Mini Byte: David Pogue Looks at the "Other" Side of Your Facebook Life*

It is hard to compete with David Pogue, the New York Times tech writer, because he writes so well about technology and its practical applications.  Pogue often focuses not the technical wizardry itself, but on whether the technology actually accomplishes something that users want.

Two recent columns on Facebook's "Other" message directory are good examples.  (The foregoing link is to the second article, which as a link in it to the first.)  Facebook has a messaging feature in it by which users can send you messages.  Messages from your FB "Friends" go in your "Inbox".  Then, there is the "Other" box.   Like email, most of us want to get message that matter to us, but do not want spam or other irrelevant communication. Most of us, myself included overlooked the "Other" box or assumed that it contained spam or other unwanted posts.

How good is the "Friends"/"Other" function in Facebook at striking a balance between the wanted and unwanted?  First, users of FB need to know the difference and the intended function between the two inboxes.

Pogue set out to make FB users aware of the "Other" box and its function.  In response to his first post, readers went to their "Other" box.  Some found spam or other junk.  Some found much more, however, which is discussed in Pogue's second column:  notification of prize winnings, long lost friend, FB would be "Friends" (or stalkers).  When I looked into my "Other" box, I found a lot of invitations or concert ticket announcements that I probably would have wanted to see at the time they were sent.  There were also somewhat odd items, like an actual announcement from FB about policy changes.  (Do FB consider its own policies "junk"???)  You might hope that there is an easy way to move the messages that you would like to see in the future over to the "Inbox".

Unfortunately, as Pogue points out, here is where Facebook's technology breaks down:

You have only two options here: Basic (the factory setting, the one causing all the problems) and Strict.
Unfortunately, the Strict option puts even more messages into the “Other” folder! It’s making the problem of missed messages worse. (A warning there even says: “You may miss messages from other people you know.”)

Look: it’s clear that the “Other”-folder system is broken in a very upsetting way. It’s preventing important connections, blocking the very communications that Facebook was created to foster.

Let’s hope that Facebook finds a better solution to blocking unwanted messages. Because right now, the secret Other folder is swallowing up a lot more than spam.

It also seems difficult to get rid of the four years' worth of unread messages that I found in my "Other" box.  Facebook only seems to allow you to delete them individually (as "conversations", even though you never knew they were there or responded to them).

Read Pogue's second column at this link: David Pogue.  And, go your Facebook "Other" box (click on "Messages" first) and see what's in the your "Other" of your life.*

08/01/2013 - Here is a short update to this post:

I went to send a post on Facebook to someone with whom I was not "connected" (a FB "Friend").  This interesting message appeared below the post text box:

Your message will go to [Name of recipient]'s Other folder because you aren't connected to her on Facebook. See More

When I clicked on See More, here's the pop-up that appeared:

Send this message directly to her Inbox for $1.00 USD

So Facebook is now trying to squeeze cash out of us to get our posts into someone's Inbox!  Everything for a price!


*Apologies to Fred Neil for my abuse of the title to is great song "Other Side of  This Life" (perhaps better known to some by The Jefferson Airplane's cover version).