Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
Is it me or is there an increasing amount of newbies and wannabes sending out hordes of unsolicited friend requests like never before? I like new friends just like the next person. However, I am here for creative collaborations and to run a business.
I understand the models are new and inexperienced but they seldom even bother to read a photographer’s profile before they do the “friend requests” blasts. I know they don’t read because my profile once read that I DO NOT ACCEPT RANDOM FRIEND REQUESTS without a message tag or comment. I took it out because I hate lengthy profile bios. But I see now I have to have it there for some people.
I see it as spam. But they send it anyway. My inbox gets cluttered with dozens of newbies that don’t even bother with a tag, comment, message or anything pertaining to what they want to do. They think this is Facebook or MySpace. Why MM can’t add a few lines of Javascript and tie the friend requests into the message system? It works for LinkedIn. I could do it myself if they let me into their code.
Does anyone else have a problem with random friend requests without so much as a message?
Photographer
B R U N E S C I
Posts: 25319
Bath, England, United Kingdom
Feel free to deal with friend requests however you wish. That said, most people here will disagree with your stance. This is networking site - you don't network effectively by telling people not to contact you. Just my $0.02 Ciao Stefano www.stefanobrunesci.com
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Feel free to deal with friend requests however you wish.
That said, most people here will disagree with your stance. This is networking site - you don't network effectively by telling people not to contact you.
Just my $0.02
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com Networking this way doesn't equate to business or even genuine photo shoot inquiries. In fact, it isn't even networking. You're just becoming a fake friend collector. I do not believe this site's original goal was to become a Facebook or a MySpace. You just end up with a bunch of crap eating up your inbox. No genuine leads, inquiries or even TF photo shoots that come from it. Just meaningless people (not even a real network of friends) just occupying space.
I'll take your $0.02 since that's about it's worth.
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Feel free to deal with friend requests however you wish.
That said, most people here will disagree with your stance. This is networking site - you don't network effectively by telling people not to contact you.
Just my $0.02
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com ...and you're not telling people to not contact you. You just want a genuine network of people interested in collaborating and doing something.
Photographer
B R U N E S C I
Posts: 25319
Bath, England, United Kingdom
Helios wrote:
Networking doesn't equate to business or even genuine photo shoot inquiries. Carry on telling people you don't want to hear from them.
Let me know how it works out for you 
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com
Photographer
rxz
Posts: 1093
Glen Ellyn, Illinois, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Feel free to deal with friend requests however you wish.
That said, most people here will disagree with your stance. This is networking site - you don't network effectively by telling people not to contact you.
Just my $0.02
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com
Model
Elizabeta Rosandic
Posts: 953
Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
Alright, let's take a moment to relax a little here.
I generally don't accept friend requests from people I can't potentially work with, regardless of whether or not they leave a tag or comment. IMO, tags and comments are nice, but I view them as little more than friendly notes on a person's work.
That said, having random friend requests cluttering up your inbox is not the worst thing to ever happen to anyone ever. If you don't want to 'friend' the person, you don't have to. Problem solved.
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Carry on telling people you don't want to hear from them.
Let me know how it works out for you
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com You have a beautiful work. Thanks for the "friend requests" by the way but you haven't commented, tagged, messaged or anything in regards to your intent. Are we collaborating, sharing insights or something. If we are I missed it
Photographer
nyk fury
Posts: 2976
Port Townsend, Washington, US
Helios wrote:
Is it me or is there an increasing amount of newbies and wannabes sending out hordes of unsolicited friend requests like never before? no. they just think that tacoma sounds exotic. because they've never been there. 
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
Elizabeta Rosandic wrote:
Alright, let's take a moment to relax a little here.
I generally don't accept friend requests from people I can't potentially work with, regardless of whether or not they leave a tag or comment. IMO, tags and comments are nice, but I view them as little more than friendly notes on a person's work.
That said, having random friend requests cluttering up your inbox is not the worst thing to ever happen to anyone ever. If you don't want to 'friend' the person, you don't have to. Problem solved. I'm very relaxed. In fact, I'm open to suggestions on how to handle it. Clearly people don't read profiles. It's not just limited to friend requests but many other things. It's a simple thing that I've suggested to MM to include in their UI. A bit of Javascript will improve the quality of networking and interactions I would think all of us want. Otherwise, we would all be on MySpace.
