Guild Wars 2

Is there a way of removing people from your “Follower” list without blocking them or making them your “Friends”?

As far as I know, the only way to remove someone from your Followers list is to have them remove you from their Friends list. The Followers list is more of a FYI sort of thing. It gives you useful information but there is nothing you can do (directly) to change it.

KyreneZA.8617:

Is there a way of removing people from your “Follower” list without blocking them or making them your “Friends”?

Nope. This list is an indication of people who added you as a friend.

So, in essence one cannot decline “friend requests”? I guess I’ll just add that to my growing list of minor annoyances in this game.

KyreneZA.8617:

So, in essence one cannot decline “friend requests”? I guess I’ll just add that to my growing list of minor annoyances in this game.

It is not a friend request and you don’t need to look there. It is only showing those people that like you. Maybe you like them too?? then you add them to your friendslist, if not they remain on that list.

No offence, mercury, but you’re not helping. I do need to look there when I get friend requests from people I actually want to be friends with. To suggest otherwise is asinine.

The problem becomes exacerbated, the more people attempt to be my friends where it is not mutual. I have no way of removing non-mutual friends from that list, according to you, so the list just grows, making it more-and-more difficult for me to find the requests of people I want to be friends with. I don’t necessarily want to outright block those people either, as they have not been “bad” to me per se. I just don’t want to see them in the list.

Now, could someone (else perhaps?) confirm or deny the limited use of this UI part of “friend” management in the game?

Confirmed. Followers are people that have added you as a contact, that are not in your contacts list. And there is no such thing as “friend requests”, since no permission is required to add someone as a contact.

KyreneZA.8617:

[SNIP]
Now, could someone (else perhaps?) confirm or deny the limited use of this UI part of “friend” management in the game?

Mercury answered your question but I will be happy to confirm it. The Followers list is not a Friend request. It is people that have already added you to their Friends list. This list allows you to see all the people that have your name in their Friends list. This is a great feature that is uncommon (if not unique) to MMO gaming.

Most MMOs (at least all of the ones I have played), do not have friend requests that you confirm or deny. Some might but for most of them, your Friends list, like your Ignore/Block list, is your business and it does not take any action by another party to add someone. If you have meet someone you might want to play with later, you can easily Friend them. This makes getting back in contact with them easier.

ArenaNet added an additional tool to the “Friends” system that will allow you to see everyone that has already included you in their Friends list. It is a way to see who is following you, hence the name, Followers.

I have not tried it myself but I do not think even blocking someone will remove you from their Friends list. You can block them to prevent ever hearing from them but you will remain in their Friends list (and therefor their name will be in your Followers list) until they remove you from their Friends list. So if you do not want someone showing up in your Follower listing, you will need to ask them to remove you from their Friends list.

In summary, if you want to add someone to your Friends list, just right click on their name in the chat and select “Add to Friends” and you are done. Easy peasy with no muss or fuss. Nothing to accept or deny. So you really do not need to check out your Follower listing. It is there to offer another way to find people that have thought enough of you to put your name in their Friends list.

Any idea how to “cull” this list, then? Can I “friend” them and “unfriend” again? Should I “block” them (even if I don’t feel animosity towards them really)?

It doesn’t matter what you do or what they do, all they get to see is when you’re online and whatnot.

They see when you are online, where you are and what character you are on. So yes, I find this “great feature” not only a minor annoyance but a rather major one. Btw, blocking is still broken so this doesn`t help.

Meluna.1764:

They see when you are online, where you are and what character you are on. So yes, I find this "great feature" not only a minor annoyance but a rather major one. Btw, blocking is still broken so this doesn`t help.

If someone is following you -- that is, they added you as a friend but you have not done the same for them -- they will only see that you are online / offline. They will not see where you are or your achievement points like you do with friends or guildmates in the guild panel.

Meluna.1764:

They see when you are online, where you are and what character you are on. So yes, I find this “great feature” not only a minor annoyance but a rather major one. Btw, blocking is still broken so this doesn`t help.

Wow! If true, that’s a little creepy, not to mention invasive. So one could basically “friend” anyone in the game and be free to “stalk” them, whereas the person on the receiving end of this unwanted “friend” can do nothing to prevent such behaviour apart from contacting the person in the vain hope they remove one from their “friend list”? Has nobody brought this to ArenaNet’s attention yet?

synk.6907:

Meluna.1764:

They see when you are online, where you are and what character you are on. So yes, I find this “great feature” not only a minor annoyance but a rather major one. Btw, blocking is still broken so this doesn`t help.

If someone is following you — that is, they added you as a friend but you have not done the same for them — they will only see that you are online / offline. They will not see where you are or your achievement points like you do with friends or guildmates in the guild panel.

They will still see what map you are on, even if you have them blocked. And if they have game messages enabled then they will be told in chat whenever you log on or off. It will say, synk.6907 is online, in the chat messages.

It’s a great aid for stalkers. They can get told whenever you log on or off and they can see whatever map you are on.