Comments for Facebook to Punish Stupid Applications, Reward Good Ones

Facebook to Punish Stupid Applications, Reward Good Ones

2008-02-06T16:18:58Z

ﾠOn the same night the sophisticated MySpace Application Platform was released to developers, Facebook announced an important forthcoming development that should make FB apps a whole lot less annoying. Let the Platform Wars begin!
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Starting next week, Facebook apps that get good user responses from Newsfeed messages (clickthroughs, app installs) will be allowed to send more notifications and apps that get fewer user responses to their notices will have the number of notices they can send cut down. Metered messaging based on user engagement could save the Facebook Platform from a growing sense of app fatigue.

]]> ﾠNewsfeed notices are the Holy Grail for Facebook Apps, but the limits placed on the numbers allowed have always been a bit arbitrary. Allow too many notifications to be sent and users feel spammed by their friends' stupid zombie tossing, allow too few and application growth (and FB pageviews) are stunted.
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This new policy is reminiscent of the Facebook app metric displayed to users concerning the percentage of users who have installed an app who use it daily. That's supposed to be helpful in determining how good an app is before you install it, but all the numbers are so low that it only helps so much. The fact that MySpace will allow apps to appear on users' home admin pages is going to lead to much higher user engagement there and may lead to Facebook emulation of that policy on its Platform.ﾠ

This Facebook strategy of metering message quantity based on user feedback is a smarter way to leverage those types of numbers behind the scenes and should make a bigger difference in the user experience than the daily use numbers have. Note that this is only concerning newsfeed notifications, if you're plagued with unwanted app invites still - make sure to check out IgnoreAll.com.
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The Race to Be Less Annoying

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In an interview I did with MySpace CTO Aber Whitcomb about the MySpace Platform this week, it was clear that MySpace has no policy worked out yet for this sort of thing. Whitcomb said they would figure things out once apps are live and do their best to prevent apps from being spammy. They are likely to follow Facebook's approach as reflected in this announcement.
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Innovation in Platform specifics is likely to get hot as Facebook is no longer the only game in town. MySpace's Platform is based on the Google-lead Open Social system, meaning that apps built there should be able to live on a wide variety of other social networks as well. Bebo has seen big growth since releasing a Platform that's compatible with Facebook apps.

From ProgrammableWeb
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Look for more interesting new developments like the rumored Facebook friend recommendations feature. Social networking sites are valuable software, opening up to third party developers is a whole new world, open standards will let a million flowers bloom and this kind of increasingly intelligent administration of those platforms just goes to show that we are in the very early days of a whole new paradigm.

Comment from theharmonyguy on 2008-02-06

2008-02-06T16:35:54Z

Check the comments on insidefacebook.com - the "friend recommendations feature" is actually already there. It's simply a way for people who've just joined Facebook to get suggestions on who else to friend and has nothing to do with Facebook generating suggestions.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2008-02-06

2008-02-06T16:38:03Z

Good call HarmonyGuy - that's a shame because I'd love to see some algorithms get leveraged to do some real recommendations.

Comment from Stephen Kelly on 2008-02-06

2008-02-06T17:30:01Z

I would prefer to see Facebook applications that you can use without having to install them first, and then later remove as you find that they are stupid.

I can not see any technical reason why it needs to be a three (I think) step process to get to an application.

Steve

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2008-02-06

2008-02-06T17:34:51Z

Steve, that's another good example of the tension found in this ecosystem - so much connectivity and so much potential - but the temptation to spam and coerce users in order to increase user numbers is *always* a struggle for these developers and for Facebook. The other big example? "Invite your friends/see who you know who's using the app/give us your email username/pw" before they show you the app.

I think best practices are emerging, but not sure what they will look like. As users, I think we'll know them when we see them though.

Comment from theharmonyguy on 2008-02-06

2008-02-06T21:22:34Z

Stephen, you raise a good point... the platform already includes functionality where a user can "login" to an application without "adding" it, but few developers take advantage of that feature.

I've gotten into the habit of installing unfamiliar application with all check boxes off (i.e. allow news feeds, show in profile, etc.), then I'll re-enable them if I like the app.

Comment from Barry on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T13:56:43Z

I don't mind all the widgets on facebook, seeing as how I have a choice to install them or not. But it would be kinda nice to have the crappy ones filtered out. Personally I'd like to see a good background check widget.

Comment from psychic readings on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T15:08:04Z

thanks for the information here

Comment from Scot on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T15:31:58Z

I've said for ages now that I wished FB would allow you to block all applications by default. When I spoke with their customer service, they were rude, condescending, and not helpful at all.

Instead, I've simply started removing "friends" who can't get it through their heads that people don't want to be spammed with every imbecilic new "zombie" application that comes out.

Comment from devolute on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T16:00:35Z

When it comes down to it; I need an app that removes all my stupid friends who insist on using stupid apps.

Comment from Matthew on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T16:10:36Z

Hi Scot,

If you use Firefox, you can use my script for the GreaseMonkey add-on: http://www.matthewleverton.com/fbb/

It blocks all 3rd party applications and lets you choose which ones to allow.

And you are correct, Facebook should provide the necessary features for us to do this.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T16:24:11Z

Facebook should really send some staff to represent at getsatisfaction.com - but they haven't. digg and twitter have!

Comment from Goob on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T19:16:54Z

Matthew, kudos for that Greasemonkey script! I'll be posting it on FacebookTalk.com later on today.

Comment from TWG on 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T20:18:57Z

I completely agree with you! This is interesting about Facebook too -

http://www.thetechbrief.com/2008/01/16/top-10-lives-businesses-and-reputations-ruined-due-to-facebook/

Comment from PrometheusIV on 2008-02-17

2008-02-17T17:52:51Z

Well, as far as I can see, there is a TON of use comments here that Facebook could use to see how their users feel... =)

As an entrepreneur that is wrapping up development of his first Facebook application, I definitely downloaded some garbage applications during my research phase. However, it was pretty easy for me to un-install an application after I found out how terrible it was, so you didn't hear any complaints out of me.

However, as a Facebook application developer, I can also say that you should never download an application that requires you to provide any information, or fill out anything prior to you being able to use the application. These developers give the rest of us developers a bad name... and this technique is unethical as far as I'm concerned.

My advice, is to download an application if you think that it is something that you would like to use, enjoy using, or that the application provides some kind of benefit to you for using it. If it does none of these things, then simply delete it from your profile...

My application does have a feature to invite friends, but that is it. I didn't want there to be any spamming from my application, and wanted to make sure that the user experience was positive, and that their friends experience from them using it was positive...

Facebook is trying to instill upon the development community the idealism that they had when they originally created Facebook. They want to keep the garbage users out, and they want to keep the garbage marketing and advertising people out. They want the Facebook environment and users to be ethical and respectful, and will punish those that aren't... So, do your part to report applications and users that are trying to contribute to any delinquency or misuse within Facebook!