Ma.gnolia Blog: More Message Control
Continuing with the theme of the week, I’ve been receiving a number of emails from members complaining about about Ma.gnolia messages they’ve been getting from spammers.
One of our goals in building and designing Ma.gnolia has been to make it easy for our members to connect and communicate. But, as we’ve grown and become more widely known, a small, but highly-impactful, number of people selfishly view Ma.gnolia and other social bookmarking sites a promotional tool they can exploit by any means they wish. And, one of those means has been member-to-member messaging.
Up until now, you have been able to send a message, bookmark recommendation, or group invitation to any member on the site. But, starting today, we have offer a new option that gives you control over whether other members can communicate with you.
Taking a cue from Twitter, rather than allowing anyone to send you a message, only people you add as a contact can send you a message unless you opt-in to allow anyone to send you message. This new option is on the Preferences pane of Your Profile.
Those you don’t count as a contact will still be able to give you thanks and count you as a contact. And, as always, you can choose whether you receive email notices for these actions on the same Preferences pane.
We hope this change helps balance the ability to connect and communicate with protecting you from unwanted messaging. Of course, we value any feedback or suggestions you might have about this feature in particular or messaging in Ma.gnolia in general.
Posted by Larry on February 6, 2008 | Mark This Post
Member Comments
Erik on February 6, 2008
While I agree with Chris in that it limits serendipity I am quite happy with being less barraged with soylent spam (it's made of people!).
Thank you for dealing with my griping too!
economist on February 6, 2008
I personally don't use the messaging feature in ma.gnolia, and wouldn't mind if it was disabled completely -- but I may be an extreme case.
Andrew on February 7, 2008
Nice feature! Glad you made this thing. It'll make ma.gnolia.com more authentic.
The Dude on February 7, 2008
I had a myspace band get in touch with me here, I hope this doesn't become a growing trend.
Sarah on February 7, 2008
This seems like a sensible solution. Thankfully, this hasn't been a problem for me, though other spamming issues have come up. Anything to discourage them, I say. Thanks for this. I love Ma.gnolia!
Todd on February 7, 2008
This change does indeed limit, but doesn't close it off completely. Give Thanks, activity in the sidebar links and group discussions still leave lots of space for finding new people in both person-to-person and collective contexts.
I think what we've learned is that some limits to serendipity are necessary. The extra degree of control that's been added will let people open themselves to the most possible serendipity, but we need to let them show their tolerance for unwanted surprises rather than require it for any participation. That said, I'm turning my option on to receive all messages, because I'm daring like that :)
bergen3000 on February 7, 2008
This makes sense. I'm glad you are ahead of the game on this one. It would have turned nasty down the road. Keep it up!
Mike on February 8, 2008
Bravo Larry. I was starting to get more of that crap than I was happy with... actually one is one too many when it comes to spam. Thank you for implementing this, and making it the default (smart move).
Cesar H on February 9, 2008
This is a great new feature guys, I don't have to worry about getting bombarded by spammers trying to depreciate my groups with nonsense bookmarks suggestions.
Although having a Flickr like contact management system would also be great. Somewhat like a tiered contact list: Acquaintance, Friend, Group Member, Family. Then have permission settings for each. Something to look for in the future maybe.
Ryan on February 11, 2008
As annoying as CAPTCHA widgets are, how about throwing that in the mix? When I come across one in the real world, it almost makes me feel like I'm commenting at a real person, because they've been dealing with spam just like me.
I'd say use CAPTCHA if the person isn't a contact.
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Chris on February 6, 2008
This sounds like a great idea, especially as Ma.gnolia gets bigger. Though at the same time, it limits serendipity somewhat... I wonder if it'd make sense to add a simple per-user wall feature like Facebook has?
In that case, it'd be impossible to mass-spam people, since the wall would only be accessible one page at a time...