Before initiating a TCP/IP handshake, you need to have initiated a TCP/IP handshake.

No, reaching out politely isn't considered a crime in the UK. Repeatedly reaching out (politely or not) after you've been told to stop is harassment.

WTF, saying hi to a stranger is not harassment? What's wrong with people these days…

> You need prior consent, before you initiate contact!

... How does that work?

It's really weird, I mean I can understand that people (honestly mostly women) dislikes having a ton of random people chatting them up at the gym. It probably gets tiresome really quickly.

On the other hand you have people just staring into their phone between sets, so it seems like a good time to talk. There might be no overlap between these groups of people, but we have a epidemic of people complaining about being lonely while we also have people spewing out "Don't talk to me ever" and who freezes if the person behind the register at the supermarket has the audacity to talk to them.

Can you give a source on this? I can't belive this to be remotely true.

Societies do this then have the audacity to wonder why there's a loneliness epidemic and why birth rates have collapsed. Just goofy.

wtf, how do you even get consent before contact?

YMMV but every gym I've been to in the US had a huge social component.

Is this true of any public places in the UK or mainly just gyms?