

What Readers Found in Facebook’s ‘Other’ Folder - ghosh
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/pogue/2013/07/20/what-readers-found-in-facebooks-other-folder/

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user24
I found a message which read:

Hi Howard,

This is just a friendly follow up from Facebook. A few years ago we had
contacted you about positions at Facebook. Your background in web development
is of interest to us. Just a quick follow up to see if you may be interested
at this time in revisiting opportunities at Facebook? Please email a copy of
your latest resume if you are interested and we can go from there. Thanks and
hope to hear back from you!

(contact details followed)

The message was sent in April. It wasn't until October that I found it. (I
replied but decided that the time wasn't right for me).

------
makmanalp
My favourites are:

\- Facebook Site Governance Facebook has proposed an updated privacy policy.
We encourage you to view the proposal and offer your comments at
[http://www.facebook.com/fbsitegovernance?v=app_4949752878](http://www.facebook.com/fbsitegovernance?v=app_4949752878)
....

\- Facebook Notice of class settlement Facebook is sending you this notice of
a proposed class action settlement that may affect your legal rights as a
Facebook member who may have used the Beacon program. This summary notice is
being sent to you by Court Order so that you may understand your rights and
remedies before the Court considers final approval of the proposed settlement
on February 26, 2010.

------
herbig
Don't rely on Facebook as a communications channel.

If a friend dies and you only found out about via a personal Facebook message,
fault your other friends for attending the funeral without you, or stop
pretending this person was a valued friend.

Job openings should be emailed to you directly if you're a good fit. If it's
via Facebook, it's probably a copy/pasted recruiter message, you're not
special.

Mostly, if you're using a service every day, don't complain when you suddenly
realize you don't know how it works.

~~~
gocard
If you're using a service every day, and a lot of people don't understand how
it works, I'd suggest that's a flaw with the design of the product or its
features.

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ktrgardiner
Sigh. Like others posting here, I checked my other folder. I missed a message
from May inviting me to a bachelorette party for a friend getting married in
September. It was last month. I know this because I saw the pictures on
Facebook and was saddened that I wasn't invited. Now I'm even more sad.

So thanks Facebook. You had one job: to facilitate my connections to people.
And you royally screwed up and caused me to miss out on a very special day in
a close friend's life that I will never be able to get back.

~~~
vijayr
I can't understand this dependency on FB for everything, even among friends
and family. I mean, if someone is contacting you _only_ through FB, is it real
friendship? It would take 2 mins for her to send you the invite via email - or
she can text, or call.

Sometimes I feel Facebook friends are not real friends.

~~~
lusr
These people are using Facebook with the expectation it works like email. Why
do you feel the two are so different? In my experience, the average computer
user doesn't like fiddling with email addresses - Facebook is far more
friendly (opportunity for a new email client?).

Email is not immune to these issues, either. This scenario is the equivalent
to sending an email and having it end up in your friend's spam folder
(although arguably Facebook should be more heavily invested in getting this
right!)

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antjanus
Well, this is shitty. I did check my "other folder" a few months ago and found
nothing but spam. Decided to scroll down through it.

Turns out that back when I was in high school, five years ago, a girl I had a
crush on messaged me her number, address, and asked me if I'm coming to her
party.

Well, thanks a lot Facebook. -.-

~~~
dcsommer
The other folder didn't exist 5 years ago.

~~~
antjanus
well then. I missed it anyways.

------
kyllo
A buddy of mine found a note from one of his wife's friends, telling him that
she suspected his wife was cheating on him.

Because it was in the "Other" inbox, he didn't see it until over a year after
she sent it, and after he had caught her cheating himself, and divorced her.
He could have found out a lot sooner if that note had gone to his normal
inbox!

------
thehme
This is why I do not rely on Social Media for communication. Give people a
call, especially if it is important.

~~~
r00fus
And if you're calling me and don't know my mobile - my GV (whitelisted; non-
unknown callers route directly to voicemail) is accessible everywhere if you
know my name or have received a single email from me (in my .sig).

