I hide stuff on my profile because it's my profile, my personal space. I participate on here by asking and answering questions. But haven't posted anything in a long time because I am busy replying to messages from good friends on here plus Im busy offline. Everyone has the right to be quiet or active on here.

I'm not bothered if people hide their friends list, everyone's entitled to some privacy or anonymity here.
I base my trust on what they post and how they respond to other users posts.
Difficult to do thst if they have no posts.
There's a lot of people pretending to be something they're obviously not, and a lot of people who throw their oddities right out there for all to see with no inclination to be subtle. But that's what the mute and block buttons are for. I don't interact much via direct messaging, but the handful I do speak to on there seem genuinely good people.

Nope, I wouldn't trust them a bit. Our profile page, IMO, is here for a reason. It's here to let other people know WHO we are and WHAT our interests are. People who visit out profile pages can then decide if they want to comment on our posts, etc.

When a person follows me and I know absolutely nothing about them, I visit their profile page, and if it is blank and the person is hiding everything, I do NOT follow them back.

And thankfully, NO one can DM me unless I DM them first.

Some people with seemingly no or few friends often have a few very close friends instead and a high level of privacy towards everyone else. So you'll never know unless you get close to them. I wouldn't let someone's number of friends affect how much I trust them, I base my trust from the interactions I have with them.

It's nice to see a friends list if only to see if they choose a specific age group as friends / followers.

I do though fully respect everyone's right to anonymity.

I mostly avoid those with no posts although not a strict rule.

Friends less so than those who hide their age, gender, how long they been here, etc...cause that could be someone trying with a new account that I blocked to start over.

Some have nothing showing and that can be a minor red flag for me but like others have said this can be more of a one on one chat place than postings like this.

I understand why people hide their friends lists—it’s often to protect those friends. But I generally don’t get into sharing private messages unless we’ve previously interacted on the Q&A. In fact, private messages don’t come to my main mailbox unless I’ve already friended the person.

I'm a little annoyed by the ones who only want to communicate via PM's. If you don't talk to me on the posts as well it's kind of a red flag lol

This place is very hard to figure out lately at one time we all knew each other because we all came from aa now defunct site called the Experience Project, now most have left and a younger group pf people have joined most are anonymous with no posts and no friends. Most of my friends are not even on my friend's list... I very seldom interact with people that are on my list... That said i love to chat and make new real friends....

I honestly don't know how to add friends on here and I've never even thought about it, if I have any saved it's probably by accident, I'm still learning to navigate like sometimes I try to respond to a message from someone and I end up on their page rather than in my inbox so I pray that people don't think I'm stalking, if I end up on your pages I probably got lost trying to do something totally different, so I couldn't tell you whether mine is hidden or not. There's just a handful of people that I talk to on a daily basis and I've never looked at their friends list because I feel it's not my business.

There is only so much trust I give anybody .. on SW or my in-person life. It can grow over time, but there are some ~ hard boundaries. Some family gets considerably more, but have even been burned there before.

No it doesnt

It only bothers me when i get a message saying 'hi' when ive never interacted with them. I dont mind messags but at least have personality tbh. I also hate long messages to. I know that sounds harsh but i cant read them on my phone properly.
Not anyones fault. Its just a bit much for me

I don’t show my friends because I’m not sure if they want that. I don’t pm so that’s another thing. Most know if we would pm or not.

I'd be suspicious if they had 10k and more profile views and no posts and no/hidden replies to posts on the boards. No friends, or hidden friends list can be out of so many reasons. People conduct their profile in so many ways.

I'm wary at first, certainly, when people's security settings are so tight I can't see any history - but I don't refuse to chat, unless they act even more strangely than me! 🤣

I don't even look at anyone's friends list or groups they belong to.
If they are not derogatory or obnoxious, and they post something interesting to me, I my "like" or comment. If they post something I don't like or am not interested in, I "scroll on by".

Certain ones, yes. I mean, not everyone is extroverted enough to post anything at all really, they stay lowkey and that's fine with me.

My profile isn't private in any way, but I haven't posted anything for a while. I'm more of a grazer than a planter. But when I see a private profile, I usually go to not trusting the person. What do they have to hide?

The annoying 'Hi' DM from someone with no posts/friends, few forum subscriptions and no indication of anything in common just gets ignored and their 'follow' request removed a few days later.

Some here have been stalked for years;but I trust my friends...i have given up looking at new people

I would be less wary of people who have a pretty open profile and whose post history is harmless. That's not to say that there aren't some wolves in sheep's clothing here because there are.

I don't trust random people regardless. I only trust those who have been transparent and consistent for a long time and seem overall okay.

I trust everyone here, we are one big happy family

It might simply mean they are very choosy about their friends.

If they do not post much, perhaps they prefer only a few topics, and perhaps comment only if they think they have anything worth saying.

I have no friends, but there are a handful of people that I'm friendly with

I never respond to anyone like that.

I don't really care, unless the subjects get weird. No friends, no posts or posts that get deleted, weird DMs, yeah, I think I'm out. Ha

I don't trust anyone 👀

Hiding friends,replies doesn't say anything but person doesn't want to reveal his information .The only way to asses is by chatting with the person

I have a hard time trusting .period

I block them every day. They are Alt accounts used to misbehave or snoop.

This thing has a mind of its own.

Everyone is not to be trusted regardless.

I only trust 1 user on here

Shady creepers

Sounds like an alt account

SW is an imaginary world full of boogeymen, con artists, malcontents and other assorted oddballs and me - the only trustworthy, "normal" person here!

I am less likely to answer messages from those people unless they are verified.

No.

Personally I don’t investigate people. I read their posts and comments, form an opinion, choose to comment or not. I read what they write for what it is. I don’t stalk em 🤣😂🤣