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Facebook is getting aggressive with a few developers who have been abusing the platform. Today the company alerted us to a “substantial” policy enforcement against the developers behind My Calendar, one of the largest Facebook applications. MyCalendar has been temporarily disabled and hundreds of other applications have been permanently shut down. According to Facebook, the developers have been engaging in misleading and spammy tactics in order to get more users rather than building valuable experiences.
The My Calendar developers have been making aggressive applications for a long time now. Back in May I questioned how the developers’ applications were growing so quickly when they didn’t provide much value. It appears that not only were the My Calendar applications aggressive, but so were hundreds of quiz applications that the company was producing.
The quizzes applications that were built by My Calendar have been permanently banned by Facebook and the developers now have an auditing period in which they can resolve issues with the My Calendar application. Facebook provided us with a quote from Paul Jeffries, who leads the Facebook Platform policy team, stating “By enforcing Facebook Platform Terms and Policies and ensuring developers don’t mislead users, we protect user trust in applications — which is beneficial to the whole developer community.”
The message here is that Facebook’s policy team is going to crack down on those applications that are significantly violating the terms of the platform. While I am still wondering why Facebook doesn’t just ban the developers all together, at least Facebook is doing something. Facebook appears to be caught in an interesting cycle with spammers. The company’s open door policy to developers could theoretically be the source of the problems.
Currently, any developer can register for an account and create an application. This is in contrast to Apple which has to specifically approve each application before the developer can obtain distribution opportunities. There are clearly pros and cons of both models and Facebook is putting significant resources into monitoring the platform to ensure that users’ experiences are good ones.
While Facebook still has applications that slip through the cracks (such as some of the phishing apps that are currently getting coverage), policy enforcement has become a significant focus for Facebook. This means that developers who create large numbers of applications to spam the platform will be shut down quickly. Facebook’s message to spammers and aggressive developers: we’re going to shut you down.
QUOTE: “The quizzes applications have been permanently banned by Facebook…”. YESSSS!!!!!
I forsee many people getting angry… and then, they all wont care as much anymore… quizzes will be missed, for a short time.
I’m quizzed out, man! Does this give Facebook more time to work on its interworkings? Maybe Google said, “no more games, damnit!”
It’s about time! I wish Facebook would get rid of the vast majority of applications, they’re all the same when it comes to the games and the gifting applications, except for “Free Gifts” Every application has “unlockable” “levelling up” junk which always involves having to spam your friends at some point. Those “Send gifts!” applications that promise you 100 choices and then tells you you can only send ten kinds of stuff, you have to send x number of people gifts only from those measly 10 choices to “unlock” 5 or maybe 10 more etc. Argh! And Mafia Wars, Farmtownvillcitywhatsit, you always have to level up and collect more users to your team or mob or village or whatever, get more points etc. Whatever who cares? There are a few of us out there who aren’t into silly little compititions and just want to have some real fun and communication with our friends. These apps just don’t cut it. The angle/wrapping is different with each game or gift app, but it’s still the same old crap when it really comes down to it. These games and gifting apps are all carbon copies of each other and too focussed on user-collecting and not nearly enough on quality and fun. My blocked app list is so long because my friends are always adding every lame application and then I have to block them so no one can try to recruit me, and my news-feed doesn’t get junked up with silly viral app stories.
Facebook per sviluppatori : nulla di eccezionale
Stupid people. Can’t you just sit, play and have fun…? I guess this is human natural
It’s about time!
Uh, the fun goes out the window when the thing turns viral and spammy.
what!! no more quizzes i will miss them definitely
I don’t think the quizzes will get banned altogether, just the ones that force you to invite friends to use them. Or maybe those that auto-junk up the feed every time a friend takes a different one. Something needs to be done about Farmville, even though I blocked that app, stories from it are still getting into the feed.
WHAT A JOKE!!!!!
Facebook isn’t doing squat!
I’ve reported the same bogus account hundreds of times and reported the SPAM hundreds of times. They don’t do anything. The accounts are still active and they continue to post spam.