From what I can gather (not being a Facebook user) you can no longer simply ignore someone, as MG Siegler states:

Previously, you could either Confirm or Ignore (deny) a request. Now, Ignore has been replaced by “Not Now”. This new option takes some of the pressure off you having to reject people as it instead moves them into a state of limbo, where they’re neither accepted nor rejected.

This sounds minute but as Siegler explains this basically makes you have to take additional steps to either reject or block a person. Thus they are basically getting your public newsfeed information all along. The real problem is not the extra steps, but that they are not easy to find which really will leave a lot of users confused. Add to that the fact that this seems to be a way of making everyone friends and I am really glad I am no longer on Facebook.