Good points.
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
nyk fury wrote:
no. they just think that tacoma sounds exotic. because they've never been there. LOL!
Photographer
rxz
Posts: 1093
Glen Ellyn, Illinois, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Feel free to deal with friend requests however you wish.
That said, most people here will disagree with your stance. This is networking site - you don't network effectively by telling people not to contact you.
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com Having or not having friends has NO impact on my ability to find and work with models. As something to facilitate networking, I find it worthless. A solid image will trump 20,000 friends.
Photographer
B R U N E S C I
Posts: 25319
Bath, England, United Kingdom
Helios wrote:
You have a beautiful work. Thanks for the "friend requests" by the way but you haven't commented, tagged, messaged or anything in regards to your intent. Are we collaborating, sharing insights or something. If we are I missed it MM admins have hinted that IB will shortly be rolling out new functionality here whereby members will be able to make more use of their 'friends'.
That could include a 'friends tab' where you could view the activity of those you're interested in following. Of course, it's a few years behind Facebook, but it could be useful.
Personally I don't see any reason NOT to accept a friend request here unless the avatar is so egregious that the mere sight of it offends me. It's not as if I have to wade through my friends' list every day to get to my inbox, for instance.
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
MM admins have hinted that IB will shortly be rolling out new functionality here whereby members will be able to make more use of their 'friends'.
That could include a 'friends tab' where you could view the activity of those you're interested in following. Of course, it's a few years behind Facebook, but it could be useful.
Personally I don't see any reason NOT to accept a friend request here unless the avatar is so egregious that the mere sight of it offends me. It's not as if I have to wade through my friends' list every day to get to my inbox, for instance.
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com Any improved functionality in this regard would be helpful. Nice to know.
Didn't mean to come off as ungrateful for your ideas before. It's just frustrating that some people don't even read the profile write ups before using the friend request button like spam email.
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
rxz wrote:
Having or not having friends has NO impact on my ability to find and work with models. As something to facilitate networking, I find it worthless. A solid image will trump 20,000 friends. I totally agree which is why I don't have many on Mayhem. The quality those friend requests are lacking anyway. Friends don't pay for shoots; clients do.
Model
Lynn Elizabeth
Posts: 1336
Palm Beach, Florida, US
select all... delete selected. Problem solved.
Photographer
Yan Tan Tethera
Posts: 4185
Biggleswade, England, United Kingdom
Helios wrote:
I totally agree which is why I don't have many on Mayhem. The quality those friend requests are lacking anyway. Friends don't pay for shoots; clients do. Best not look for clients on here then.
Or in fact let your clients take a view on what sort of professional you are from your posts here.
Photographer
Swank Photography
Posts: 19020
Key West, Florida, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Feel free to deal with friend requests however you wish.
That said, most people here will disagree with your stance. This is networking site - you don't network effectively by telling people not to contact you.
Just my $0.02
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com ^This full stop^
Listen OP...I also run a business as well. I use this place as a networking tool.
I accept friend requests from all over simply because when I travel (or they travel to my home base), then we can meet up, do a shoot, have lunch, etc.
You never know who the next top shoot or connection will come from.
Sounds to me like you might want to rethink your position on receiving friend requests.
Photographer
Swank Photography
Posts: 19020
Key West, Florida, US
Helios wrote:
Networking this way doesn't equate to business or even genuine photo shoot inquiries. In fact, it isn't even networking. You're just becoming a fake friend collector. I do not believe this site's original goal was to become a Facebook or a MySpace. You just end up with a bunch of crap eating up your inbox. No genuine leads, inquiries or even TF photo shoots that come from it. Just meaningless people (not even a real network of friends) just occupying space.
I'll take your $0.02 since that's about it's worth. Wow. Aren't you a sparkly person? And FYI...yes it does.
Don't you even use FB and Twitter for the same purpose? I do. I generate about 75-80 of my profit that way.
But in the end...it is your business. Run it/ruin it/whatever which way you deem best.
