Random People friending me

So, lately, I've been getting a lot of friend requests from people I don't even know (from Russia, USA, etc.) I ask these people why they would like to friend me, but they never respond. I usually just leave the requests alone until they respond. But it's been a month, and the 'friends' still haven't responded. What should I do? Accept, decline, or just leave them?

Go with your gut.  I say let's play a game first.  Rated or Unrated , doesn't matter,  Win Lose or Draw ..  New Friend,   If it doesn't happen,  not a friend.   Are you worried that there are data miners or hackers on this site?

I'm kind of weird. I have never refused a friends request. Okay well, only once, in three years. This person was 70-0 in daily chess and lost their account for cheating a few days later. I don't see a single disadvantage to having another friend that would cause me to hesitate before saying yes. You can go through their profile and if you have determined they are not a troll you can accept. However, if you're too lazy to do that, like me, you can just hit the accept button with absolutely no downside to it whatsoever. 

Yeah the same happened to me... Decline!

I will be forthright and honest with you here. I am a self-proclaimed friend Hound. I'm not ashamed of it, I have no evil intentions about it, I just pretty much friend most people that I come across on here.

I have had many people ask me why do I want to friend them? Some asked a series of questions in a whole paragraph. I will always respond to them truthfully, personally, and let them know why I sent them a friend request.

After doing so, even after admitting that I don't know them and I am a friend Hound, some of those folks will still friend me. I honestly tell them that I don't care if they accept or decline my friend request. I would rather they not leave it hanging because I can only have so many out there. I have to go through my own friend request that are left hanging, and systematically delete half of them so I have room to add more friends.😉

It's a little bit manic behavior I understand, but I'm not using the friend list for really anything. I'm certainly not a troll.

I do like the first answer though. Go with your gut instinct. But I would say don't leave the friend request hanging. Decline it, or accept it. In the end though, it's always your choice.

I take the approach that when in doubt, decline.

If I accept a friend request, it is meaningless. If I decline, it puts a negative connotation on ME. It's a no-win situation.

I've been trimming on inactive friends lately, so I got from 128 to 91

I used to get random friend requests almost every day until I changed my settings to stop them. If had accepted every request I would have at least 500 "friends" by now and i would know almost none of them!

I always decline random friend requests (as clearly stated on my profile page) but if it's somebody I've at least seen before (such as somebody from a club I'm in) I'll consider it.

I'm currently at the most friends I've ever had, but I think I'll trim it down soon.

Exactly. I totally agree, but I won't turn off friend requests entirely, because occasionally there's a request from somebody I actually know.

If you will look at the topic - we are talking about random friend requests from people we don't know.

Every friend is first someone we don't know.

I accept all friends requests

Exactly . Strangers are friends we are yet to meet.

But when you have 361 friends, you likely only know about 10% of them.

I would not accept friend request if I hadn't any iteration with the person before. Iteration can be anything, we chatted in the some club page, we are on the same vite chess team, or we just played good game. But without it, why should I bother? At the other hand I can't see what damage can be done. 

I have accepted friend requests from people that I don't know at all and 1 year later I still know zero about them. So what was gained? Seems to be nothing.

One thing that I always do though. I will always go to the homepage of the person who accepted my random friend requests and unfollow them. Because I do not want to receive notifications of every post that they make on my list.

So the people that I follow are really only folks whom I know and care about. Essentially those who I've had interactions with before and they were all positive.