Facebook Is Now Charging You $1 To Send Messages?!

This afternoon I was trying to send someone a message on Facebook, and the message above was what I saw. Apparently, if you are not "friends" with someone it will cost you $1 to send them a message that actually ends up in their inbox.

This is ludicrous.

I know Facebook needs to make money, but charging me to send a message to someone? That's twisted.

I guess the saving grace is that your message will still get to the other person, IF they check their 'other' messages. (I checked mine last week and had 61 messages in there, some of which were actually important and timely.) To check that you just have to click on your messages icon and find the 'other' folder.

That's easy enough, but seems stupid to have an 'inbox' that will not see all of your messages.

What do I have to say to Facebook wanting me to pay a dollar to send a message?

I say no.

I will not pay to message someone when I can email them or call them for free. "But Facebook is the only way I know how to get a hold of them," you say. Well, if Facebook is the only way you could possibly get in touch with someone, then you're probably not very close and your message is probably not all that important. If it is, maybe you should get their number and keep it handy.

On the plus side, this should make me a little more apt to check my 'other' messages folder more often.

I see this as more of a gateway for FB to sell messages to companies who would gladly pay a dollar to send advertisements to FB users directly.

What do you think of the new paid message feature?