Whenever I get into a duty, I scan all the players for catbois and only check those out and see if I like them. I do the same anywhere else in the game anyway, and whenever they click on me, I quickly press ESC and waddle away. (I never approach people first ; w ; )
I also tend to start crafting something, and the moment I complete the craft I noticed I forgot to switch on Collectable crafting. I uh... Do this literally every time.

When I was new to the game, I had no idea where to get my mount. People kept saying around level 20, but I never got it (back then side-quest with a +-marker weren't a thing) so I just assumed my character had a bug/glitch and I could never obtain a mount, so I went through ARR and HW without a mount until people pointed out I had to do a company quest. .-.