10028709/meet-our-community-team#latest
..for the record, I don't think it's possible to send messages with friend requests anymore? At least that's what I've read on here...dunno, I don't do the friend thing anymore. I just deny all requests.
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@cmriverside tons of people who are active as “friends” don’t ever post in the forums (sad, because I totally credit the boards for helping me out the other side of weight loss and feel like folks are seriously missing an opportunity when they don’t).
And no, you can’t send folks messages with friends requests, thanks to the pornbots a couple years ago. So if you’re getting friends requests with no messages, that’s why. You can pour your heart out to a potential friend and it all just goes poof! into the ether.
They keep saying they’re going to remove the box but it still hasn’t been done.4 -
springlering62 wrote: »@cmriverside tons of people who are active as “friends” don’t ever post in the forums (sad, because I totally credit the boards for helping me out the other side of weight loss and feel like folks are seriously missing an opportunity when they don’t).
And no, you can’t send folks messages with friends requests, thanks to the pornbots a couple years ago. So if you’re getting friends requests with no messages, that’s why. You can pour your heart out to a potential friend and it all just goes poof! into the ether.
They keep saying they’re going to remove the box but it still hasn’t been done.
How are these people finding you to become friends? From other peoples' friend lists or wall posts? Then I wouldn't "friend" them either.
That's like creeper facebook friend things from someone who knows someone who used to be in high school with someone's ex husband. Um. No.0 -
cmriverside wrote: »So, the answer is no, then?
You are right, I do not KNOW that he is a friend collector, but what do call someone who keeps their account completely private and sends friend requests without notes and without any previous interaction whatsoever? And "this" account may only be two weeks old, but he has been doing this for a while now.
It is a little sus since he has never posted in the forums, I agrre. So like I said, report him to a staff member or moderator. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10028709/meet-our-community-team#latest
..for the record, I don't think it's possible to send messages with friend requests anymore? At least that's what I've read on here...dunno, I don't do the friend thing anymore. I just deny all requests.
Thanks for your insight.0 -
springlering62 wrote: »I accept friend request and then immediately review their feed. If they look legit, I keep them.
If they appear to collect women, I keep an eye on them. I am somewhat surprised myself that some of my male friends who have mostly female friends actually share good info and are encouraging. It just freaks me out to see a roster of hot babe friends in their feed, and then kinda wild to see them redeem themselves (and my faith in huMANity) with good participation. Of course with “62” in my user name, they’re also unlikely to send me suggestive stuff, ROTFLMAO.
If a new friend is randy, obnoxious, creepy, spamming a product, or fake, I immediately delete them.
If they come back quickly with a “hi, how are you, what are you doing, or how is your day”, I delete them. That’s just a copy and paste attempt to engage me in convo.
TBH, friend collectors usually collect from initial enthusiasm, and approach weight loss the same way. They’re the ones who eat nothing, and exercise their butts off, burn out, bitterly complain that “this isn’t working for me” or “I’ve plateaued” (after a week or three in the app 🙄) and usually vanish within a month.
The “collectors” (with a handful of irritating exceptions) are the least of the worries.
Thanks for your insight, too!0 -
cmriverside wrote: »So, the answer is no, then?
You are right, I do not KNOW that he is a friend collector, but what do call someone who keeps their account completely private and sends friend requests without notes and without any previous interaction whatsoever? And "this" account may only be two weeks old, but he has been doing this for a while now.
It is a little sus since he has never posted in the forums, I agrre. So like I said, report him to a staff member or moderator. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10028709/meet-our-community-team#latest
..for the record, I don't think it's possible to send messages with friend requests anymore? At least that's what I've read on here...dunno, I don't do the friend thing anymore. I just deny all requests.
I just joined, and I WAS able to send a message with a friend request.1 -
EricTaladega wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »So, the answer is no, then?
You are right, I do not KNOW that he is a friend collector, but what do call someone who keeps their account completely private and sends friend requests without notes and without any previous interaction whatsoever? And "this" account may only be two weeks old, but he has been doing this for a while now.
It is a little sus since he has never posted in the forums, I agrre. So like I said, report him to a staff member or moderator. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10028709/meet-our-community-team#latest
..for the record, I don't think it's possible to send messages with friend requests anymore? At least that's what I've read on here...dunno, I don't do the friend thing anymore. I just deny all requests.
I just joined, and I WAS able to send a message with a friend request.
You can send it, but the requested friend doesn’t see it. That’s thanks to an issue a couple of years ago with somebody (or “somebot”) who was sending porn link messages, in bulk, via friend requests.
It was utter chaos, so they ended up having to block all messages attached to new friend requests.
I’m going to hazard a guess here maybe I was your friend? I got the request but no message.
Brownie points for mentioning pre-logging, my new friend.
The whole pornbot thing reminds me, too, if you get a request with a T&A profile pic, that’s usually not a good indicator either . 😂 But boy did we have some doozies back in the day…..They do a MUCH better job of controlling that these days.
