I had a couple of new followers in bluesky. A new follower DMed me. He asked how I was, I said I was good. Then he asked where I was from and when I said I prefer not to say, he said he understands and that he wanted to know more about me. I told him my interests and such and didn’t give any important information about myself. He too told me about his hobbies. Then he asked about my location once again. When I declined once again he said that he understands “not being cool enough to say where you are from”. That was an odd thing to say. I got creeped out and blocked him. Is this normal? Why would anyone want to know about each other’s location?
I got creeped out and blocked him. Is this normal?
Yes, it is normal that you blocked him.
I sometimes like to know the general area someone’s from (country or state), so I understand the context of their experience or point of view. It’s not anything I would push if the person felt uncomfortable sharing. That sounds like a red flag.
Yeah, there are good reasons to want to know where someone’s from, but pushing the issue for no reason with a near stranger is kind of weird.
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To me there is nothing wrong with asking or stating what country you are from. Unless you are from a really tiny country it doesn’t really matter if you state your country. For example I’m from the US which doesn’t tell you anything really about my exact location.
The US is about 3,000 miles across. That doesn’t included Hawaii or Alaska. It’s about 1,582 miles from top to bottom of the US again not including Hawaii or Alaska.
So my saying I’m from the US doesn’t give up much really but it gives people an idea about something about me and my heritage.
I nornally expect a country if I ask, but if they are American they usually give me a state straight away.
So are you from the east coast, or the west? Statistically you aren’t in the middle, and you are more likely from the east as that is the most densely populated. So you are likely in one of ~10 states on the east.
Still not great for pinpointing, but a toooooooon of the US is a whole lotta nothing. Similar to Aus.
It’s incredibly to normal to ask someone where they are from, it’s just interesting to know. Normally it’s just asking the country.
You dont have to answer at all of course, if someone doesnt respect that, then at least you know they arent worth your time.
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“Not being cool enough to say where you are from” is a weird way for them to phrase it. If they’re British, they might be saying it ironically (I use the phrase “well, if you’re not cool enough…” as a reference to the old peer-pressure educational videos myself). Otherwise, they might be young, and clumsily trying to peer-pressure you, or old and out-of-touch enough to think that’s an effective way to get a young person to give up information.
So, three options. They’re either being ironic, clumsy, or creepy. No harm in playing safe and blocking them.
What if they’re not cool enough to block them?
I mean, it is fine to ask for more details if it can help solve a specific issue, say that you ask a question about tax law, but neglect to add what country you are from, then asking for your location is fine, but just out of the blue, nah.
I get this once in a while during online games, it’s normal to want to know where somebody is playing from. I just usually just say my country name. I once had a random teammate who is practically my neighbor, The server crashed before I can take not of his in game name.
It was perfectly normal when he asked the first time, but creepy when he asked again. The “not being cool enough” bit was flat out rude.
Not wanting to doxx yourself is more than reasonable, and I’d expect an internet user to understand that. Blocking him was what I would have done, too.
I think the second ask and comment are suspicious. I can’t stand people who act entitled to your information. I’d block them.
In the context of the Internet, yes that is a valid question in my opinion. They don’t want your literal address, they want to know your nationality. Being from place x generally means you also speak language y and have a cultural background of z.
It’s a reasonable question but it’s unreasonable to insist without providing a reason.
This sounds like a weird person at best or the prelude to a scam, stalking, or social engineering at worst. You stick with your standards and don’t doxx yourself to passive aggressive douchebags, however insistent they may be.
Personally I only ask after interacting for months, and I only offer mine the same way. By that I mean in positive interactions.
I agree with others that say it might be an awkward way to get to know you
In general though I just don’t like to be DM’d unsolicited without me
stalkingfollowing the account and get to know the vibeThis is why I just don’t do microblogs. I’m just an uninteresting and uninterested specimen of humanity
So idk why someone would want to randomly know about me through DM
I ask where people are, so I have a general sense of time zone and I know when to expect to be able to message them when they’re awake
