Polite responses to "why did you defriend my husband?"

[CakeEater]

I'd guess that I have about half my friends list hidden.

I'm happy to be 'friends', occasionally I go their walls and see if I'm missing anything, I'm happy for them to see my stuff, I just don't want to read their stuff.

Seems like the least offensive way to manage things for me.

[Twik]

That's ridiculous. How does he know if you only log on to Facebook once a day and you miss that crucial "minute time frame" that he's monitoring statuses?

I doubt he really cares. He's copied and pasted this from someone else. The actual results don't matter, it's the warm fuzzy feeling that "he supports friendship!!1!" that counts.

[Seraphia]

To me, Facebook is sort of the online equivalent of a big social function, like an open house. Some people invite the whole neighborhood, some people just invite close friends and family. Once they're all in your house/feed, you can listen to all the conversations your friends are having, and have conversations with them. I unsubscribe when I'm tired of listening to a person's conversations, but I don't want to go through the trouble of kicking them out of my "house" by unfriending them, just for being annoying.

Sometimes I check back in, to see if they've gotten better about the drama-mongering, sales pitches, quotation pictures etc. But I don't usually defriend unless their behavior is really egregious.

[Carpathia]

I think that, in the absence of a spine (can't remember where I put it...), it is probably easier for me to just quietly ignore future friend requests from people I don't really want on my FB. If asked "why haven't you responded to my request" I'll just have to say something along the lines of "sorry, must have missed it" and bean dip and do this each time until they take the hint.

I would prefer my FB to be people I actually talk to IRL along with friends and family who I want to keep up-to-date with but who don't live locally. I really don't like having friends-of-husband whom I don't know well and people such as colleagues-who-are-not-friends.

It's just so hard to ignore requests as I feel like I'm being rude for not accepting!

[Seraphia]

I think that, in the absence of a spine (can't remember where I put it...), it is probably easier for me to just quietly ignore future friend requests from people I don't really want on my FB. If asked "why haven't you responded to my request" I'll just have to say something along the lines of "sorry, must have missed it" and bean dip and do this each time until they take the hint.

I would prefer my FB to be people I actually talk to IRL along with friends and family who I want to keep up-to-date with but who don't live locally. I really don't like having friends-of-husband whom I don't know well and people such as colleagues-who-are-not-friends.

It's just so hard to ignore requests as I feel like I'm being rude for not accepting!

Don't feel bad. It's your page, you can choose who you add. If they ask why you turned them down or didn't add them, there's no reason you can't say "sorry, but I keep my page limited to family and a few close friends."

[JenJay]

I'm another one who adds most people but "unsubscribes" to the majority so I don't get their updates. I will ocasionally spend a couple of hours browsing my friends list and catching up. I also block all game requests, both from the game itself and future requests from the person. I never repost statuses. Well, okay, I'm guilty of reposting the sarcastic ones. 

[NotTheNarcissist]

Based on what you have shared, I would unfriend him. I unfriended about 90 people last fall & it was a great feeling, very freeing. I rarely add friends anymore unless they are super hard to get a hold of any other way.

Also on the 'hide' updates thing, it works great on a normal browser but on iPad & iPhone i noticed that the ones I've hidden display in the feed anyway in spite of the setting.