Some of your Facebook inbox messages may have been "hidden" from you

[Dan Druff]

Say that it's 2001, and you just met a girl at a party named Jenny Smith. You and Jenny immediately hit it off, quickly resulting in one of the best sexual encounters of your life. You see Jenny a few more times, but she tells you that she just got a job offer in Portland. Jenny moves off to Oregon, and you lose touch shortly after that.

Now it's 2012.

Out of curiosity, you think about Jenny and try to find her on Facebook. Though you and she don't have any common friends or acquaintances, you track her down by searching her name combined with her hometown, and you arrive at the right profile. You're impressed to see that she looks very similar to how she did 11 years ago, and also notice that she's single. Even better, she has returned from Portland, and now lives very close to you again.

You shoot Jenny a short message, telling her that you thought about her recently and remembered how you really enjoyed her company. In the coming days, you excitedly check your inbox to see her reply, but you get nothing. After about a week passes, you realize that Jenny wants nothing to do with you anymore -- not even a polite-but-terse "Nice to hear from you" reply.

Ouch.

I guess it wasn't as good for her as it was for you.

But wait -- that's not necessarily what happened.

It's very possible that Jenny never saw your message to her, even if she actively uses Facebook.

This is because, in an attempt to thwart spam, Facebook decides whether messages sent to you should land in your "Inbox" (the normal repository of private messages) or the little-known "Other" folder. The "Other" folder is where "less relevant" messages (in Facebook's opinion) go to die. Up until recently, very few people knew that this folder even existed, myself included.

You can find this "Other" folder by going to your normal Inbox, and clicking on "Other" near the top-left of the screen, as shown below:



So how does a message end up in the "Other" folder?

When you send someone a message on Facebook, the system immediately decides if that person is part of your "extended network". Your extended network is defined as the pool of people who Facebook feels might actually know you in real life. For example, if you have your former high school listed as West Albuquerque High, then everyone who went to that school will be part of your extended network. So will all friends of your Facebook friends, and by extension, friends of friends of friends. When you browse someone else's Facebook profile, they also are deemed part of your extended network (that is, if they contact you -- not if you contact them). This is because Facebook figures that if you browse someone, and later they contact you (not realizing you ever browsed them), it's highly unlikely to be spam. There are several other ways that people are considered to be in your extended network, including Facebook group membership, common hometown or existing residence, and many others. It all goes into a secret algorithm that Facebook never reveals.

In our example above, if Jenny had browsed you on Facebook in the past, then your message to her would have gotten through -- even if she never contacted you there.

However, if Jenny had never browsed you, and if you had zero Facebook friends in common, there's a good chance your message went to her "Other" box -- likely never to be seen.

I just found my Other box, and I had about 20 messages there, dating back to October, 2010.

Among them:

A former TA I had in college from a class I took 20 years ago contacted me in February, 2012. I don't have my college listed on my Facebook page, so it did not establish a connection to her, and her message got filtered into the Other box.

I ran a chat room in the '90s, and an old friend from there contacted me in June, 2012. She and I had no mutual friends on Facebook, nor anyone else in common in our lives, so her message got filtered.

Various poker-related people sent me messages that landed in "Other". This surprises me a bit because you would think we'd have at least a few common friends or friends-of-friends, but the truth is that I have very few poker-related people on my Facebook, as I like to keep Facebook separate from poker/forum drama.

A guy who was in a Facebook group sent me a message, actually praising some things I wrote there. This filtering was surprising, as you would think it would have allowed the messages because we were in the same group. Many others from that group got their messages through to me at the time.

I also had various spam messages in the Other folder.


Now here is something disturbing:

Facebook has changed their privacy settings to where you can filter your Inbox in two different ways:

Basic lets "extended network" messages go through, and still filters the "less relevant" or suspected spam messages into Other.

Strict actually prevents most non-Facebook-friends from getting their messages into your Inbox, with everything else going into Other.

So where is an option to allow ALL messages into your Inbox?

There isn't one!

Why?

Because Facebook is testing a program to start charging people $1 to send messages to those outside their extended network, to appear in their Inbox!

This program is already in place for select users. If you are one of them, you can pay Facebook $1 to put your message in a person's Inbox when it would have otherwise ended up in Other.



So in the example at the beginning of this post, you would have been prompted to either pay $1 to get your feeler message through to Jenny's Inbox, or otherwise deal with the fact that it would end up in her Other folder, likely never to be seen.

I don't begrudge Facebook for trying to find new ways to make money, but I find it obnoxious that they filter out certain messages and then charge people to circumvent that filter and contact you.

They claim that this will cut down on spam (because spammers won't want to pay $1 per message), but it's also destroying the spirit of Facebook, which is a tool to connect to all kinds of people from your past. Facebook rose to prominence with this model, and now they're going to charge long, lost friends to contact you, blaming it on spam prevention.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/20/tech/s...ges/index.html

[Vwls]

I reunited with a friend from high school on Facebook and had this exact problem. She had written me a PM that I never received - or at least, never knew I received. It wasn't until a year later when I messaged her that her old PM showed up in my inbox. If I hadn't been looking for her too, we never would have spoken again.

