Facebook has started a new trial service where users can post a personal message to people who are not in their friend’s list by paying $1. This service will allow users to send the messages directly in the Inbox rather than the different ‘Other’ folder which currently contains the unwanted correspondence.
This is just a trial and is available only for the Facebook users in U.S. Besides charging a fee of $1, Facebook also will carry a limit of sending maximum one paid message per week and not more than three messages per month. There are no immediate plans to launch the trial for users in Europe, but it could happen in the future.
Today we’re starting a small experiment to test the usefulness of economic signals to determine relevance. This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the Inbox rather than the Other folder of a recipient that they are not connected with, said Facebook.
Now if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox.
This aspect of paid messages was earlier adopted by the professional social networking site LinkedIn. LinkedIn users cannot send a message to people they are not connected with, without paying a monthly fee.
As far as Facebook messaging is concerned, users can already send messages to anyone on Facebook unless the user has made the privacy settings for that.
@Shiwangi wrote: “As far as Facebook messaging is concerned, users can already send messages to anyone on Facebook unless the user has made the privacy settings for that.”
MY RESPONSE: So, wait… I’m confused. Will this new “feature” (isn’t it always interesting how big companies either take something away, or start charging for something previously free, and call it a “feature” or “service”) suddenly make it so users may no longer send messages to anyone on Facebook (regardless how their privacy settings are configured)?
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Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
Hey Gregg, thanks for stopping by, and regarding your confusion, ‘the messages sent to users who are not in the friend’s list go to the specific folder named ‘other’ which is usually neglected.
If you ask me, I see only the messages that appear in my Inbox and never pay attention to the messages in ‘Other’ folder. With this feature, any stranger will be able to send the message directly in the Inbox, regardless of the privacy settings.
Hope my answer satisfies your query 🙂
I thought facebook said it will always be free? doesn’t making this change go against everything they have said? It’s a stupid idea too as it also goes against there own mission of the social network “connecting the world together”. Charging people for this will only make people want to leave. If you could send this message to facebook for me that would be great as they need to hear peoples thoughts on changes like these or they will lose users.
Hmm. I see. Well, then, it’s a good thing it’ll both cost ’em, and also that there’ll be a limit on how many they may do (because, of course, marketing campaigns with lots of money to spend would fill our inboxes, otherwise).
Truthfully, I don’t think I’ve messaged in Facebook more than five times, total, in my life; and so I’m not sure I even noticed the “other” folder. To me, Facebook’s just not a valid method of messaging… or much of anything else, for that matter. If people want my attention, they’ll email me. If they don’t, then they’ll use Facebook to reach me.
Thanks!
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Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
@Beasty365 wrote: “I thought facebook said it will always be free? doesn’t making this change go against everything they have said?”
MY RESPONSE: You do realize we’re talking about Facebook, here, right? I mean, you do remember all the articles and outrage about Facebook trying to sneak privacy policy changes past its users, and all that kinda’ stuff? It was pretty big news… what… not even two years ago. And I mean REALLY big. It was even on the local 11 o’clock news on TV. When generalist news programming like that bothers with a story about Facebook and its privacy policy egregiousness, then it’s pretty big. I don’t know how you missed it. Facebook pulls crap like this all the time. There are no surprises, here.
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Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
Nothing is the world is really free, Beasty365.
I know, but the point i’m kind of trying to make is that they shouldn’t promise everything will be free and then go and break it. Doesn’t that defeat the object of making a promise?