Just don't come in here griping and complaining in General Industry with a thread like this and then get butt hurt over the responses.
Photographer
RME Digital Photography
Posts: 267
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
Yan Tan Tethera wrote:
Best not look for clients on here then.
Or in fact let your clients take a view on what sort of professional you are from your posts here. I think some models think that blasting a million friend requests will get them work. Which may or may not work. It doesn't work for me unless the person is close and their avatar catches my eye. I think that they also believe that if their avatar shows up on a million friends lists that it may get viewed more. I personally rarely look at other people's friends lists.
Some people use Friends as a Favorite list. If they like your portfolio an want to follow your work its a way to keep your profile in a list. But there is a Favorites list for that. I just don't think people use it sometimes. I use Photo lists and the Favorites lists to manage ideas and people I want to follow. To me friends lists should be strictly for contacting about work.
Photographer
SPRINGHEEL
Posts: 38224
Detroit, Michigan, US
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
RME Digital Photography wrote:
I think some models think that blasting a million friend requests will get them work. Which may or may not work. It doesn't work for me unless the person is close and their avatar catches my eye. I think that they also believe that if their avatar shows up on a million friends lists that it may get viewed more. I personally rarely look at other people's friends lists.
Some people use Friends as a Favorite list. If they like your portfolio an want to follow your work its a way to keep your profile in a list. But there is a Favorites list for that. I just don't think people use it sometimes. I use Photo lists and the Favorites lists to manage ideas and people I want to follow. To me friends lists should be strictly for contacting about work. Thank you. Someone that actually gets it.
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
SPRINGHEEL wrote:
You'll live Indeed.
Photographer
Flex Photography
Posts: 6471
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
It's the Facebook mentality!
Model
Elizabeta Rosandic
Posts: 953
Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
Helios wrote:
I'm very relaxed. In fact, I'm open to suggestions on how to handle it. Clearly people don't read profiles. It's not just limited to friend requests but many other things. It's a simple thing that I've suggested to MM to include in their UI. A bit of Javascript will improve the quality of networking and interactions I would think all of us want. Otherwise, we would all be on MySpace.
Good points. You're right, people rarely read profiles. It sucks, but in this day and age, people do not like having to take the time to read stuff. Welcome to 2013.
As far as "handling" drive-by friend requests, don't add the people who you don't want to add. Handled.
MM shouldn't have to intervene to filter out friend requests for you. Only you can decide who you want to add and who you don't. Some people like collecting as many friends as possible with the drive-by thing, and that's fine too. MM can't be that particular.
Photographer
Patrick Walberg
Posts: 45198
San Juan Bautista, California, US
Chill out dudes! Damn! Such bickering and drama over nothing! You WOULD think this place was Myspace or facebook!  Social networking and business are now entwined. News has become the entertainment business. Join LinkedIn if you want to limit your social activity.
Photographer
Ed Woodson Photography
Posts: 2644
Savannah, Georgia, US
There are two options....
Accept
Decline
There now, that wasn't so hard.
Photographer
Solas
Posts: 10390
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I just added everyone in this thread.
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
As much as I'd like to read more of your responses i actually have an assignment to do in an hour. So thanks for the tips and all of your responses. Even if I don't always agree, I do respect those of you who took the time to reply.
I'm not an angry person with a gripe. I just don't care for laziness. I see friend spamming as lazy and not a person truly interested in learning about the photographer before they send out friend requests' blasts. If you are really that interested, I'm simply saying take the time to send me a message and tell me what interests you. That isn't hard. I do it when I want to work with someone. It takes all of 30 seconds. It eliminates problems on down the road for the models, clients and photographers.
But everyone has their own way. If you're getting work collecting random friends, I applaud you. Good for you. Move on. I have. It's now an old post.
Photographer
Patrick Walberg
Posts: 45198
San Juan Bautista, California, US
Elizabeta Rosandic wrote:
You're right, people rarely read profiles. It sucks, but in this day and age, people do not like having to take the time to read stuff. Welcome to 2013.
As far as "handling" drive-by friend requests, don't add the people who you don't want to add. Handled.
