How to deal with people who keep demanding replies to Spacebook messages?

I keep getting notifications about friends who wants me to reply to their Spacebook messages. However, I can't get rid of them, even if I write them new messages.

One is a crazy ex-girlfriend, whom I've messaged with extensively, another is one of my good friends. Every day I get a -10 penalty to relationship, since I've neglected to reply to their messages. The ex can be ignored, but I have to hang out with this other dude every day to negate the penalty ... and he still wants me to reply to some message. Gosh, what is his problem? Having friends and doing friend things suck!

I read all messages. I've also deleted every message, so if there is some hidden "reply" button, I guess it can no longer be used after I deleted said message.

Is this a bug, hidden feature, or do I just have unreasonable friends/ex-girlfriends?