Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) decision to experiment with charging users as much as $100 to private message a member who is not their ‘friend’ has been criticized as unfair. The message sender has no guarantee that the message he paid good money for was actually read by the recipient and the recipient doesn’t see a dime of the fee Facebook ostensibly collected on her behalf. Facebook wins, its users lose and social discovery is throttled. Is there a way for a social network to charge for messaging that’s fair to its users and doesn’t put a damper on social discovery?

Social network MyGirlFund has been charging male members a fee to private message female members since its inception over four years ago. Its community continues to thrive and interaction levels continue to grow because it structures the messaging fee in a way that’s a win for all of its users. Guys are only charged the 1 credit flat fee if they receive a reply from the lady they have messaged, otherwise it’s free. The lady who received the message and replied gets up to 90% of the message fee.

“Obviously we’re a minnow and Facebook is the Leviathon,” MyGirlFund Director of Business Development Stefan said, “but we think they should take notice of how we are facilitating paid-for interaction in an equitable way. A social network is only as good as the utility you provide your members. You have to give your users their money’s worth.”

MyGirlFund has created a comfortable adults-only online community that nurtures intimate relationships and enables men to enjoy a virtual ‘girlfriend experience’ with female members . “As a self-organizing community, we’re more similar to Facebook than we are to adult sites,” Stefan added. “While we charge for reciprocated messages, fostering free and open social discovery is a priority and we enable that with our free live chat feature and our open community architecture.”

ABOUT MYGIRLFUND:

Mygirlfund (www.mygirlfund.com) is a social network that connects men with women who are seeking intimate friends willing to help them achieve their financial goals. Its Pay As You Go business model motivates members to participate actively in community building and inspires them to create, share and market content as well as develop personal relationships with other members.