How do you feel about receiving unsolicited messages, and what do you do about them?

I'm really intrigued by how people feel about this matter. I hope for lots of dialogue on it. Admittedly, I'm sure I'm not the first to ask, but I think it's still a relevant question. What do you think?

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Mamapolo2016 · F

I try to look at it this way: Every friend I have is someone I had to meet for the first time at some point.

It’s not unsolicited messages that distress me and it’s not even messages from fetishists or from would-be cyber ‘lovers’, although that is distasteful. When I tell them to go away, they nearly always do.

The ones that infuriate me are the fetishists who approach me with some kind of sob story and claim they are in the midst of some tragedy and just need someone to talk to. Sooner or later they try to work the conversation around to their real purpose, which is cheap thrills at my expense. Meanwhile, I have wasted empathy and energy on a sleazy deceitful leech.

splendid · 41-45, M

@Mamapolo2016 Thank you for your candid assessment of the situation. I appreciate your honesty. I hope you receive plenty of good messages to make up for the bad ones.

Too, I really like your perspective---"every friend I have is someone I had to meet for the first time at some point." This is so sensible!