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Forced Invites Get Shutdown

Posted by Nick O'Neill on February 13th, 2008 9:14 AM

Last night Facebook updated their platform terms and sent out a message to all applications that were forcing invites in order to us an application. The update to their platform policy was as follows:

[Applications cannot] Present a user with a subsequent friend invite page if the user has already clicked a Facebook-rendered Skip, Cancel, or Skip This Step button, unless the user explicitly selects to invite friends from a page that offers more than just the friend invite option. If the application presents the user with a friend invite page that does not include a Facebook-rendered Skip, Cancel, or Skip This Step button, the application must offer some navigation option to leave the friend invite process, and the application must not present the user with a subsequent friend invite page unless the user explicitly selects to invite friends from a page that offers more than that single option.

Additionally, Facebook sent out the following letter to all users:

Dear developer,

Your application has been temporarily restricted from using requests/invites. This is because users of your application get trapped in a UI interaction for inviting friends.

If the user clicks the Facebook-rendered buttons “Skip” , “Cancel” , or “Skip This Step” , he must not be re-presented with an invite friends UI unless he explicitly selects to invite friends from a page that offers more than that single option. If you use another UI that does not have one of these buttons rendered by Facebook, the application must offer some other navigation option to leave the invite friends process, and the user must not be re-presented with an invite friends UI unless he explicitly selects to invite friends from a page that offers more than that single option.

If you correct this aspect of your application, the moratorium will be lifted. Please respond to this email once you have made the necessary changes and please include your application id for verification purposes.

If you wish to correspond, please reply to this message.

Thank you,

Facebook Platform Developer Operations & Support

Developers and users have been complaining about applications that use the forced invite strategy for months. It now appears that Facebook has finally taken action and has given little to no notice about this update. Applications that were found to be in violation were simply sent a notification that they can no longer send requests. This is an impressive step by Facebook and I think that users will welcome this new change.

I also think that we will immediately see a significant decrease in the growth of lower quality applications thanks to this policy change. Do you think this is a good change by Facebook?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 9:14 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 13 Comments

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    Absolutely, I utterly detest the way applications try to market themselves. The big problem is that many non-technical or not very computer literate users end up sending all sorts of invites they probably don't want to send, because they don't realise they have to actively de-select and skip the process.

    The whole invite process should be stopped. What should be improved is the application library, and there should be an 'application' application which allows you to summarise all the apps (you choose) and display a link on your profile, with a review and rating facility. If others were interested they could easily see which apps you use and what you think of them.
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    Thanks for highlighting this, Nick. I see it all the time that my friends don't know how to work with an inflexible UI and they inadvertently invite everyone. It's laudable for Facebook to take such a strong step and be actively involved in verifying which applications have been the most instrusive.
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    All of these changes will make everything better in due time. I look forward to the day where only the apps people care to spread will spread
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    "The whole invite process should be stopped."

    Yes! Enough with the spam; let them grow organically, via the news feeds, word of mouth, profiles, directories, blogs, etc.
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    • v
    This does nothing to prevent requiring invites in order to use features of an app. All it requires is that the user go to another page when clicking "skip". That page may very well be a message about how friends must be invited.
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    Nick, as always you are on top of everything and truly "all facebook." The moratorium, if implemented correctly, is very welcome and will help facebook maintain it's image and desired usage by clients - as opposed to turning into a trashy myspace. However, as Tom pointed out - there must not be a way to circumvent the moratorium and the application should be fully functional despite not wanting to SPAM your friends for application usage. Additionally, I would like to see that applications once installed do not redirect you out of facebook to another URL such as all those quizes etc. that send you over to that "love" Web site. I am sure we have all seen it - but the application and Web site name escape me at the moment. You would think that Facebook wouldn't want to see this either.
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    @Nick
    Yes, it's a good thing as we commented on yesterdays post that it's about quality not the quantity of apps.

    @Tom
    If an app requires someone to invite friends in order to use features of an app then that is very poor design. An application should stand on it's own merit and have it's own intrinsic value that makes it worthy of a friend invite.

    Also, the scenario you outlined is against the terms Nick posted here, there has to be more than just message saying you must invite someone on the page following a skip.
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    • v
    It's a very good thing for the platform, long-term, and much better for general FB user experience.

    I disagree that invites should be removed altogether. Users will simply ask for some sort of invitation mechanism for apps they find very engaging. I.e., the demand for an invitation system would arise very quickly. Evidence for this is provided by apps which collect user feedback asking for more invitations per day, and more vectors for evangelism, rather than for fewer.

    Have an app that's very engaging, fun, and adds value to the FB experience and the problem of intrusive and inappropriate invites will diminish significantly, perhaps to the point of (statistically speaking) the problem going away.

    The current problem with invites is not the invites themselves, or the invitation/request system. The current problem is, and the invites "crisis" is caused by, a tremendous failure of imagination by many application developers.
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    This decision it’s a very good thing for Facebook and overall for the users!.

    We need more things like this one.

    Regards,
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    Thank God! Now I'll be able to find out what kind of drunk I am without inviting everyone I know. But seriously, this will make the whole Facebook platform experience better for everyone.

    I've gotten feedback from some friends who joined FB in November that they're not visiting or using the site regularly due to the overwhelming number of invites to bite, kick, scratch, punch or whatever application the few really offensive developers have been developing. The really small shops who are doing this don't get as far.

    The signal to noise ratio has reached a tipping point - and Facebook is finally doing something about it.
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    • v
    hurrah, forced invites are rubbish. as a member of an app development team I cant see any reason why have used this strategy- its not long term thinking and offers the facebooker no value.basically they are greedy. good ridance, bring back ethical business.
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    "If an app requires someone to invite friends in order to use features of an app then that is very poor design. An application should stand on it’s own merit and have it’s own intrinsic value that makes it worthy of a friend invite."

    Yeah, but it seems like this is the way all new apps works these days. For example all new quiz-apps where you are forced to invite 20-or-so friends to get your results. It have been like this for months, and I am getting really sick of it as I am drowning in those invites. This behaviour of app developers is about the biggest problem with FaceBook right now I would say.

    My suggestion: Make it possible for ordinary FaceBook users to report an application as spam or spam-encouraging.
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    The decision is a good start, but I cannot see that it will keep apps from withholding results on tests you have spent time answering if you choose that "other option".

    In addition apps should be forced to tell of such conditions in advance, preferably it should be included in the app title to prevent the waste of fb members' time. Fair?

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