Facebook Testing Paid Messaging With U.S. Users

Facebook is testing a system that allows its members to send messages to other users outside their social circle for a price: $1.
The “small experiment,” which began Dec. 20, will be evaluated to determine its “usefulness” to the social network’s American users.

The test will give a small number of Facebook users the option to pay to have a message routed to the inbox rather than the ‘other’ folder of a recipient they are not connected with.
“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,” reads Facebook’s blog.

“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.”

For now, the new messaging feature is only for personal messages between U.S. residents and will be limited to a maximum of one per week.
Facebook is also tweaking its filters in Messages. The newly named filters in the inbox — basic filtering and strict filtering — will determine if a message is sent to your inbox or into the ‘other’ folder, which is similar to a junk folder.

Those who select basic filtering, will see mostly messages from friends and some from friends of friends. Those who had their privacy at “friends of friends” or “everyone” will automatically be changed to basic filtering although it can be changed manually.
Those who choose strict filtering will mainly receive messages from friends in their inbox. People who had the previous setting set to “friends” will have strict filtering on.
With filters, the following types of messages may now reach your inbox:

• From someone using Messenger for Android, who is not on Facebook but has your contact info in their phone, wanted to send you a message
• From friend of a friend wanted to include you in a message about a party along with some of your mutual friends
• From a friend who wanted to send a message to your @facebook.com address

Users can still also block people they you don’t want to hear from on Facebook.

Post from: SiteProNews
Facebook Testing Paid Messaging With U.S. Users