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Facebook made its Android app crash to test user loyalty?

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Re: Facebook made its Android app crash to test user loyalty?

#11
post #6
post #3

Please either point directly to the article that claims to have uncovered this (which is behind a paywall) or don't post anything. Right now, there is zero evidence that any of this is real.

You can bypass the paywall by entering your email. Even in the full article they only mention a confidential source, which makes sense because even if it was real, it's very easy to cause a crash without leaving a trace in the app. For instance, the server might purposefully send a malformed response that causes the client to crash. full article mirror: https://i.imgur.com/umOEvs7.jpg

Did you use some tool or browser extension to generate this?

Re: Facebook made its Android app crash to test user loyalty?

#13
Doesn't anyone else think it is odd that all these stories have started to appear in the last few day? It is almost like Google is planning something known within Facebook and Facebook is trying to send Google a message that they have a back up plan. Anytime I read articles with sources who are "off the record" it makes me wonder.

Re: Facebook made its Android app crash to test user loyalty?

#15

Sounds like the beginning of an urban legend. The truth of the matter is that Facebook engineering is getting bloated just like all other big companies and their apps crash not because they're testing user loyalty but because their code is just shitty.

Their app has been crashing constantly since day 1. On high speed wifi, my newsfeed regularly takes upwards of 10 seconds to load, and the iOS app crashes like a drunk. They do some truly hard things, and coupled with their "move fast and break things" ethos... well they end up with some stability issues. I'm not sure its an issue of bloat though.

Re: Facebook made its Android app crash to test user loyalty?

#16
post #4

“ I just don’t feel like our users love us enough. ” http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3970

Everyone knows there's a relevant XKCD for everything, but when SMBC starts to seriously predict the future, it means we live in really weird times.

Re: Facebook made its Android app crash to test user loyalty?

#17
post #11
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can bypass the paywall by entering your email. Even in the full article they only mention a confidential source, which makes sense because even if it was real, it's very easy to cause a crash without leaving a trace in the app. For instance, the server might purposefully send a malformed response that causes the client to crash. full article mirror: https://i.imgur.com/umOEvs7.jpg

Did you use some tool or browser extension to generate this?

I am not the person you asked, but I take screenshots for archival purposes not-infrequently (as seen here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845275).

The tool that I use is Phantomjs with a script called 'rasterize.js`. The big plus for me was the ability to render arbitrary dpi images of web pages.

Re: Facebook made its Android app crash to test user loyalty?

#19
post #15

Sounds like the beginning of an urban legend. The truth of the matter is that Facebook engineering is getting bloated just like all other big companies and their apps crash not because they're testing user loyalty but because their code is just shitty.

Their app has been crashing constantly since day 1. On high speed wifi, my newsfeed regularly takes upwards of 10 seconds to load, and the iOS app crashes like a drunk. They do some truly hard things, and coupled with their "move fast and break things" ethos... well they end up with some stability issues. I'm not sure its an issue of bloat though.

I use android and I've never encountered any issues of the sort you are describing.

edit: grammar

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