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Just wondering if there is a way to block someone from sending you a friend request? This particular account, matthewjones232020, has sent me a friend request numerous times, and each time I decline. He's a desperate friend collector at best, and at worst (but more likely) a phishing/scamming account.
On the website, if you click on the person's profile, there's a head-and-shoulders generic image of a person to the right of their name, with a drop-down-menu triangle you can click on with "ignore" as an option. It's possible it just keeps you from seeing their posts in the boards, but it seems like it's worth trying.1 -
Pretty sure that’s the same account I was warned off by another user and had started getting messages that didn’t make logical sense eg said one thing but the way the message was written implied another etc I soon blocked/deleted it.1
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »Just wondering if there is a way to block someone from sending you a friend request? This particular account, matthewjones232020, has sent me a friend request numerous times, and each time I decline. He's a desperate friend collector at best, and at worst (but more likely) a phishing/scamming account.
On the website, if you click on the person's profile, there's a head-and-shoulders generic image of a person to the right of their name, with a drop-down-menu triangle you can click on with "ignore" as an option. It's possible it just keeps you from seeing their posts in the boards, but it seems like it's worth trying.
Don't they have to have a forum post to do that, though? If I just go to someone's profile page, there is no way to block them on their profile page. You can block people who send personal messages, but I don't know if that blocks them from sending a friend request. I don't think she mentioned if matthewjones232020 is sending messages. As far as I know "Blocking" only blocks me from seeing someone's forum posts and I still [might] have to block them in personal messages. Not sure about that.
**edit to say**
I found that I can add to my Ignore List (on the web version) without the user having any forum activity by typing their name on my Ignore List page: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/profile/ignore
Still don't know if that would block a friend request, but it's something.
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I don’t remember how, but I was able to block requests by a user who has several thousand friends, and uses MFP as social media rather than a weight loss method.
I’d added her, and then realized her frequent and lengthy posts were all about her personal problems which was TMI for me, so I deleted her. Apparently she tracks her thousands of friends and goes off if someone deletes her but…. Outta sight outta mind, ya know.
I got several more requests to add her back. I don’t know if it was the multiple declines that prevented more, but I vaguely remember seeing “block requests” from this user after multiple tries. Im on iOS app, FWIW.
maybe we can get a mod to join this thread?
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cmriverside wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »Just wondering if there is a way to block someone from sending you a friend request? This particular account, matthewjones232020, has sent me a friend request numerous times, and each time I decline. He's a desperate friend collector at best, and at worst (but more likely) a phishing/scamming account.
On the website, if you click on the person's profile, there's a head-and-shoulders generic image of a person to the right of their name, with a drop-down-menu triangle you can click on with "ignore" as an option. It's possible it just keeps you from seeing their posts in the boards, but it seems like it's worth trying.
Don't they have to have a forum post to do that, though? If I just go to someone's profile page, there is no way to block them on their profile page. You can block people who send personal messages, but I don't know if that blocks them from sending a friend request. I don't think she mentioned if matthewjones232020 is sending messages. As far as I know "Blocking" only blocks me from seeing someone's forum posts and I still [might] have to block them in personal messages. Not sure about that.
**edit to say**
I found that I can add to my Ignore List (on the web version) without the user having any forum activity by typing their name on my Ignore List page: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/profile/ignore
Still don't know if that would block a friend request, but it's something.
Thanks for that link. I entered his name.
No, I never got any messages from him because I never accepted his requests. That's why I never went as far as reporting him, because he technically hadn't done anything wrong. Until, just the other day after I made this thread, I decided to accept his request to see if his profile revealed anything else. It did not. It is still completely private. Then I deleted him. Not long after I got another request from him! I still have that request pending. I figured if I never accept it, he also can't keep sending them, because it will be "pending" if he tries!1 -
I am on my laptop. I have the app on my iPhone, but I don't do much with MFP on there.0
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cmriverside wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »Just wondering if there is a way to block someone from sending you a friend request? This particular account, matthewjones232020, has sent me a friend request numerous times, and each time I decline. He's a desperate friend collector at best, and at worst (but more likely) a phishing/scamming account.
On the website, if you click on the person's profile, there's a head-and-shoulders generic image of a person to the right of their name, with a drop-down-menu triangle you can click on with "ignore" as an option. It's possible it just keeps you from seeing their posts in the boards, but it seems like it's worth trying.
Don't they have to have a forum post to do that, though? If I just go to someone's profile page, there is no way to block them on their profile page. You can block people who send personal messages, but I don't know if that blocks them from sending a friend request. I don't think she mentioned if matthewjones232020 is sending messages. As far as I know "Blocking" only blocks me from seeing someone's forum posts and I still [might] have to block them in personal messages. Not sure about that.
**edit to say**
I found that I can add to my Ignore List (on the web version) without the user having any forum activity by typing their name on my Ignore List page: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/profile/ignore
Still don't know if that would block a friend request, but it's something.
Thanks for that link. I entered his name.
