5 ms·

Why Private Messages Suck

7 points by PStamatiou 19y ago

cstejerean 19y ago
I'd say the reason private messages are used (and the reason everyone wants to reinvent the wheel for their social networking site) is that it is more convenient to send a message to someone directly from the site you are using when you see their name or profile than to switch over to your mail client and fire up an email. Also keep in mind that a lot of the target audience of sites like Facebook are on university run email servers which generally have a less than pretty user interface. I would like to see more systems however allow you to view the message in the email and allow you to respond by hitting reply.
- rms 19y ago
  As a university student who regular communicates using facebook messages instead of email, I can say that in the current culture email is seen as overly former. I use it when I'm communicating about classwork, but for anything social, email is almost inappropriate. I realize it's kind of ridiculous, but it's how it is and everyone I know checks their facebook account just as much if not more than their their email inbox anyways. As you said, it doesn't help that Pitt has a terrible web-based email UI.
  - cstejerean 19y ago
    This is a very interesting point. I've always used email or IM as the primary form of communication but I think I got in this habit from work, not school. I am wondering if more students used something like GMail and Google Talk if email would become a more appropriate means of communication.
    - rms 19y ago
      Yes, I think it would. The people that I talk to using Facebook messages are generally less technically proficient than those that forward their Pitt email to Gmail. Our school lets you set up email forwarding really nicely. Anyone that I already communicate with on Google Talk (my preferred means on internet communication) I would email over sending a Facebook message.
  - Zak 19y ago
    It seems to me that the best thing (for the user) would be to allow forwarding of Facebook messages to an arbitrary email account. I really don't get the 'email is dead' thing though. Recently, somebody trying to contact me asked a mutual friend for my Myspace page (I don't have one) instead of my email, phone or IM information. It wouldn't bother me much if these systems were open. I wouldn't mind having a social-networking ID if I could interact with other services instead of having to log in to each one. I have one mail client and one Jabber client. I could use them to connect to a thousand accounts each, and users of tens of thousands of other providers can interact with those accounts. Oops... this just turned in to a rambling rant.
    - karzeem 19y ago
      Exactly. The social networks' messaging systems are convenient front ends, but there's no reason that they can't all share data.
      - rms 19y ago
        I'm sure open access to facebook messaging will come eventually. There's no rush because facebook is the market leader and most people don't realize there is something wrong with having to log into facebook to reply to messages.
        Zak 19y ago
        The problem is other people having to have a facebook (or myspace, etc...) account to receive messages from you. Half the people I want to talk to have facebook, almost half have myspace, a few have both, a few have some other social networking service and a few have none. They all have email, and most of them don't consider it outdated. I realize I don't have much in common with the average high-school/college student, but I suspect many of them get annoyed with this multi-network situation too. Inter-network personal messaging is a solved problem - RFC 821 came out in 1982.
  - chmike 19y ago
    Could you explain where the difference comes from ? Why is email "overly former" ?
    - rms 19y ago
      Sorry. I meant to say "formal." Email seems formal to people who have never communicated socially on the internet via anything other than facebook.
      - gwenhwyfaer 19y ago
        But for those of us who've been online since before Netscape was founded, email seems natural and adaptable (it can be either formal or informal). Having said which, the usefulness of email has been quite eroded by the small number of sociopaths flooding it with useless ads for dubious products in what can only be a calculated effort to destroy it altogether.
- Zak 19y ago
  Getting this sort of thing right doesn't seem to translate to winning in the market, at least not in the short term. Doesn't Livejournal do this? Of course, I suspect Livejournal will still be around in ten years, while Myspace won't. I'm not sure about Facebook, as it still seems to be evolving pretty fast.
Goladus 19y ago
which you check 144 times per day assuming you use Gmail Which is probably not a good assumption to make. Tons of people are using gmail, or hotmail or some other email with a web interface, but it's not everyone. So long as facebook messages can be checked from any computer, versus email which is usually checked from home, people will still use both.

