While I'm not against the idea of attempting to communicate with aliens, I think it should be done only after careful and thought out deliberation. I think it's simply prudent for the human race to sit back and just listen for others right now. Let's try to discover them before they discover us. Then we can learn whatever we can about them and then decide if we want to send a message.
What's not prudent is blasting a message towards Proxima Centauri B. There are several reasons for this but chief among them is that it's unlikely to be inhabited by an alien civilization. There are no indicators that such a civilization is there and while the planet may well have liquid water and a potential for life, we really don't yet know how great that potential is. It could be near zero for all we know.
We've known about this world for less than a year. We know almost nothing solid about it. Sending a message there is just an act of expending resources and money on something that has a very low chance of paying off. And if it does pay off by some miracle, we have no idea what the payoff will be. What happens if the Proximans find our message offensive? Or threatening?
It's simply too early in the game for projects like METI.
http://phys.org/news/2016-12-scientists-worlds.html
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