Stand-by to Pay for Facebook Messages

[Guest fountainhall]

I am not a Facebook user and am delighted to remain one of the happy few. Now there’s another reason why I won’t join. Apparently Zuckerberg had previously said he’d like Facebook messaging to become an alternative to email. Not a great idea if there are still billions not on Facebook, I’d have thought.

 

But what about Facebook’s seeming about ‘face’. The boy genius has been testing the concept of charging subscribers for these messages that are sent to people not in “your circle of friends” and who may be marginally famous or more. In the UK, a pilot group of users is being charged fees ranging from a standard price of around £0.71 (US$1.08) which will get you a message to Prince Harry’s girlfriend ("Lay off 'im. I'm an easier lay") or the UK Culture Secretary ("Madam, I object to subsidy going to the Royal Shakespeare Company which permits nudity on stage"), or £10.68 to the handsome young diver Tom Daley ("Love to get my 'ands on your body, luv")! Author Salman Rushdie ("Precisely what was the meaning of that sentence on page 103 line 15 in 'Midnight's Children' all about")? That’ll cost you £10.08.

 

Now who on earth would wish to pay to send a message to the Culture Secretary who can be contacted free by email via the government’s Department of Culture web page?

 

The UK is not alone. This has been going on in the US since December and another 35 or so countries are also now being tested. Of course Facebook is palming this off as a way of “inhibiting spamming”. Oh really? And who designed the algorithms (is that the right word?) that enables such spamming in the first place? Rhetorical question!

Iain Mackenzie, a spokesman for Facebook Europe, said the charging structure should not be mistaken for a fame barometer.

 

"There's not a sliding scale based on fame. You can't infer someone's level of 'celebrity' from the numbers," he said.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/08/facebook-charging-users-celebrities

 

You could have fooled me! And the Stock Market doesn’t seem mightily impressed as Facebook’s stock has been falling for more than two months.

[TotallyOz]

LOL Well, I guess the only reason to send a message to someone like that is an ad. It won't faze me as I never send messages to anyone not in my friends list. I just checked and I have 4 friends. If they charge me for that, it might get expensive during the holidays.

[Guest scottishguy]

I'm unashamedly old fashioned and don't participate in things like Facebook & Twitter.

 

Also, if it was up to me the mobile phone would be de-invented as it only encourages people to disturb you at a time that invariably suits them but usually doesn't suit you at all.

 

Bah Humbug.

[Guest fountainhall]

I couldn't agree more!! I don't have a smartphone nor a pad, but there seems so much pressure to get both. Life ran perfectly smoothly 20 years ago when only those with large wallets and equally large briefcases could afford the brick-sized mobile phones.

[Bob]

I bitched for years when they introduced the fax machine.  I mean, what the hell, can't they wait a few days for the mail?  It and the later emergence of email simply made things "too fast."

 

As for facebook, I see zero value in it.  Had an account for 6 months or so and, given all the "friend requests" (90% of them from people I hardly knew and/or didn't really want to know), I deactivated the account.  Four or five months later, I all of a sudden got a load of emails from various siblings and friends asking me why the hell would I send them advertisements and junk from my facebook account (thankfully, most of them were ads for Sony products versus, let's say, viagra, dildos, or whatever).  Somehow somebody hacked into my facebook account and sent the crap to everybody who's email was listed there (on the "wall" and wherever) (and, for the record, I can guarantee it happened through Facebook and not through my own computer).  That really pissed me off.  So, I reactivated the account, deleted everything in sight, added a new 25-digit password, and deactivated again. Never again.

 

[i also wish to note that I spent hours trying to figure out how to actually contact somebody at Facebook - to report the problem and blow off some steam as to how they allowed outsiders to hack into one of their accounts.  I ultimately discovered that it is simply impossible to get an email address, telephone number, or physical address to contact anybody at Facebook.  Only a questionable outfit would leave its members in a lurch like that.]

[Guest]

I also intend to not join Facebook.

 

A smartphone is a quite different matter. For a start, I could decide to become an ex-smart phone owner any time I wanted, whereas it's apparently more difficult to remove all traces of Facebook membership.

 

I got a cheap smartphone recently & it is very handy for checking e-mail, taking photos etc. 

[Guest anonone]

Yes, there is a real difference between social media (facebook, twitter, etc) and smartphone/ tablet. 

 

I have no desire to participate in the facebook crap.  Seems like a gigantic waste of time...not to mention hearing from people I have no desire to get re-aquainted with.  There is a reason we did not keep in touch. 

 

I am very happy with smartphone and tablet though.  Both are useful, productive tools that make my life either more convinient or less burdensome.  I can travel with a small iPad and keep in touch with friends and work, manage finances, travel, and much more.  Not having to lug around a laptop, camera, and more is a real treat now. 

 

As an example, I cannot be isolated from work for any extended period of time.  With the smartphone / tablet, I can be sitting on the beach with BF, log onto work email for 10 minutes, and keep the boss happy.  No need to trudge back to the hotel, fire up a computer, and really interupt my vacation. 

 

Too bad I cannot take the leap and go totally remote with work...necessary to be in the office frequently.