Last week I posted about the application review problem taking place on Facebook with developers. Facebook has since posted a statement on their reviews policy and asking developers to respect this policy. Apparently some people aren’t playing fairly. The real problem happening is the generation of fake accounts to positively review applications. It’s a problem that Facebook is going to find increasingly challenging to battle.
According to the terms:
“[a]pplication developers cannot trade positive reviews or collude with others to post, incentivize, or otherwise ‘game’ the posting of negative or positive reviews. Applications should stand on their own merits based on user feedback, not insider quid pro quos.”
Some developers have also been trying to post false reviews using test accounts that are only provided to developers. For this less knowledgeable bunch that believes their test account reviews are having a positive impact, news alert: they’re not. Facebook posted the following statement:
When we discover fake accounts, we delete them to preserve the integrity of the Facebook community, and sometimes take further action. Of course, use of fake accounts by developers (or those acting as their proxy) to manipulate the review system is prohibited, and subject to policy enforcement measures such as a moratorium.
Facebook is going to start hunting down developers? Not exactly but that’s the tone of their post. I have a feeling that this model will not suffice and an alternative model will need to be devised. The current spam level is threating the existence of the reviews application. It will be interesting to see how this ongoing battle turns out.
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Facebook should have a link at the bottom of each application's canvas page to "review this application" – that would increase the number of legitimate reviews and decrease the effect of spam.
Comment by David — April 8, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
Facebook should have a link at the bottom of each application’s canvas page to “review this application” – that would increase the number of legitimate reviews and decrease the effect of spam.
Comment by David — April 8, 2008 @ 9:39 pm
Basically another reaction to Slide's spammy tactics. Remember a couple of weeks ago they were caught reviewing their own apps under dozens of fake profiles.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/03/slide-caught...
Comment by Tom — April 9, 2008 @ 5:56 am
Basically another reaction to Slide's spammy tactics. Remember a couple of weeks ago they were caught reviewing their own apps under dozens of fake profiles.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/03/slide-caug...
Comment by Tom — April 9, 2008 @ 8:56 am