Guys, seriously. Chill with the Friend Codes.
I know there's already a thread bitching about this but I felt like a picture would help illustrate how ridiculous this is getting. Pardon my shitty editing.
I don't doubt this is a spike from the Celebi research, but this is getting massively out of hand. Over half the most recent Q&A is bullshit add me threads. I know we have the trainer database, is there a way to make it more apparent that it's there to curb the amount of "add me"s?

Answers
I will remind you that I DID apologize for that.
And I will remind you that it was Jane YouknowwhoImean who neglected to tell us that she bought the brownies for the party in Colorado, so technically it wasn't my fault that I was in an altered state in which I confused "water closet" with "coat closet".
(And yes, I do realize that I was the one who got cute during Pictionary to use "Water Closet" instead of "Bathroom". I guess we're not yet to the point where we can look back on that incident and laugh, huh?)
Only real reason for International Friends is to trade Alolan Sandshrews with local friends to get that stupid Trading Distance badge.
Wait - is that a real reason? Or is that being manipulated by Niantic into doing something in game that has literally no impact on the game itself, but means that we need to buy Incubators in order to hatch the 7km eggs for Pokemon who's only use in the game is to get you distance towards a badge that has no mechanical impact on you?
(also, International friends SUCK when you can only open 20 gifts in a day; I don't send or open gifts from International friends regularly because I'm trying to raise my Friendship levels with locals to get all the bonuses. Maybe once I've got 5-10 of my local group as Best Friends I'll start to look at International friends again, but until then, all the Friendship Level increases need to be focused on the local.)