This afternoon Facebook announced the launch of a new feedback center for developers where new ideas can be submitted and voted on. The point is to get feedback from developers on where documentation needs to be expanded. Facebook already has extensive documentation via their developer wiki but this new system will enable developers to provide feedback on what documentation gets priority.
Many times Facebook will launch new features or update specific platform libraries but won’t provide a great level of documentation. So far it doesn’t appear as though developers are using the new feature correctly. Instead, many developers are submitting feature requests. For example one developer posted “Don’t double show friends names in different chat friend lists.” Another developer states “It would be cool if there were a way to have a group chat so that if two of your friends were online, all three of you could chat.”
My guess is that not all of the people using this new developer feedback center are actually developers. Facebook is always asking developers for feedback and that’s why they’ve also announced that their feedback survey will become a monthly thing. Facebook continues to remain committed to the ongoing development and improvement of their platform.
As a developer, I have to say that Facebook’s relatively extensive documentation is what differentiates their platform from competitors. Many times the documentation is inconsistent with new releases though and it requires a bit of experimentation and exploration on the developer’s part. Programming documentation regularly has errors in it and Facebook is no exception.
Hopefully this new feedback system will be useful in improving the overall the experience for Facebook developers. Have you found the development experience to be a positive one on Facebook?
I still would like to see the recent status updates when I click on the friends tab. Now I only see the limited amount on the homepage. It made it fun to look at people’s status updates. I’m not going to go on other people’s profiles just to see their new status.
Comment by Saphace — May 16, 2009 @ 8:13 pm
I was using facebook inbox to chat and was given a warning. I stopped. I went to open another box in the inbox and was given a second warning. Now I am afraid of going to the inbox at all. Why can’t I use my inbox and will I ever be able to use it. I have lots of groups that I get messages from and I can’t get to see them for fear of getting my account closed. Help, there is noone to ask about this issue.
Comment by peggy mahoney — May 21, 2009 @ 3:32 pm
I think the “Warning! You are engaging in behavior that may be considered annoying or abusive, blah blah blah” is SO STUPID! I uploaded my Contacts from my Palm to Facebook and it did match quite a few of my contacts, but others I had to manually add (or they weren’t in my Contacts) and I got this warning. SO COMPLETELY STUPID and ANNOYING!
Comment by Kathy — May 22, 2009 @ 11:35 am
I recently inquired about starting a facebook business page. To do this I had to log in, but not to my knowledge, officially join Facebook. I do not want to have one to one contact with my client base or use Facebook for one to one contact / communication on a personal level. I was unsure if I needed to officially join Facebook as an individual to develop a business page and post items clients can view on my business' website.
Without officially joining Facebook, I am already receiving multiple invitations of people who think I am on Facebook. These people are colleagues, clients, and personal contacts.
I'm really frustrated that before committing I am already faced with having to provide explanation for why I'm not accepting these invitations. It is a Facebook attempt to market that is premature. My work requires great relationship sensitivity so nonresponsiveness is not good marketing; I hoped for privacy while I explored the option of joining and whether or not I can join while meeting the particular needs of my business.
Feedback! Thanks.
Renee Rodgers
Comment by Renee Rodgers — September 14, 2009 @ 7:23 pm
I'm posting for someone who's business site I admin. His personal account was recently disabled for reasons that remain undefined by Facebook. He is unable to login or post here and friends are unable to reach him.
When he received Friend Request warnings like those others have mentioned above he stopped making requests, but then received a series of warning messages be email that said he was "misusing certain features on the site." Within a few days his account was disabled. None of the misuse listed on the Facebook FAQs apply. Does this mean the disable was related to friends requests?
He has sent repeated emails to disabled@facebook.com stating that disabling his account was a mistake and asking for explanation, but there has been no response. Is there any other way to dispute his account disable and resolve the problem?
Can someone answer these questions …
When an account is disabled
1. Is the content deleted or will posts and other content be on the page when it's enabled again?
3. Are friends deleted or will all friends have to be requested again?
4. If friends have to be requested again will this result in more warnings?
How can a user change use that's being detected as misuse, if there's no specific explanation about what the misuse is?
Comment by Dana Cordero — October 10, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
I think its awful that in order to try and report issues with a program I am made to join some other site than the one I am currently using. I don't want to join multiple $#@^$^^& Sites just so you can send me S*^$ through email. I will not join another site for those reasons. I will discontinue using the site I am currently on first. Its there problem they should fix it.
Comment by Robert — November 16, 2009 @ 6:57 pm
Hi there are a lot of good things about the facebook. what i would like to see improved is the enablement to reorder my friends lists, ie. those that i use most to be placed first.
Comment by marica — March 10, 2010 @ 10:35 pm