Admittedly, I don’t follow Facebook that closely. I know that, since the company “went public” a while ago, there’s been a huge push to monetize each and every element of their now ubiquitous platform, but I was totally caught off-guard this morning when, attempting to send a note to a woman who had left a comment on this blog, I was met with the above screen, asking me to please deposit $1. Is this something that people have encountered before?
And I know that maybe this makes me sound like an old man, ranting about how, back in his day, “Water was free… damn-it,” but this really does strike me as odd. I can see why they might want to keep people from sending messages to folks who aren’t in their “friend” network, but this is like saying, “Yeah, we’ll give anyone the ability to send you messages for a buck.” That’s like an operator saying, “Sorry, sir, that’s an unlisted number… but, if you really want it, I can give it to you for a dollar.“
As for the woman that I was attempting to write to, her name is Eldora M. Trimble, and she’s the daughter of Roland Maynard, the author of that book I was telling you about not too long ago about the history of my ancestors in Kentucky. Apparently she’s republished the formerly out-of-print book, and wants to sell me a copy… If all goes well, I hope to be able to tell you all about it shortly, as I know that many of you only come to this site for the super-popular Maynard genealogy updates.
12 Comments
Yah, Facebook started doing that a few weeks ago. Some other Facebook Pages charge more than a dollar to send an Instant message to another. Of course, it’s just a scam as usual. Please, people don’t send the Facebook owners, another $1.00, $10.00, etc. They are WEALTHY enough.
I’m sure that, soon enough, you’ll be able to pay Facebook $10 a month in order to have them stop sending you these messages from non-friends. The free market always has a solution!
Knox rox.
Could you perhaps start charging certain people to leave comments here?
Lest we forget:
http://gawker.com/5636765/facebook-ceo-admits-to-calling-users-dumb-fucks
I was trying to get ahold of a reporter yesterday and his Facebook was all I could get to. I was trying to decide what to do, I hate to spend a dollar that way, and then a message came from him. “I don’t think you have my email..” Moral high ground maintained.
Has anyone tried to send Mark Zuckerberg a message though the system for a dollar?
even better! if you aren’t paying to promote your posts, people probably won’t see your posts on their wall, even if they are subscribed/liked/following you, whatever those things mean.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/disruptions-when-sharing-on-facebook-comes-at-a-cost/
Weird indeed. Makes me wonder what the person’s privacy settings are. Like, what are they aware of re:that dollar and FB telling people they should use it to contact them? People and their relationships: just commodities within FB — this makes it pretty plain to see, eh?
I just saw this on someones page when i went to send her a message, i had to send to her other inbox and then asked her about it, she had no clue it was on her page
Special Offer: pay $2 to keep your posts from going to the NSA.
NSA, LOL, and (Rolling Eyes)