Today Mixx added private mail functionality to its site. Mixx joins Propeller as the only two social news sites to offer private mail. Currently, you are only allowed to send private messages to your Mixx “friends.”
I’m sure there will be some folks out there that will say that offering private mail functionality is bad for social news sites, because it will encourage shameless marketers and promoters to create voting blocks and send messages back and forth on what to vote up and what to vote down. I think its a good move by Mixx because it’s just another little thing that differentiates them from the mighty Digg. Plus, if marketers, promoters, and spammers start using private mail to artificially inflate votes on their submissions, Mixx admins will surely be able to track messages and who is sending what to who. As with most socially focused sites, there are systems in place at Mixx to report spammers. So if users become “friends” with some one who turns out to be a spammer, they can simply report that they are getting spam private messages.
So do you think this is a good move by Mixx? Let us know.