Did you post to a users facebook stream without asking them explicitly if they wanted to share breakup notifier on facebook? What exactly resulted in the stream.publish calls?
Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
71–80 of 169 posts
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
If not, I suspect it's that most people already understand that a hosted service, like Facebook, is inherently a walled garden, and hence it's not surprising when something like this happens. Apple's control over what you can and can't do with hardware and software that you own is a little more alarming perhaps?
So jailbreak your phone. Then, re-evaluate 'ragenwalds question substituting "iOS App Store" for "iPhone".
Isn't jailbreaking circumvention under the DMCA?
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is the info being provided by the user, or is the app detecting info that is no longer being provided by the user, i.e. lack of friend status is not the same as a notification that you are no longer friends. If the deal is with regard to the former, I can easily imagine that FB doesn't tell you these things intentionally. If they leave it as a silent disconnect, they can construct their TOU to prohibit detecting conn…
I'd speculate that extracting more information here is a gray area in general but it should be clear that this would be the "blackest part" of the gray - ie, potential stalking/exploitation material. Facebook lets people post where they are when. An app that determines when someone isn't home or when someone is alone in a dangerous area would still be undesirable. Note also - Friend doesn't let someone explicit rejec…
I doubt it's a gray area in the FB offices. The strategy is about more info in than info out, so the flow directions are certainly controlled resources. The rules don't even allow you to use someone's FB profile picture unless they're currently logged in. This is an important point.
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#74In the brick and mortar world, it's extremely difficult to secure financing, investment, or even revenue if you're more than 50% dependent on an outside entity for your survival. Yet in the digital world, 100% dependency on another entity is becoming more and more common. Sounds like a high wire act without a net. Best to find other distribution outlets before you lose your balance.
To me, that is the surest indicator of a bubble-like market. I think some of the recent valuations for companies with many users but no profit nor any obvious business model are dubious at best. However, I think the valuations for companies that depend exclusively on one framework/inftrastructure base provided by another mega-valued company are downright crazy. Companies like Facebook have come and gone before, and when they go, they often disappear into relative obscurity pretty quickly after losing critical mass. Investing heavily in a company built on that foundation is compounding two very high risk strategies, which doesn't sound very smart to me. But then, I'm not a billionaire VC, so maybe I just don't get it. :-)
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#75It's been a crazy 36 hours since I last posted here about my weekend project. This morning, I woke up to an email from Facebook Platform, saying that the application has gotten disabled. Full text of the email is at http://lts.cr/PRh I'm not using stream.publish, and I'm checking for updates as little as possible. Also, it seems it was deleted from my apps...so they didn't just disable it. It's gone for good. I may o…
I wouldn't be surprised if facebook just "borrows" the idea and implements it on their own. They would have a significant advantage due to the lack of API restrictions.
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#76Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#77It's been a crazy 36 hours since I last posted here about my weekend project. This morning, I woke up to an email from Facebook Platform, saying that the application has gotten disabled. Full text of the email is at http://lts.cr/PRh I'm not using stream.publish, and I'm checking for updates as little as possible. Also, it seems it was deleted from my apps...so they didn't just disable it. It's gone for good. I may o…
"and I'm checking for updates as little as possible." - per user though. Did the gigantic and sudden success of the app perhaps throw out some red flags? It could have been a legitimate automated response by the Facebook system because it wasn't exactly the normal growth rate for an application.
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I don't own facebook's hardware. Apple's terms for their app store wouldn't be so onerous if there was another legal/good way to install software on your own device.
Jailbreaking is entirely legal. And jailbroken phones allow for the installation of arbitrary software. So really, iOS Terms are not as big of a deal as you make them out to be then? I think that the legality of the task is important, but it's also pretty critical how supported that task is. While it's legal to jailbreak, it's also (probably? unknown) legal for Apple to accidentally brick your phone during updates.
Not every device/OS combination can be easily jailbroken. Apple actively fights to keep us out of our own devices, and that has rubbed me the wrong way since I got an iPhone in the summer of 2009. I'll buy an Android or webOS phone next without question.
That we can jailbreak is no consolation for, say, Grooveshark. They put in a lot of work into their iOS app and it's still only available to a relative handful of users on Cydia. It's great we have Cydia but it sucks that you have to join some elite nerd club to use it. Make no mistake, only people who are at least slightly geeky jailbreak devices. Most people cringe at the word "jailbreak" and are scared of bricking their phones. It's a very hard thing to explain to non-technical folk.
Grooveshark focuses instead on other mobile platforms. That's not good for the iOS ecosystem, it's not good for iOS users, and it's not good for Grooveshark. (I can't say that it's not good for Apple because as a result of not having Grooveshark on the store they might be retaining music sales on iTunes.)
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
So they didn't even give you any notice, just "boom you're gone"? Disappointing. Some of the suggestions in "How to respond when Facebook censors your political speech" might be helpful -- http://www.talesfromthe.net/blog/?p=28
Nope, zero notice. It was basically "Poof!" and then the app wouldn't work. Doubly annoying since I was sleeping when it was deactivated (4am PST).
"Zero notice" seems to be a common thing at Facebook. Same happened with my personal account, just gone one day.
To be fair, I guess it was because I didn't have my real name on it but it was the name my blog readers know me by. Several thousands of friends - gone, without a warning.
Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook
#80And has reached 3.6 million users overnight. That's incredible! I bet the developer is kicking himself for not monetizing with ads right away, that's a lot of traffic and a lot of money.
As appealing as 3.6M users sounds, "reach" apps like this often make really bad money. He would've made no more than $500 if he was doing well. He was capturing emails, so that had long term potential, but he wouldn't have become rich from three days of FB user impressions.
it was only a weekend project, only running for a few days before takedown - under those circumstances I'd call $500 a solid outcome, especially when the alternative is $0.