Now that behavior I can understand getting rid of someone for. That’s leaps and bounds more offensive than a simple political disagreement.
I’ve only ever defriended one person. I didn’t warn him about it. He’s somebody I went to school with, and honestly I didn’t like him very much back then–he was a weird kid and gave off very creepy vibes. But a lot of my other friends were FB friends with him, so I figured he must have grown up in the last 30 or so years so I friended him too. It lasted a couple of months, but it turned out that he was every bit as skeevy and creepy as he’d been in grade school, and now with an extra added sexual component that was just…eww. So I defriended him.
I’ve blocked (but not defriended) one friend–nice guy, I like him, but the stuff he posts about never interests me. I’m thinking hard about blocking another one–a woman I’ve known since we were kids, but all she posts is Ron Paul propaganda and really aggressive/emotional pro-vegan/animal rights stuff (interesting combination, I know). There’s only so much longer I can take the pictures of soft-eyed calves letting me know how much they don’t want to go through meat grinders so I can have a burger, or bags of dead male chicks. I get it. Sheesh.
Aside from that, I’m pretty easygoing with FB friends, even the ones I don’t agree with. I like people I don’t agree with, as long as they don’t get obnoxious about it. That’s how I learn what the “other side” is really thinking.
The OP is pretty much how I feel about it. Hiding accomplishes everything I need to accomplish, usually, so I do that. The only reason I would really want to remove someone is if they are doing something I find morally wrong, but then, if I feel strongly enough to take any action, it will be telling them what they are doing is wrong, as unfriending them doesn’t even give them a notice, and thus has zero chance of stopping the action.
In theory, if someone were being enough of a jerk, and doesn’t stop when I tell them, I wouldn’t just unfriend them, I would block them, as I don’t want them messaging me either.
I have a light trigger finger when it comes to defriending. I never warn them about it and it’s always because of the constant stream of crap they post. Occasional bullshit is fine, but if every time I go to my homepage half the posts are from a particular person, I’m probably gonna get rid of him or her. I don’t bother with hiding posts (unless they’re game posts - I have them all hidden and sometimes get a surprise when I go to someone’s page and see that it’s covered in game posts).
I’m not amused by wingnuts; I’m infuriated by them, to the point that it ruins my day. So yeah, I’m going to try to avoid contact with any of that. I’ve only defriended three people in the whatever years I’ve had a Facebook, and I never threatened to do it, or made passive agressive posts about it, I just did it.
One was a former neighbor who made a joke about black men and prison rape.
One was a former classmate that never shut up and I mean NEVER shut up about the Federal Reserve. Any time an opinion was given, he came back with, “None of this matters until blah blah blah eliminate the Federal Reserve!” Gay marriage? Federal reserve. Health care? Federal reserve. But the final straw for me was when he bitched about a government website having a Spanish translation available. Hell to the naw.
The hardest one was when an old dear childhood friend made three moronic posts in a row:
-I’m not sure if this Middle Eastern woman can be a true Christian because she’s not American.
-It’s not right for pedophiles to act on their unnatural urges, therefore it’s not right for homosexuals to do the same.
-Agnostics are people who believe in God but don’t want to admit it, and also some anti-science bullshit.
The trifecta of suck. I had to put aside my nostalgia and get her the fuck out of my life.
I had the opportunity to discuss this at another board earlier today and, while the premise was mostly dismissed, one Facebook user did advance the view that non-users are often viewed as someone with something to hide. He gave the example of a fellow juggling multiple girlfriends and how difficult that would be with a Facebook account. Does he have a point?
Also, how prevalent are FB inquiries at job interviews? I had two interviews about a year and a half ago and the subject was not broached at all.
