An error which has been reported by a number of developers has resulted in the inadvertent removal of thousands of applications when users removed the application from their “boxes” tab in their profile. Previously, removing boxes was independent of uninstalling an application. It’s not clear why this is exactly taking place.
Facebook could be over-reporting the number of uninstalls taking place directly to applications. For instance, I tried removing the “Twitter” box from my profile but the application still says that it’s installed. If the system is over-reporting uninstalls this is still a huge issue for applications which account for removals and new installs in order to determine who to send messages to.
Sending too many messages to users who have theoretically uninstalled the application would result in spam warnings. While my test of the error displayed that my Twitter application was still installed, one developer claims that, “If you FQL query after the box has been added by the admin, the query still returns has_added_app=0″.
In other words the application is registered as remove, regardless of whether a user has access to the application. It may appear to be a minor application but for developers with thousands if not hundreds of thousands of daily active users, this system can seriously mess up a developer’s user accounting system since inaccurate information is being reported.
Nick what is your take on the new comment box that is pre-opened under any already commented on thought stream?
Comment by Donald Hardy — March 18, 2009 @ 8:55 am
This problem has had a profound negative effect on my application's ability to correctly account for drops.
The more troubling issue, however, is that the problem started about midway through the day last Friday, which likely means Facebook is pushing code live on Fridays. I know Facebook has people there working on weekends for emergencies, but many apps that use their platform do not. Thus, at least in my opinion, Facebook should only be doing live code pushes Monday through Thursday.
Comment by Matt Ritchie — March 18, 2009 @ 9:13 am
I agree with Matt because if thing don't work, Users have to suffer this as well. You have to think that Facebook probably gets a lot more hits on the weekends when people aren't really doing anything, rather than during the weekdays when people are at work and school. Would make more sense to do them Mondays for both Facebook Users and Developers.
Comment by Chacha — March 18, 2009 @ 2:37 pm
Our applications see the most traffic on Mondays through Thursdays. About at 20k to 30k drop off over the week. There will never be an ideal time for pushes, as each application has different usage patterns.
We as developers just need to constantly monitor our applications, and contact Facebook at the first sign of trouble…
Comment by Facebook User — May 1, 2009 @ 10:22 pm