I recently noticed that I have this subsection in the mailbox that is titled requests

I understand. I found that after years here. People probably think I'm rude.

However, most were the "hi" variety.

I still forget it's there.

It means you can choose who can message you, depending on their age or if you follow them or they follow you etc. you can set your messages so you get messages from everyone on this site in your inbox or filter them to not get inbox messages from anyone like I have now. I’m no longer interested in talking to people here.

I've found it's people I've muted and don't want to communicate with. The few times I've opened one of these it was someone screaming abuse and telling me they were going to block me 🙄

Do you have any filters on messaging? I do and I wonder if it isn't people who get filtered out but SW allows them into that box.

It’s people you don’t interact with that reach out. But yeah usually spammy.

No wonder you never replied back. 😂 I noticed that too some time ago

Oh yeah first time I opened that up I was like "Oh whoops"

People seem to have different opinions on what it's for but I get requests from people that are my "friends" and I get normal messages from men with stupid stuff. It's a mess and has no rhyme or reason for me.