This should help reduce the amount of unwanted messages you (mostly women, obviously) receive.
You can now control who can start a brand new message thread with you, available options are…
– Everyone (the default)
– Friends Only
– Nobody
To make changes, click the gear/cog icon at the bottom of your Private Messages threads list and select the preferred option. You can change this whenever you want, as often as you want.
So, for example, if you fancy using the site for a while without being annoyed by pop-up message notifications, then simply set it to NOBODY. And when you’re ready, set it back to EVERYONE. Your choice.
PLEASE NOTE: this control only applies to Brand New message threads. Ongoing message threads are not affected.
Let me know in the comments section if this proves helpful in reducing/controlling unwanted messages. There is the danger, of course, that those determined to annoy you will simply switch to Friends Requests with attached message. We can deal with that if it becomes an issue.