Mass Invites and Why We Hate Them

Being a part of social media on places like Facebook does a lot to get a message out to the general public.  You can post a cause, a rant or even share a funny video and see a reaction from a large number of your friends.

And sometimes this can cause issues.  In some of the applications on Facebook you can send a mass notification/invite to all your friends to either come in and play a game or vote up a cause you sponsor.

These have become so annoying to some that a special line of memes has been created for just such an occasion.

Google Search Result

Google Search Result

As an avid gamer, I really have no issue with game invites.  If I don't want to play I go over and click the notification and choose to ignore the game.  I do it once for each game and boom no more invitations.

The steps are -  Click on Games under the APPS heading

Facebook Screenshot

Click the X next to the invite or notification and choose "Block game name" and you're done.  Now that being said, I would never block Words with Friends, that's really the only game I play and I love Barbie-gard so I would never block her either.

Facebook Screenshot

The point is that you can easily block a game invite while keeping your friends and don't have to post the crazy aggressive threats to kill people if they send you game invites.

Now, let's talk about the sender.  While Facebook makes it so easy to mass invite your friends, why not take a moment and think about the invites you're sending.  Sure, they can click no and move on but really why send a game about killing turtles to a friend who is an animal lover.  Why send an invitation to add nativity displays to the atheist on your friends list?  It really doesn't make sense.  I can see why the anti gamer group gets so upset at having hundreds of these in their inbox at one time.

So before you hit that "send to all my friends" button, take a moment to think about a few things.  Is this something I care so much about that I want to send it to all my friends?  How about I just share it on my wall and those that want to click on it, can?  Remember to be polite when notifying your friends about games or other things you follow and want to invite them to.  Mass invites are like junk mail.  You're not asking Barb to play Words with Friends, you're asking the world to play and that's just not cool.

By the way, I love Words with Friends and that is pretty much the only game I play.  Those that want to play are welcome to send me an invite.  Other games that are sent, I will just block.  I won't get mad, or post a nastygram on my newsfeed.   :)