if you want to invite me to party, ASK ME first.

If someone just randomly invites you and you haven't posted or said you are looking for anything I understand declining those. If I invite you after you have said you are looking for that flashpoint and you decline, I assume you don't want to go anymore and I find someone else. It's you're decision if you auto-decline and that's you're right, but expect to miss out on a lot of opportunities.

I rarely if ever get psted before being invited, and you know what I don't care. I understand people are different and I don't expect them to morph they're perception of the world and how people should act towards each other to fit mine. It's you're right to not group up with them so don't and move on, don't come on here and expect to change the way other people behave.

I too like to give and receive some basic good manners, so I not very keen on ninja invites and I rarely accept them.

I do hope that it is not just "old scholars" that exhibit decent manners nowadays, but they are becoming rarer to find in the real world too.
"Manners maketh man"is what my old Gran used to say, and she was spot on; except of course she would have to say “and woman” in todays society

I have taken the liberty to circumvent the obvious retorts to my post with the following hypothetical questions:

"If you don't wanna be invited to groups, you should just go play a single-player game."

No. I don't mind being invited to groups. What I do mind is someone inviting me to party without showing me the courtesy of ASKING me first if I wish to party with them.

"Turn on auto-decline group invites if you are such an anti-social person. Gawd, it's an MMO, people group to do stuff."

I love to group with people in order to meet a common objective. In fact, I am usually quite enthusiastic to party up with other players...provided they are willing to behave in a social manner themselves by being POLITE. It's RUDE to ninja-invite. Is it so hard to WHISPER someone and ask them if they even WANT to do the same thing you are doing?

And incidentally, I HAVE toggled auto-decline after today...didn't even know it was an option till my husband showed me. It cheeses me off that I have to and that people are so socially stunted that they can't be bothered to ASK first.

I'm all for efficiency. But when someone just spams me with his party invite without any regard to what I may be doing, it just makes me NOT want to party with him on principle alone. Like, even if I do want to do the same thing he wants to do, Saving Face, Personal Challenge, whatever....if he sends an invite without asking first, it's a forgone conclusion that I will NOT group with that person.

FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE AGREES!!!

All it takes is a "hey would you like to do <INSERT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO>"
wait for the reply of "YES!"
then send the invite.

While I agree with you, OP, I often do (and I hope others do the same to me) just simply toss an invite when we both walk up to a quest objective that has to respawn. I sincerely hope people understand my intentions when I do, most do, some decline (I understand they may have auto-decline, that's ok), and understand I'm going to kick you as soon as we both get credit.

couldn't have said it better myself. I like smellin the flowers xD and I would probably irritate others who move at a much quicker pace than me.