Genealogy Chat

I've just checked my FB page .................

you have to open Messages, then you see number of Messages from friends, PLUS in faint type Message R...

If you click on that it shows as Message Requests

In my case, no messages ................. I assume that is why the Message R was only in faint type.

BUT you do have to open Messages before you see Message Requests, so if you are like me, and never bother looking to see if there any new messages, you still won't see Message Requests!

yes, that is the long-known problem referred to :-)

so it looks like Facebook has solved it, as the 'messages requests' will appear in the same place as normal messages, and it will then just be a matter of whether people check their messages at Facebook at all, and of course whether they choose to reply, if so.

I've long known about this problem ..................... I sent a note to a friend via his wife's FB page.

He doesn't have FB himself, his wife does know of me, we are supposedly FB friends. BUT my message went into the Other box, and she never saw it, so neither did he!

On the Living Relatives board, searches often turn up Facebook pages of the people being sought, or their children etc.

The problem is that when a stranger sent a message to a Facebook user, the person sending the message wasn't a "friend" and so the person it was sent to often didn't see it because the message went to some obscure message box that, apparently, many people didn't know was there.

I have just read this article on line from 28 October:

http://fox2now.com/2015/10/28/facebook-finally-ditching-creepy-message-folder/

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LONDON — Facebook is finally ditching its “other” message folder.

Not sure what that is? You are not alone. Few users were aware of the feature, and even fewer used it. The folder was a kind of black hole for messages typically sent by strangers.

Most often, those messages consisted of spam, creepy pick-up lines >>>> and the occasional note from a long-lost friend.

Facebook hoped the feature would filter out spam and unwanted messages. But the folder was only accessible through the desktop version of the social network, and users weren’t notified when new messages landed there.

Facebook said it’s replacing the folder with a “message requests feature.”

“We’re removing the “Other Folder” … and are enabling you to accept or ignore new requests without the requestor knowing you’ve read their message,” said David Marcus, the vice president of messaging products at Facebook.

>>>> That means message from friends and contacts will be delivered as usual, while everything else will be a “message request.”

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Aha, this has now gone live. So maybe I'm the last to know :-)

https://www.facebook.com/help/907368596013605

But I did see a warning this week in a reply to a post on Living Relatives that a message might not be seen, so this feature doesn't seem to be widely known yet.

It might mean that more people will be able to make contact with friends and family via Facebook.