[simpdog]

I have a brilliant idea. Facebook can charge you $1.25 to NOT have the messages come into your inbox.

Hell might as well start a 2-day auction to the highest bidder!

[SrslySirius]

Fortunately I don't use Facebook that much. I did just check and found several messages in my "other" folder. Looks like I missed out on a Pokernews interview and some commissioned work.



Also, when I went to check just now I saw a popup notification reminding me that the "other" folder exists. Gee thanks.

[Deal]

Am I the only PFA'er without a facebook account?

[Anal_Hershiser]

Am I the only PFA'er without a facebook account?

No.

[PLOL]

Am I the only PFA'er without a facebook account?

I don't have one.

I've been clean for a year and a half now.

[SixToedPete]

Interesting post Druff.

Don't you hate it when the owner of popular website changes the rules on the fly completely disregarding how such unreasonable changes affect a member?

It's unfair but often an owner doesn't give a shit about the hoi polloi.

What do you think the members should do?

[Walter Sobchak]

Am I the only PFA'er without a facebook account?

No.

[Hockey Guy]

Am I the only PFA'er without a facebook account?

Put me on the no facebook list. Never had it, never will.

As a matter of fact, Im the only person I know that doesn't have a cellphone. I get along just fine without it.

[DJ_Chaps]

Back when I first discovered my 'other' inbox, I had a great time reading the random shit.

But I was actually sad, cuz I had evidently lost a few chances at living like a King in Nigeria.

[408Mike]

Am I the only PFA'er without a facebook account?

Deleted mine over a year ago and never regretted the decision.

I hated how it eroded the time I spent with people I cared about and sure enough, people who matter are closer than ever, useless people have been filtered out.

Facebook sucks as do televisions and expressing feelings verbally. If you want to talk to someone go do it, if you want to watch sports find a friends house bar or someplace and watch with other people, if you like something show a person you do, saying you do is a waste of time and usually only partly true.

We lie when we speak yet we speak the truth when we act so stop speaking lies and start acting truthfully. Your loved ones will appreciate it and that includes the person who loves you most-

You

[ShawnFanningsLimpDick]

No I don't have one either. Although now I say I deleted it as it sounds edgier.

[yaahello]

also with timeline if you go back to 2007 or later years. if you go find where says # friends posted on your wall. there is some inbox msg that will show. my friend mention this to me and i when back n looked and there is definatly stuff that i know wouldnt of been sent to my wall.

[Deal]

Put me on the no facebook list. Never had it, never will.

As a matter of fact, Im the only person I know that doesn't have a cellphone. I get along just fine without it.

I am close. I have a pay as you go cell phone with 7/11. I use it exclusively as an emergency incoming phone and it is only turned on when my kids are not with me. I bought a $100 phone card last xmas, it came with a free phone and an extra $25 of usage. I have $95 left on it today.

[NaturalBornHustler]

I still have a few Facebook accounts, one for family, one for friends, and one for personal. But the only one I ever use is the business one in season to post pictures. Got a twitter account and never looked back, but even before that I rarely used FB on a regular basis.

I am a simple man, and Facebook just seemed like it kept getting more and more complicated and busy on the profile page or whatever. That is why I love Twitter so much, about as simple as it can get, but gets the job done of connecting to other people with your interests and what not.

I firmly believe that you will continue to see a trend down for Facebook with more people leaving for Twitter. I can't tell you how many times people say on there they had/have Facebook, but started getting on Twitter and never use it anymore. Seems to be people using one or the other but rarely both. (Some still do though)

Twitter also seems to have a much younger demographic with accounts that should grow with the company compared to the older more family oriented Facebook. I think as they grow older and expand their contacts/relationships so will the Twitterverse.

Back to the original question, I had no clue that there was an "other" inbox either. Again just more complicated as time goes on. Simple is better, at least in my book. I really don't even feel like checking mine.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Am I the only PFA'er without a facebook account?

discontinued it after reading an article that facebook tracks everywhere you shop on the net and sells your info to advertisers but google chrome does it too, there are supposed to be some good articles and a book about how to prevent tracking

[Anal_Hershiser]

I am a simple man

I still have a few Facebook accounts, one for family, one for friends, and one for personal.

A simple man wouldn't have one facebook account, let alone 3.

[NaturalBornHustler]

I still have a few Facebook accounts, one for family, one for friends, and one for personal.

A simple man wouldn't have one facebook account, let alone 3.

Apparently you missed the part where I said I only used one sparingly.

[Anal_Hershiser]

A simple man wouldn't have one facebook account, let alone 3.

Apparently you missed the part where I said I only used one sparingly.

No, I didn't. A simple man wouldn't have made even one account, let alone I guess what is actually 4, regardless of how often they are used. If you have made 4 fb accounts, one for friends, one personal, one for family, and one for business, you aren't a simple man.