7 points by PStamatiou 19y ago

I'd say the reason private messages are used (and the reason everyone wants to reinvent the wheel for their social networking site) is that it is more convenient to send a message to someone directly from the site you are using when you see their name or profile than to switch over to your mail client and fire up an email. Also keep in mind that a lot of the target audience of sites like Facebook are on university run email servers which generally have a less than pretty user interface. I would like to see more systems however allow you to view the message in the email and allow you to respond by hitting reply.

rms 19y ago
As a university student who regular communicates using facebook messages instead of email, I can say that in the current culture email is seen as overly former. I use it when I'm communicating about classwork, but for anything social, email is almost inappropriate. I realize it's kind of ridiculous, but it's how it is and everyone I know checks their facebook account just as much if not more than their their email inbox anyways. As you said, it doesn't help that Pitt has a terrible web-based email UI.
- cstejerean 19y ago
  This is a very interesting point. I've always used email or IM as the primary form of communication but I think I got in this habit from work, not school. I am wondering if more students used something like GMail and Google Talk if email would become a more appropriate means of communication.
  - rms 19y ago
    Yes, I think it would. The people that I talk to using Facebook messages are generally less technically proficient than those that forward their Pitt email to Gmail. Our school lets you set up email forwarding really nicely. Anyone that I already communicate with on Google Talk (my preferred means on internet communication) I would email over sending a Facebook message.
- Zak 19y ago
  It seems to me that the best thing (for the user) would be to allow forwarding of Facebook messages to an arbitrary email account. I really don't get the 'email is dead' thing though. Recently, somebody trying to contact me asked a mutual friend for my Myspace page (I don't have one) instead of my email, phone or IM information. It wouldn't bother me much if these systems were open. I wouldn't mind having a social-networking ID if I could interact with other services instead of having to log in to each one. I have one mail client and one Jabber client. I could use them to connect to a thousand accounts each, and users of tens of thousands of other providers can interact with those accounts. Oops... this just turned in to a rambling rant.
  - karzeem 19y ago
    Exactly. The social networks' messaging systems are convenient front ends, but there's no reason that they can't all share data.
    - rms 19y ago
      I'm sure open access to facebook messaging will come eventually. There's no rush because facebook is the market leader and most people don't realize there is something wrong with having to log into facebook to reply to messages.
      - Zak 19y ago
        The problem is other people having to have a facebook (or myspace, etc...) account to receive messages from you. Half the people I want to talk to have facebook, almost half have myspace, a few have both, a few have some other social networking service and a few have none. They all have email, and most of them don't consider it outdated. I realize I don't have much in common with the average high-school/college student, but I suspect many of them get annoyed with this multi-network situation too. Inter-network personal messaging is a solved problem - RFC 821 came out in 1982.
- chmike 19y ago
  Could you explain where the difference comes from ? Why is email "overly former" ?
  - rms 19y ago
    Sorry. I meant to say "formal." Email seems formal to people who have never communicated socially on the internet via anything other than facebook.
    - gwenhwyfaer 19y ago
      But for those of us who've been online since before Netscape was founded, email seems natural and adaptable (it can be either formal or informal). Having said which, the usefulness of email has been quite eroded by the small number of sociopaths flooding it with useless ads for dubious products in what can only be a calculated effort to destroy it altogether.
Zak 19y ago
Getting this sort of thing right doesn't seem to translate to winning in the market, at least not in the short term. Doesn't Livejournal do this? Of course, I suspect Livejournal will still be around in ten years, while Myspace won't. I'm not sure about Facebook, as it still seems to be evolving pretty fast.

Goladus 19y ago

which you check 144 times per day assuming you use Gmail Which is probably not a good assumption to make. Tons of people are using gmail, or hotmail or some other email with a web interface, but it's not everyone. So long as facebook messages can be checked from any computer, versus email which is usually checked from home, people will still use both.