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On the same night the sophisticated
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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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Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Facebook to Punish Stupid Applications, Reward Good Ones.
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My post last week about the growing Facebook fatigue -- largely driven by useless pesty spammy apps -- struck a chord with social|median readers, driving the most uniform agreement of emails I have ever received from a post.This week, while... Read More
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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.
Posted by: theharmonyguy | February 6, 2008 8:35 AMGood call HarmonyGuy - that's a shame because I'd love to see some algorithms get leveraged to do some real recommendations.
Posted by: Marshall KirkpatrickI 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
Posted by: Stephen Kelly | February 6, 2008 9:30 AMSteve, 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.
Posted by: Marshall KirkpatrickStephen, 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.
Posted by: theharmonyguy | February 6, 2008 1:22 PMI 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.
Posted by: Barry | February 7, 2008 5:56 AMthanks for the information here
Posted by: psychic readings | February 7, 2008 7:08 AMI'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.
Posted by: Scot | February 7, 2008 7:31 AMWhen it comes down to it; I need an app that removes all my stupid friends who insist on using stupid apps.
Posted by: devolute | February 7, 2008 8:00 AMHi 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.
Posted by: Matthew | February 7, 2008 8:10 AMFacebook should really send some staff to represent at getsatisfaction.com - but they haven't. digg and twitter have!
Posted by: Marshall KirkpatrickMatthew, kudos for that Greasemonkey script! I'll be posting it on FacebookTalk.com later on today.
Posted by: Goob | February 7, 2008 11:16 AMI 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/
Posted by: TWG | February 7, 2008 12:18 PMWell, 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!
Posted by: PrometheusIV | February 17, 2008 9:52 AM