No, I didn't volunteer to you personally. But I volunteered to people who do what you're advocating and explaining the reasons for. And now I know why they do it.

Well, at least why *some* people might do so -- because that is one of their stress-coping mechanisms. (Some people might do it because they're asea for other reasons, too.) I try never to assume that everybody has the same triggers.

Your separation of friends from "friendly acquaintances" (or whatever you want to call the relationship I have with the people who said "May I help you?") is also puzzling.

Well, I don't know about your relationships, and so please don't think my comments should apply to you, or to them. But you asked how I treat my friends -- and that term, for me, applies to a much closer relationship that perhaps for others.

Because of my experiences in fandom, I've met, quite literally, thousands of people. My acquaintances of the friendly sort number in the hundreds. But my friends -- the ones I know well and who know more than the public me -- constitute a smaller subset of those "friendly acquaintances."

I try to treat everyone at cons as friends, whether I know them or not.

I'm glad that works for you. Me? I'm not going to abuse total strangers the way I do my friends.

Treating everyone as well as I know how is important to me, too. And sometimes, that means falling back on courtesy, lest the dueling begin.