Some people are a little shy and need to befriend a nice person to help get hooked into the community. I'm not sure that goes for everyone, but that's what it was like for me. Eventually I started meeting people in chat and I felt more secure. But in the beginning, I had no idea how to get started. Some members who accepted my early requests are now true friends. The others who accepted, but with whom I don't socialize much, do no harm. Of course by now I also consider myself "true friends" with some people whom I never "technically befriended," and just about everyone else I have encountered here falls somewhere in the spectrum between "quite friendly with me" and "quietly tolerant of me." With this, I think I am content.

When people I don't know friend request me, at least on Facebook, I don't accept right away. Instead, I send them a message first to see if/how I know them. However, I don't expect to know anyone on this site so I would simply accept and then send a friendly introduction letter to them and hope it took off into a good conversation.