Have you ever hated to “Ignore” a Facebook Friend Request? Well now you don’t have to “Ignore” them you can “Not Now” someone and send them to Purgatory instead! But watch out you may be worse off than you think!
Confirm / Not Now
Till now if you received a friend request and you did nothing, that request would be there every time you looked, with that face, staring at you saying…”Please be my friend!?!?”, then you had to keep asking what do I do, “IGNORE” them again or finally accept their friend request. In many cases you probably just let it sit there and did nothing and if that’s the case you in fact “IGNORED” the request all together. OK not the same type of Ignore as Facebook’s “Ignore” but “IGNORE” none the less and not only did you “IGNORE” the request but the person as well…really you did, because when once someone sent you a request, it also gave them certain access to your posts, unless of course you hit the “IGNORE” button, that is. It might be crazy but I think Facebook has a staff of Psychologists working with them, letting them the least invasive ways to reach people. No one wants to “IGNORE” some one as it seems so harsh, in fact, doesn’t it sound similar the less invasive “Like” button instead of the follow button. What’s next, when it comes to donating through Facebook are they going to call it a gift…oh wait, they are already doing that.
Facebook - Pergatory the Abyss or Both?
So, what does this change do for you? Well click “Not Now” and it send the request to a Requests page or as some may call it “Purgatory”, considering they will remain there until YOU decide what you want to do with them. Unfortunately, leaving them there will allow them to see things that “Everyone” can see yet it will block them from making any further friend requests or at least until you go to the Requests page and confirm them later on. Now if you just want to deny a person’s request without blocking them, you have to go to where Facebook sends the “Not Now” people, the Requests page or as I like to call it, “Purgatory”. How do you get someone out of Purgatory? Well it’s not easy, you have to head deep into the abyss of Facebook…
First, from your Home Screen, head to Friends then select Find Friends (Start at your Profile Page and select “See All” then Find Friends you won’t find it) and under Requests at the top of the page select Hidden Requests where FINALLY you can then select Confirm or Delete Request. WOW that’s a lot, my guess is most people will not take the time and simply select something not knowing the ultimate result, either becoming your “Friend” or “Purgatory”.
It seems that TechCrunch and Inside Facebook anticipate that because “Purgatory” is so hard to find, that people will just Confirm a Friend Request thus having additional people following you. That’s great if you’re someone who is doing internet marketing or looking to BRAID Your Brand (which most people on Facebook are becoming) but not so great for internet security and having more people than you want seeing your personal information. Even though some seem to feel that way, my thought is people will simply click the Not Now button more often than not, just pushing it off until later. Oh wait, remember what was previously mentioned? Sending them there will allow them to see all the information “Everyone” is allowed to see as Facebook starts sending your information into that person’s News Feed with out you even knowing. So if you don’t want someone to see your info, you need to take the steps to find them and select Delete Request.
While, Facebook feels this feature will help with excess Friend Requests from the same person over and over again even after you have “Facebook Ignored” them in the past. I think they should add what TechCrunch suggests, a Bock button.
Heck put three buttons, Confirm, Block and Ignore but Facebook please stop, with every change, giving everyone’s information to “Everyone”!
