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

It's like the people jumping in to 'help' you kill a mob, when you haven't the slightest need of help. ...
MMO aren't that unlike a regular, real life community. Especially in the longer lived ones, you get to know people, you develop relations that can last for years. And like all communities, virtual communities too develop unspoken rules of conduct so you don't rip each others' throats out. Which can be quite literal in games with PVP.

Seems like auto-decline is the fix, no? Again, the only assumption here is that someone is trying to be rude by inviting. I venture to say that most people doing it here are doing because they are exactly trying NOT to be rude. It's also "manners" to embrace people's varying comfort levels. I feel much more comfy talking to someone after they've accepted a group invite, rather than spamming them with small talk when there may or may not be interest.

One thing I can agree on is that anyone who does EITHER in the middle of someone's fight is a douche.

After catching up on this thread ( from page 2 - 20 ), and reading everyone's comments, I wonder if the bulk of the problem is actually the fact that a blind invite pops a window up in the middle of the screen that you have to interact with in some way, potentially a distraction from whatever you are currently doing.

Maybe a better solution is that when you invite someone else, it pops up a window in YOUR screen, that requires a mandatory comment, or a drop down list of the quests you are currently on ( as you probably want a hand with one of them ). Then, rather than opening a window on the invitees screen, it pops a link in the chat window like:

"person x has invited you to a group for mission y, click here to accept".

That way you don't have to immediately respond to it if you're in the middle of doing something else, the invitee gets a reason for invite and can choose to ignore it if they want.

No idea if something like this is even feasible, just sort of interested as to what other people think.

I get it now. Makes sense. I guess my point is, sometimes you have noobs or those who are actually trying to be helpful, like above. They want to be part of the world, but maybe are noobish or awkward in how they go about it. But I truly don't think that for most people it's bad manners. More than anything, it's people trying to be helpful and social, and perhaps going about it wrong. Like I used to jump in and try to help kill mobs, until I realized that it's not always "helpful." Noobishness, that's all.

Remember the silly popup window with buttons yes and no? Thats when you are ASKED if you want to group.
When i'm in non instanced dungeon, and see other player with same quest i send him invite (ask him if he wants to group), if he joins (agrees) we complete our objectives faster leave dungeon and are on our way, if not we get in each others way, forcing each other to wait for repawns etc.
Simples as that, no need for pointless chat.

For me, depends on the situation.

If we're all standing around waiting on a spawn that we have to kill, just invite me already. I've had several groups that have formed, killed the mob and disbanded without so much as a word.

If I'm out questing in the world and you want me to join your FP, or you need a hand with something and your randomly working your way down the who list, then ask me first.

I kinda like 'pointless chat'. And no, that window of yours just says 'join my group', it doesn't say what for. Which isn't communication in any way shape or form.