Things I Feel Bad About

So one of the little annoyances in life for me (emphasis on little) is People Who Add You To Facebook Groups Without Asking. It’s not a big huge thing. It’s just… pesky. The FB system is designed, not so the onus is on the add-er to get your permission before adding you, but on you, the add-ee to laboriously go to the group, click the “Leave Group” thingee and get un-added once some random stranger has decided to stick you in this group, whatever it is.

I’ve repeatedly put up a little notice asking people not to do this, but of course, not everybody sees it and so, several times a week I get added to Quilters for Christ or Let’s All Scream that Obama is the Antichrist or LOL at Funny Cats or Hey Total Stranger Can You Give me Money? or I Am Hot Russian Babe Looking for Wealthy American Male or If You Don’t Join This Group Then You Hate God and Should Feel Guilty or the million and one other groups that people start and then chuck me into without so much as a by your leave.

Simcha Fisher, Professional Weisenheimer, saw one of my bleats requesting that nobody ever again add me to a group without asking me first, promptly started a group called Citizens Against Adding People to Facebook Groups Without Their Permission and added me to it without my permission as its second member after her. No one has ever found her body.

Seriously, I loved the gag, laughed and mentioned it on FB, prompting a wave of applications for membership that threatened to create a paradox vortex that nearly sucked the universe into a black hole of logic. Membership now stands at 60+ and more come daily. We don’t actually do anything in the group, which is what I want from a group blog. Now whenever somebody adds me, I reply “Please do not add me to groups without asking” and post a link.

Anyway, earlier today somebody added me to a new group devoted to “Catholic Quotes” (without asking me, as usual). So, as it my custom, I went to the group to post a link to CAAPTFBGWTP and (cleverly, I thought) wrote:

“Please do not add me to Facebook Groups without my permission.” – Mark Shea

…then I left the group, as I have done many times from other groups.

An hour or so later I got a FB message on my page from the guy who had added me. He told me I had “bitch slapped” him and was obviously quite hurt. Then he blocked me so that I can’t contact him.

I feel bad about it. It’s one of those things where you’re so busy congratulating yourself on how funny you are that you don’t bother to think that it will make somebody who was just trying to be friendly feel stupid. I doubt the guy who added me to the group will see this (and I don’t want to mention his name for fear of embarrassing him further). But if he does see this, I apologize. I was a smart alec and not thinking in terms of charity or consideration for the feelings of others. Mea culpa. If somebody who is in the Catholic Quotes group sees this and can pass it on to him, I’d appreciate it.

Me and my big mouth.