MM shouldn't have to intervene to filter out friend requests for you. Only you can decide who you want to add and who you don't. Some people like collecting as many friends as possible with the drive-by thing, and that's fine too. MM can't be that particular. Very well put! We do have choices. 
Photographer
Eros Fine Art Photo
Posts: 3097
Torrance, California, US
"Don't contact me...you're not one of the 'beautiful people'..."
That what this comes across as to me. Who gives a crap who sends you a friend request? I, personally, want my page seen by as many people as possible. If someone likes my work enough to send me a friend request, then why should I turn them away if they're not close to where I live or if they're not someone I would want to shoot with? Hell, they might put me on their Top 10 list on their profile, which might give other people the opportunity to see my page as well.
Also, I don't care if they're sending me a request as a way of getting exposure for themselves. If I like their look, or work (in the case of a photographer or MUA), then perhaps one day I might be inclined to work with them on a shoot. If I don't, then they'll just become one of thousands of thumbnails in my list of "Friends" here.
Either way, it's no skin off my nose. As someone else said; just hit "Select All" and either approve them or deny them. Ranting about it here is kinda' silly, don't you think?
Photographer
DOUGLASFOTOS
Posts: 10604
Los Angeles, California, US
Ed Woodson Photography wrote:
There are two options....
Accept
Decline
There now, that wasn't so hard. There are three options...the best way is do nothing..that way..those pesky friends cannot friends request again...Alex I will take Option 3 for 1000!!!! Lol
Photographer
Azimuth Arts
Posts: 1490
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
A friend request is an opening line or a wave across the room. Sometimes the other person sees it and waves back with a tag, list or comment.
I've had a few friend requests from local models, MUA etc. and they have resulted in a shoot. Likewise when I don't feel like I have something brilliant to say on a tag I will send a friend request. If they accept it, then we have an opening to send a message or tag to see if they want to shoot.
I figure if you don't like my work enough to accept my FR then you probably won't bother to read me messages or respond to a shoot offer.
I agree that when a model from Latvia sends me a friend request it's probably they are trying to collect friends. On the flip side when people who are near me who shoot in similar styles send an FR I generally accept them.
But as others have said, use them the way you like. I doubt that anyone I sent a blind FR to that was offended by it is someone I really need to work with.
And that is my $0.02 - add it to Stefano's and you might get somewhere.
Photographer
Helios
Posts: 37
Tacoma, Washington, US
DOUGLASFOTOS wrote:
There are three options...the best way is do nothing..that way..those pesky friends cannot friends request again...Alex I will take Option 3 for 1000!!!! Lol Simple and effective. Thanks.
Photographer
nyk fury
Posts: 2976
Port Townsend, Washington, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Of course, it's a few years behind Facebook, but it could be useful. which would make MM at least 10 years behind where it should be.
Photographer
Ed Woodson Photography
Posts: 2644
Savannah, Georgia, US
DOUGLASFOTOS wrote:
There are three options...the best way is do nothing..that way..those pesky friends cannot friends request again...Alex I will take Option 3 for 1000!!!! Lol Yes, that's correct. That sora falls under option 2
Photographer
nyk fury
Posts: 2976
Port Townsend, Washington, US
Azimuth Arts wrote:
A friend request is an opening line or a wave across the room. Sometimes the other person sees it and waves back with a tag, list or comment. more like a wink. if i do not feel motivated to at least leave a little tag at the same time then a friend request by itself seems almost cursory. the only exception is if we are already in communication via the forums.
Photographer
Azimuth Arts
Posts: 1490
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Karl Johnston wrote:
I just added everyone in this thread. Accepted
Photographer
Oscar Partida
Posts: 732
Palm Springs, California, US
That Italian Guy wrote:
Carry on telling people you don't want to hear from them.
Let me know how it works out for you
Ciao
Stefano
www.stefanobrunesci.com ahahaha Amen
Photographer
DOUGLASFOTOS
Posts: 10604
Los Angeles, California, US
Ed Woodson Photography wrote:
Yes, that's correct. That sora falls under option 2 Oh but wait...they can on option two...do a redo...again and again...
Do nothing.
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