This does work; I turned mine on a while ago after testing it, but no incoming yet from anyone and most people I know on here still haven't activated it. To do so, edit your own profile, go under Advanced Settings about 2/3 of the way down, and activate. probably the only useful option is to allow anyone to message, but if you]re like me and only use Houzz for gardenweb then you likely won't be flooded with useless messages.