Reply-All in Facebook

We all know some people who are a little over zealous the Reply-All button.

I promise you, I would never do that. I will never Reply-All when a Reply will suffice.

Unfortunately, facebook maliciously forces me to break that promise approximately bi-weekly.

There are many occasions when a Send To All response is completely appropriate. Well, not many, but a few. (Move it to a wiki, already!)

But there are countless times when Send To All is inefficient to the point of being rude.

Like that time somebody I hardly know sent spam to like, a hundred people, asking if anybody wanted to sublet her apartment for the summer. I had absolutely no interest in subletting her apartment, and yet I was forced to witness a 10 message exchange: “Hey, I might be. How much per month” “$350″ “Including utilities?” “Yeah. And oh yeah, there’s great parking” “Anywhere for bikes?”.

I would have much preferred that these two take their conversation away from the rest of us. And maybe they would have, if given the option.

See, facebook? Sometimes I don’t want to reply all.

Presenting users with ONLY a Send To All button is like an English teacher who allows students to submit essays written in text-speak, or commenting “haha hilarious!” on really lame blog post where the author talks in detail about her new shoes, her boyfriend (named only by initial), and how drunk she got on Friday: it’s only going to build bad habits.

Come on facebook. One more button. Seriously? Is it that hard?