Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Test Will Let You Message Strangers For $1
Spy Handler writes "According to PC Mag, 'Facebook is testing a feature that will let select users pay $1 to send messages to people with whom they have no connection on the social network. The $1 fee will open a thread with a non-Facebook friend. If that person replies to your note, you won't have to pay again to respond to them.' Facebook explained the test thus: 'Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful. This test is designed to address situations where neither social nor algorithmic signals are sufficient. For example, 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. For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them.'"
Seems to me that I should be able to let anybody contact me and I can opt in to people being charged a dollar to contact me. I don't want to make long lost friends pay to send me a message but I can see how some people might appreciate this. Also, Facebook isn't doing anything worth $1 to get this money and it's an (in)convenience fee so this money should go to a charity or something, right?
How does Facebook deserve this money?
My work here is dung.
The suggestion was to charge a tenth of a penny per email. For regular folks who email, that works up to less than a penny per day. (No fees for business emails from private or hosted exchange servers, of course.) This would discourage spam emails and mass marketings from public accounts (although it wouldn't stop spam from zombie email accounts on private domains.)
A dollar per message should be enough to discourage irresponsible spamming.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
How does Facebook deserve this money?
Because they say so?
They don't. Facebook are greedy cunts.
Wrong. Try again. Facebook has always been and should forever remain free, and you should have been able to message everyone regardless of connection in the first place. Stupid.
I don't want to make long lost friends pay to send me a message
They can send you a friend request at no charge.
Seems to me that I should be able to let anybody contact me
I believe that's called making your e-mail address public.
How does Facebook deserve this money?
They're managing to convince people to pay it. Naturally!
They "deserve" it because it is their service and someone is willing to pay.
Seriously, though the word "deserve" doesn't belong in financial discussions where there are willing parties on both ends. I make four times as much as a social worker. Do I "deserve" more than my overworked sister-in-law who works with troubled youth? No. But I do. The fact is that my skill set is valued by the market more than hers. Sad fact of life. Tiger Woods makes eleventy-billion times what I do. For hitting a damn white ball with a stick. does he 'deserve' more than me? Nope. Sad fact of life.
If some idiot is willing to pay $1 to Facebook, then Facebook deserves that $1 and the guy paying it deserves to be $1 poorer.
-- MyLongNickName
Is this different from Linkedin's paid messages as those are work/career context that has a precedent?
One is on Facebook and the other is on LinkedIn.
Is this different from Postal mail?
The search feature is different, delivery is faster, the cost is higher, and in the end the person doesn't know where you live.
"Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful."
Translation
"Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money."
When you pay the grocery store for a tin of nuts, the nuts do not get a cut.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
I'm assuming there will be some sort of bulk discount for businesses.
Before: Facebook keeps your contact information private only allowing people to contact you that you have approved.
Now: Facebook keeps your contact information private only allowing people to contact you that you have approved or have paid us.
Yeah, there is no way that new policy won't be abused.
So am I.
They can send me as many unsolicited messages as they like if I get paid 50c for every one.
That's only fair, I think.
Trust The Computer, The Computer is your friend.
You don't have to pay facebook anything to "block" these messages. All you have to do is stop logging in to facebook.
They do not, of course. It's all about the money. If they truly wanted to punish spammers, it would be a system more like this:
1. You pay $1 to send message to someone with no connection on your social network.
2. If that someone acknowledges that the message as legit (sender may be a long lost friend, or maybe a polite non-spam email), then you get $1 refunded, so it would not have cost you anything. Essentially, you go out on a limb with $1 to reach that person and let that person judge if you had bothered/spammed them.
3. If the recipient does not do anything, or even marks the message as spam, then the sender would lose that $1, and the $1 goes to the recipient, as he is being compensated for having to deal with spammers.
So for $1 can I or can I not send random folks goatse?
Because that might just be worth creating a facebook profile for.
I expect spammers to start using stolen credit cards to send spam. In the end it will cost the CC owners and their banks money while FB most likely gets to keep the money. Depends if the banks force a charge back or not. Sometimes they do and sometimes they write it off and wait fro the government to give them money.
I wish email were like that.
Pay me to read your spam FTW!
There's a lot more nuts on Facebook than will fit in a tin.
How does Facebook deserve this money?
If you stay on Facebook, you implicitly acknowledge that they do, because you still judge the overall value of their service to be positive despite this added "inconvenience".
Seems to me that I should be able to let anybody contact me
I believe that's called making your e-mail address public.
In fact, part of this change is that Facebook will no longer let you share your contact info with only people who already know someone you've friended. More and more Facebook is dropping the "social" and becoming just another personal web page host site. Welcome back Geocities!
Here you go!
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
I suspect this feature will be used mostly by advertisers. If $10,000 gets you 10,000 messages to strangers who will be notified of it and probably read at least part of the message, that is a pretty good deal. I doubt most people will bother with it, preferring to just send a friend request. This set up is ideal for mass spam campaigns.
um maybe because it's their network that they created, and they can do whatever they want with it? If you don't like it, don't use it.
How does Facebook deserve this money?
Because they say so?
Duh, it is because they offer a simple, efficient, inexpensive way to exchange information with anybody in the world in a safe environment. And... umm... oh... At least it is simple!
That $1 is just for the general riff-raff.
Spammers buy in bulk and get much better rates.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
They provide their users with a service free of charge. How is that not free?
They are providing users with a service in exchange for the users providing them with content they can monetize. That's not free by any definition.
That the service they provide is to sell your details to advertisers is beside the point...
No, actually, that's exactly the point.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
It could create a popular alternative way to support artists, coders, whoever and so be even more profitable for Facebook (e.g. many more may actually use it).
:). This is probably solvable though.
For example artists can sign up formally with Facebook (so that they can get paid more easily) and Facebook takes a 30% cut (like Apple does for their stuff). Then the hordes of fans can easily send them money.
One problem with that could be money laundering (depending on the implementation).
The other problem is Facebook's system might not be suitable for financial transactions. Duplicated/failed comments/messages/status updates aren't a big problem. But duplicated money transfers could be