[bitwize]

You're obviously not a woman who has had to deal with potentially threatening people in your love life. Among women ghosting is 100% a legitimate way to refuse a second/third/etc. date. In business, companies routinely ghost candidates they're not interested in because of the hassle and risk in interacting with candidates who are clearly no-hires. You don't owe anyone with whom you do not have a solid established relationship an interaction.

[arendtio]

I think there is a fine line between 'rude' and 'appropriate' in this case.

- Simply stopping to respond to requests without signaling in any way, that you are not interested in continuing the interaction is rude (aka ghosting).

- Signaling even just once that you would not like to continue the interaction (as clearly and polite as possible) and ignoring the other side from that point on is appropriate.

Even though you might not 'owe anyone' anything, humans typically have socially accepted behavior patterns. So the argument is less about what you must do and more about what the majority of people around you consider good style. However, these things might differ between cultures and social circles.

[slipframe]

Rational as it may be, it's still rude.

[technothrasher]

> Among women ghosting is 100% a legitimate way to refuse a second/third/etc. date.

Even back in the prehistoric times of my dating days, which was before I recall the term "ghosting" existed, it wasn't an uncommon thing. It might have been disappointing on occasion, but I never found it "rude". It wasn't very hard to take the hint and move on.