I’ve been “defriended” once, due to too agressive romantic pursuit (just as well she lives in Sin City). I “unfriended” people due to seeing them in my Feed, and having NO clue who they were (mostly Dopers) I also "defriended people I was in a “group” with becasue Facebook wouldn’t let me “friend” the whole group. I also “defriended” a guy for making weird assumptions about me. I’ve “defriended” AND “blocked” ONLY 2 people, my Mom, because she talked about me w/o my permission, and someone I only knew on Facebook, due to her creepy pursuit (karma). I’ve “unsubscribed” from several people, mostly over things in this thread. (i.e. politics)
Oh, and there’s one guy I’ve come close to booting more than a few times. He’s one of my DREAMer friends (undocumented immigrant who wants to create a path to citizenship) but he has made enough “white people are so stupid ha ha let’s laugh at them” posts for me to feel unwelcome. I hang on because I believe in his cause, I know he doesn’t mean to offend, and I’ll probably need to call in a favor somewhere down the line.
I have been defriended several times. I have blocked several people who were especially Jesus-y. I have never defriended anyway, IIRC, not even the guy who died last December. Yes, I am still FB friends with a dead guy.
I’m still “friends” with the school friend who was the only person I knew at his wake.
This entire post confuses me greatly. Every bit of it. What d…yeah. 
Ambi-In list form
Been “defriended”-Someone I romantically pursued too agressively (she lives in Sin City, so it’s moot)
“Defriended”-People I only know as Dopers, members of group on Facebook when I wasn’t allowed to “friend” whole group.
“Defriended” AND “blocked”-Mom, due to talking about me behind my back, someone who was creepy in her romantic pursuit of me (karma w/#1)
“Unsubscribed”-People who are agressively rightwing.
Around Australia Day there was an article in the papers about a survey which had observed that people who said they had Australian flags on their cars were more likely to give racist answers to the survey questions than people who didn’t. Several of my Facebook friends then referenced this survey and began bleating about how now they weren’t even allowed to put a flag on their car because the newspaper said that’s racist and people have a damn cheek coming here to MY country and telling me I can’t fly MY flag that my grandfather fought and died under and they probably don’t even speak English anyway and next thing you know they’ll ban Christmas and we’ll all be praying to Allah. Then their friends joined in, heartily agreeing and bringing up that one time that one school tried to ban singing the national anthem and who the Hell do these people think they are, coming here and trying to change our culture, and they need to shut up and fit in or go home.
I unfriended them. I did not want my name appearing on any list with those people, even if it was just a Facebook friend list.
I don’t unfriend people with differing political views. My convictions aren’t that fragile, I can see an opposing viewpoint without losing my head. I just don’t want to be friends with people who are both racist, and too stupid to realise their racism isn’t something they should be proud of.
Ok, I guess this is what I’m stuck on. How did you become “friends” with these people to begin with? And what “group” on FB were they a part of?
I am “friends” with a few Dopers; I just treat them as any other “FB friend”.
I have a family member who is a raging asshole on FB. He rarely has anything real to say of his own, just reposting links that are anti-religion, anti-feminist, anti rich people of any type or kind, … just anti, anti anti. He and his girlfriend even got into a fight with me when a dog bit me and I posted the picture of the bite! It’s unrelentingly unpleasant. He is more annoying in his anti-religion-of-any-kind than the worst Jehovah’s Witness I have ever met. I have considered unfriending him but he only has 55 friends (see: raging asshole explanation, above) so I suspect he’d notice. I have contented myself with blocking all but important posts from him.
I rarely de-friend people. I’m far more likely to just reject the friend request in the first place or “forget” about it. I think the one or two people I’ve de-friended have been those that I don’t expect to ever see again and who were engaging in evangelizing asshattery. If it’s someone I will come into real life contact with again, I will just hide their updates on my news feed because it would be too awkward.
We had a thread awhile back about becoming “friends”. I became “friends” with many Dopers. When they came on my Feed, and I didn’t recgnize them, because they were on Facebook as their real names, not screen names, I couldn’t make that connection. The “group” was for people with Spina Bifida.
I’m still friends with a dead cat. He still posts sometimes from Kitty Heaven. Good god, what the hell happened to me?
I thought about explaining why, but, really, what could I possibly say?
not sure what to say here except, isn’t Facebook interesting? the way we all interact, or don’t, how crazy can join up with other crazy until it’s a fetid boiling pot of crazy…
I’m just in it for the LOL cats 
But you had to accept the friend requests before they just “showed up” on your feed. So why would you accept the requests of people you didn’t recognize?