I don't want to explain

Why I don't want to accept friend requests from people I have never played against, communicated with or heard of.

And it's turning into a bloody epidemic.

Just post the explanation right here and copy-paste the link to this thread in the future.

Yeah, I could do that. But I'd rather just be able to decline, withou going to another window.

Rooperi, some people may like reading your posts, and would like to keep track of you when you're online, so they can read you. But on the other side, they may look at you as a number added to their 'friends' list.

In my tribe I'm considered very eligible.

You don't have to 'splain anything. Just leave that window blank, the refusal will still go through.

Ha!  I like the smug smiley.  

Maybe if you stopped sending everyone your photo it might stop.

So rooperi has groupie problems-- I guess they should be called roopies.  Say, rooperi, why don't you try wearing a mask?  Seems to work for me. 

What? And hide the magnificence that is me?

Well, if you want to continue displaying your magnificence, you'll probably have to continue putting up with the friend requests.  This is a toughie-- I just don't see any way out of it.

Maybe try starting a account.....

If that's your only problem, you should be smiling. Btw, what message does the intended 'friend' get when you 'politely decline' the request? ("Sorry, not now?" "Sorry, maybe later?") 

I think the automated message sent to decline a friend request is "Bugger off!"

i am fighting the urge to send rooperi a friend request.  especially to find out if "bugger off" becomes his standard dismissal. 

Much ado about nothing!!

My response is "who are you?"

I don't remember if any of them ever replied.

Hmm . . . I think we may have uncovered the root cause of the problem . . . if you don't remember if any of them replied, perhaps they were all actually members you knew quite well but had forgotten . . . 

oh yes, i remember now - you have to type in a reason for declining (hasn't happened that often for me). You could be quite imaginative i suppose. I wonder what the best/funniest excuses are? Perhaps some of them could be divulged by chess.com (anonymously) just for fun (like those insurance claim scams, e.g. "the lamppost suddenly appeared in front of my car"), etc...