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uncoder0
Conversely, my 'Other' folder is filled with trash from three years ago. Seems
to be working as intended for my uses.

------
lectrick
I found a bunch of missed stuff which made me very angry. Relatives I was out
of touch with, old coworkers, events I might have attended, etc.

There's 2 problems at work here. 1) Someone doesn't realize that false
positives when it comes to spam filtering are very, very, very bad. 2) Someone
else outrageously tried to monetize the fixing of that.

I do like the refunding idea, though. But then, knowing that the other person
won't get refunded unless you respond puts too much guilt on you to respond...

------
ilconsigliere
From the article:

"Several readers wanted to know how they could access the Other folder on
their phones or tablets.

The answer: you can’t. The Facebook apps don’t permit you to see the Other
folder. (You can, of course, go to www.facebook.com in your phone or tablet’s
Web browser — don’t use the app — to work on the Other folder there.)"

You can on Android: hit the gear symbol next to the 'Messages' menu option in
the Facebook app menu

~~~
jonemo
And you can't really on Android using a web browser (I tried in Firefox). The
link to the "Other Messages" folder is underneath the message list, which
keeps getting longer (endless list style) as you scroll down.

------
IsaacL
When I see things like, I try to actually answer the question "why don't they
fix this"? Often it's not because the company in question is dumb, but because
they're operating within certain design constraints.

Think of the design space here:

Given: 1\. Facebook has close to a billion profiles linked to people's real
names. 2\. By default, these profiles are publicly searchable.

You want to design messaging so that: 3\. People can message people they're
not friends with. 4\. But you don't want to encourage spammers in any way.

3 & 4 are hard to reconcile. If you have what is essentially a global
telephone directory, letting people message anyone is going to lead to
horrendous spam. By the sounds of the article, they do some clever filtering
to let you know if your message gets through, but it seems they still have to
learn towards too-strict filtering. (It's not just viagra and penis
enlargement pills - probably most FB spam would be "LIKE our page for the BEST
student events in Reno" or "hey girl u look fine u got bf?")

Maybe the pay-a-dollar-and-get-refunded-if-they-reply feature could work, I
don't know.

------
throwaway0001
To add another story, about a year ago I came across the 'other' folder which
contained a message from an intermediary organisation - apparently my birth
mother wanted to get in touch.

Maybe a controversial use of Facebook messaging, however wouldn't fault fb for
filtering it out of my inbox.

------
duckworth
Wow, just looked in there and found a message from an old close high school
friend's mother. My friend had passed away many years ago and haven't talked
to his parents for 20 years. We were best friends at the time and I was very
close to his parents. I had no idea that those messages existed.

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kevando
Duuuuuude! Someone found my wallet two months ago and fb messaged me, but it
ended up there.

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zbowling
I hate the damn paywall.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I used my credit card to clear it up :-) But mild snark aside, the meta-
question of value vs cost is one that I am really interested in.

The Times implemented a 'some number free' and then paywall feature. For my
wife, who only reads an article there when someone points it out to her, she
doesn't hit the limit which provokes the paywall. Has that been your
experience or are you just reading a number of articles?

~~~
justinsteele
I only read them when "pointed out to me". Unfortunately for me, many articles
on hackernews or reddit that have caught my eye have been from the times. Part
of me thinks "Well, I guess that means I would get enough value from
purchasing a subscription", and then the rest of me thinks their lowest tier
is too expensive, and they should offer some middle of the road "read 25
articles a month before getting paywalled again" option.

------
3stripe
I recently found this, sent in January...

"Thanks for giving me your details on [INTERNET DATING WEBSITE], sorry is this
a bit weird that I am contacting you on Facebook - couldn’t find an email
address for you. You probably are thinking that I am a bit of a cheapskate, no
excuse really just haven’t really got round to renewing. How was your new
year?"

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the_cat_kittles
Fuck me! a missed opportunity from 2012 for 2-5 commissioned musical works!

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delluminatus
Interestingly, my Other folder (which I used when navigating apartment
subletting in a new city) is broken. It just "loads" forever.

I have three unread messages in it, too...