No, I never got any messages from him because I never accepted his requests. That's why I never went as far as reporting him, because he technically hadn't done anything wrong. Until, just the other day after I made this thread, I decided to accept his request to see if his profile revealed anything else. It did not. It is still completely private. Then I deleted him. Not long after I got another request from him! I still have that request pending. I figured if I never accept it, he also can't keep sending them, because it will be "pending" if he tries!
To me, that sounds like a programming error.
Have you done a Support ticket? I mean, how would he know that you had declined his invitation? There is no way for the sender to know that (unless he's stalking you in the forums, I guess, and saw this thread - but that seems really over-the-top.) So maybe there is something "stuck" somewhere. That sounds like a computer/programming problem or that he is really a bot.
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cmriverside wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »Just wondering if there is a way to block someone from sending you a friend request? This particular account, matthewjones232020, has sent me a friend request numerous times, and each time I decline. He's a desperate friend collector at best, and at worst (but more likely) a phishing/scamming account.
On the website, if you click on the person's profile, there's a head-and-shoulders generic image of a person to the right of their name, with a drop-down-menu triangle you can click on with "ignore" as an option. It's possible it just keeps you from seeing their posts in the boards, but it seems like it's worth trying.
Don't they have to have a forum post to do that, though? If I just go to someone's profile page, there is no way to block them on their profile page. You can block people who send personal messages, but I don't know if that blocks them from sending a friend request. I don't think she mentioned if matthewjones232020 is sending messages. As far as I know "Blocking" only blocks me from seeing someone's forum posts and I still [might] have to block them in personal messages. Not sure about that.
**edit to say**
I found that I can add to my Ignore List (on the web version) without the user having any forum activity by typing their name on my Ignore List page: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/profile/ignore
Still don't know if that would block a friend request, but it's something.
Thanks for that link. I entered his name.
No, I never got any messages from him because I never accepted his requests. That's why I never went as far as reporting him, because he technically hadn't done anything wrong. Until, just the other day after I made this thread, I decided to accept his request to see if his profile revealed anything else. It did not. It is still completely private. Then I deleted him. Not long after I got another request from him! I still have that request pending. I figured if I never accept it, he also can't keep sending them, because it will be "pending" if he tries!
To me, that sounds like a programming error.
Have you done a Support ticket? I mean, how would he know that you had declined his invitation? There is no way for the sender to know that (unless he's stalking you in the forums, I guess, and saw this thread - but that seems really over-the-top.) So maybe there is something "stuck" somewhere. That sounds like a computer/programming problem or that he is really a bot.
That's true, he wouldn't know if I declined his request. A few of my other friends got requests from him a few weeks ago. It does kind of sound like he is a bot. I really wasn't trying to make a big deal out of this. Just thought I would ask if there was a simple way to block requests. Deleting them isn't a big deal and getting them is just a little annoying. For now, though, he'll be "pending" so I can just ignore it/him.
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Please, if someone does something objectively bad (obvious unsolicited flirtation/inappropriate messages, abuse, stalking, whatever) . . . please don't just block them. Report them.
You can report to MFP staff via the post linked above (https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10028709/meet-our-community-team#latest) or report via the Help page. You can send DMs to the actual MFP staff people even if you aren't friends with them on MFP.
IME, MFP is pretty good about investigating reports of actual bad behavior, and getting rid of bad actors.
Please report them, don't just let them move on to other victims. They will not be told who reported them (and you will not be told what was done about them, either, I believe).0 -
I only send friend requests if I see that they have asked for friends and support. I dont always add a comment though. I’ve been getting repeated requests from 1 guy too, don’t want male friends after being harassed, so I keep declining. Sorry I’m not much help x1
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Who ever it is, has been sending me repeated friend requests for a month or longer. I decline, but keep getting them. The only way to block it would be if he had his profile set to public and then we could click on the triangle and click ignore. I haven't found any way to block the requests. Could be legit, but there is no way for me to investigate because I don't want to take any chances a accept the request & start seeing porn images. So many of us were getting porn images a while back and I am not about to go down that road again.0
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ginnaboots wrote: »Who ever it is, has been sending me repeated friend requests for a month or longer. I decline, but keep getting them. The only way to block it would be if he had his profile set to public and then we could click on the triangle and click ignore. I haven't found any way to block the requests. Could be legit, but there is no way for me to investigate because I don't want to take any chances a accept the request & start seeing porn images. So many of us were getting porn images a while back and I am not about to go down that road again.
There's a "Block User" option that you can apply to a friend request. (In web MFP, it's in the options under the 3 dots at the top right of the friend request on the invitations page. If it exists in the phone/tablet app, I don't know where.)
I know that if you "block user" on someone who's sent you a DM (i.e., they're already a friend), it's supposed to stop them sending you DMs, but doesn't unfriend them. I'm not 100% sure whether the "block user" on the friend requests stops them from sending you future friend requests, but I think it's supposed to.
The "Ignore" in the Community profile on MFP just affects Community posts, I believe - if you "ignore" a user that way, it hides their future posts in the Community from you. I don't think it affects the friend request part of MFP.0
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