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Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

techcrunch.com

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Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#111

Post by jayzee »

atrevisan wrote: post #87
theli0nheart wrote: post #55

It'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 find it funny that Facebook can be used as a resource for conducting a political revolution, yet they kill this.

They have an advertising model. People who organize political revolts log in and see Che's t-shirts for sale on the right side of the page.

Checking status automatically takes away some incentive from users from logging-on, there by less money for fb. Hence the shut-down.

Somebody else posted a project where they were going to create an app so that people could interact with fb through their email? If that takes off, expect it to be shut-down as well.

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#113

Post by smackfu »

rhizome wrote: post #30
gonehome wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion is that this app does not violate the behavior that FB wants to dissuade. It sends an email that provides information that is already being provided by the user, it does not track or determine information that is otherwise not available.

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…

Facebook also lets you delete updates from your wall, so that it's not obvious something changed. This circumvents that.

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#114

Post by grigory »

euroclydon wrote: post #92
theli0nheart wrote: post #55

It'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…

Could it work as a browser plugin? And more generally, isn't it nearly impossible for FB or any other website to prevent plugins from accessing data as if they were the user?

This was my first thought after reading the title of this thread. Let your users fetch the data for you!

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#115

Post by Kliment »

jdp23 wrote: post #26
theoj wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disabling his account is either a display of creepy dictatorial power or an indication of incompetence and lack of common sense.

All of the above. Activists have been dealing with these kinds of issues for a long time. Facebook's processes are haphazard, they make arbitrary decisions without notifying people, their automated filters are prone to misjudgment, and they usually don't react until an issue starts to get significant attention.

That sounds exactly like the major complaints about PayPal.

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#116

Post by lallysingh »

tastybites wrote: post #67
edw519 wrote: post #61

In 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.

On credit applications our business bank specifically asks if more than 25% of your revenue came from one source in the past calendar year. If you think about it, a typical brick and mortar gets its money from hundreds if not thousands of customers every year (restaurant/cafe, auto mechanic, etc).

Your restaurant/cafe may have lots of customers, but they may be coming to you b/c you're across the street from the movies or a mall. If a primary store in the mall closes (or as in my hometown, a stabbing in the mall scares away customers), your business is pretty dead.

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#117

Post by code_duck »

tastybites wrote: post #67
edw519 wrote: post #61

In 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.

On credit applications our business bank specifically asks if more than 25% of your revenue came from one source in the past calendar year. If you think about it, a typical brick and mortar gets its money from hundreds if not thousands of customers every year (restaurant/cafe, auto mechanic, etc).

You can get revenue from many sources, as in many individual customers, but be dependent upon a single source for your product.

The situation of startups who depend upon an external large business like Facebook, Amazon or Twitter is analogous to a car dealership that only sells one kind of car - say, Saturns. If Saturn stops selling to you or goes out of business, you're going to have to make some major changes.

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#118

Post by lallysingh »

edw519 wrote: post #61

In 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.

In the brick & mortar world, you have a lot more capital risk up-front. Digitally, your costs are your minimal-viable software product and your computer resources. The latter you can get pretty cheap and elastic.

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#119

Post by code_duck »

thehotdon wrote: post #75
theli0nheart wrote: post #55

It'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.

I think FB would get some bad press if they offered a feature like this directly. Not for screwing over a developer (nobody but other developers care about that), but for the privacy violation/stalking feel the whole thing has.

Re: Breakup Notifier Shut Down By Facebook

#120

Post by alexophile »

theli0nheart wrote: post #68
jdp23 wrote: post #65

Earlier 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).

It seems, based on the excerpt in the article and the timing, that it may have been hit by an automatic kill/flag type situation.
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