Today, I went to send a message to one of my wife’s friends, with whom I’m not friends on Facebook, and found the following message awaiting me, where footnotes correspond to Facebook’s explanations:

You aren’t connected to on Facebook, so your message would normally get filtered to his Other folder. You can:

• Send this message to his Inbox for $1.00
• Just send this message to his Other folder

The popup text for the first option:

Paying to reach someone you aren’t connected to helps confirm your message isn’t spam.

The text on the linked page for the second option:

What is the “Other” folder in my messages?

Your Other folder is where you’ll find messages and emails that have been filtered out of your inbox. You can change your filter preference right from your inbox.

To get to your Other folder, click Messages on the left side of the homepage. At the top left of your main messages view, click Other.

You can move a message to your Inbox by replying, or by opening the message and selecting Move to Inbox from the Actions menu.

The long and short of it is, Facebook is now charging you money if you want to send a message to someone that they’ll actually see. I didn’t even know I had an Other folder; I’ve certainly never checked it, and – most importantly – as it doesn’t show up in my notifications, I probably never will! The same is almost certainly true of the person to whom I wished to send the message.

It’s a clever monetization strategy… sort of. The problem is, it’s one more thing pushing me away from using Facebook. You see, I joined Facebook to communicate with people. More and more, however, Facebook itself is making that difficult. I was never one of the Facebook naysayers that complained about site redesigns, etc. (though as a designer I did have a few choice words about the hilariously terrible layout of Timeline). I am, however, increasingly dissatisfied with the utility Facebook provides.

The truth is, I use Facebook less and less for any actual interactions with friends. Instead, I use it primarily as a site to share things that said friends may be interested to read (or to see what they have shared that I may be interested to read). A slightly more friend-oriented version of Twitter or RSS, in other words.

This change will only exacerbate that tendency. If I can’t send someone a message that he or she is likely to see, I’m less likely to use Facebook at all. Plain and simple.

Facebook undoubtedly has to make money. The IPO didn’t go so well for them, and the company’s early months as a publicly traded company haven’t exactly been promising. Advertising revenue has never been the home run that everyone in the early 2000’s though it would prove to be. Everyone is looking for non-advertising means of monetization. The problem Facebook faces here, though, is simple: I can probably find this fellow’s email address. And then I don’t need Facebook at all. I doubt I’m the only one.