How about a feed that just generates a single welcome message. That way people feed it in and there's just a single post "Hey, I'm using SocialMail! Click this link to message me" - FFing Enigma

That could work, but do you think we're missing something valuable? I'm thinking about how this relates to @replies in Twitter. How about a daily notice of how many messages you got? Just trying to think outside the box.... - Carter ♥ JS

Hmmm... All I know is that the current feed X sent a message to Y strikes me as not very private (but that may just be my feeling and not anyone else's). Maybe just "X sent a message using SocialMail!". I could see a daily count "X sent 13 SocialMails and received 1 SocialMail today" being nice for someone who doesn't check their email daily (does that describe any FFers, though?) - FFing Enigma

Does anybody else have an opinion on this? Some people have told me privately they don't like the "X sent a message to Y" and "A received a message from B" items in the RSS. Any other ideas? - Carter ♥ JS

Or maybe just "X got a message on SocialMail!". Everyone likes getting mail, and verbiage like that wouldn't show who sent it. It specifically shows that the person received it (which let's your followers know you're accepting messages). - FFing Enigma

Yeah. But then the RSS feed looks like an infinite loop of "You got a message!" items. :( I want to provide some value/insight, but I need to respect privacy. Maybe the daily digest of "X got 10 SocialMails today!" will have to do... - Carter ♥ JS

I like the daily digest idea mainly because a private message isn't really private if you're broadcasting that you're sending private messages to people. - Lindsay

Yeah, but privacy is a moving target. RSS subscriptions are generally fairly private. But FF subscriptions are totally public. I know who X is subscribed to. And there are pros and cons to that. So, I guess I'm trying to find some middle-ground where we create something that's useful without freaking people out. - Carter ♥ JS

What about a generic digest "X got N SocialMails today" unless a mail is spawned from a FF post (if there could/will be UI that allows one to associate (optionally) a mail with a FF post/comment thread) which could then show "X got 4 SocialMails from [FF post permalink], 3 SocialMails from [permalink2], etc. It would provide another facet of the social graph, which could approach the first-class citizens of comments and likes. - Micah

I agree that RSS feeds are public, but this is a service to send DMs to people... even Twitter doesn't publish who you're sending your DMs to or the frequency. I like the summary without the recipient name because otherwise you could get people in trouble... Not that I'm particularly worried, but Tad might get jealous if he saw me sending a bunch of private messages to one of the FF studmuffins. :) Just wanted to point that out. - Lindsay

I don't disagree with any of these points. I guess I was just pushing this room to really chew on this issue before I "gave in". But you're all probably right. I'll cook-up a new format for the feed shortly. - Carter ♥ JS

Ok! I created a new domain, and now we have a new feed. Here's mine: http://www.socialdm.com/feed.... It's just a daily digest of activity, and it's easy to add to FriendFeed as a Custom/Atom feed. Check it out! - Carter ♥ JS