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Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

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Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it limits his chances of finding any employment where facebook is used for communication.

To my mind, that sounds like a good thing. My employer using Facebook for communication sounds just terrible.

not only terrible but irresponsible

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#12

Why was he banned? I can't seem to find the reason on the reddit page or the developers blog post.

I've never heard of the plugin before, but it looks like it did some of the tedium of clicking on the game status updates for you. (If someone can give a good description, I would love to see it).

My guess is that FB doesn't like the software doing this because it means the users aren't doing it themselves, and thus aren't able to see the ads they would have otherwise, cutting down on revenue.

The only other reason I can think of that would make any sense is that the games servers might have had load issues (since the plugin could act faster and on more things than a human). However, I would put my ad theory above as far more likely.

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#13

Why was he banned? I can't seem to find the reason on the reddit page or the developers blog post.

I can't find any additional info. If there was nothing wrong with the plugin for 18 months and now they're using all legal powers to intimidate him, I'd say someone got wind of money-making opportunity.

This is the first time I am reading about the plugin, but it seems to have automatically gone through a users timeline to find posts where their friends were sharing in-game items. While this may not have been cheating at the game, Facebook could possibly see the automated browsing as a circumvention of viewing their ads.

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#15
post #8

>but it also seriously limits his chances of finding employment as a programmer. That doesn't sound quite right. TOO HOT FOR FACEBOOK!!! could look great on the right résumé. The whole thing is just what we've come to expect from facebook by now tbh.

If that limits his chances of finding a programmer job, his talent is very limited.

Employers often do background checks and if they find out he was banned by Facebook that may work against him.

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#16
post #8

>but it also seriously limits his chances of finding employment as a programmer. That doesn't sound quite right. TOO HOT FOR FACEBOOK!!! could look great on the right résumé. The whole thing is just what we've come to expect from facebook by now tbh.

If that limits his chances of finding a programmer job, his talent is very limited.

In the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell and all computer systems are Facebook.

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#17
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that limits his chances of finding a programmer job, his talent is very limited.

Employers often do background checks and if they find out he was banned by Facebook that may work against him.

Background checks ping public records for things like convictions and residence history. There is no way a "ban from Facebook" would show up on one of these.

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#18

>but it also seriously limits his chances of finding employment as a programmer. That doesn't sound quite right. TOO HOT FOR FACEBOOK!!! could look great on the right résumé. The whole thing is just what we've come to expect from facebook by now tbh.

It could cause problems for him if the company he wants to work at uses the Facebook API. The work might be done through the company's account but the company may not want to risk Facebook finding out he is part of their team and shutting them down.

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#19
post #12

Why was he banned? I can't seem to find the reason on the reddit page or the developers blog post.

I've never heard of the plugin before, but it looks like it did some of the tedium of clicking on the game status updates for you. (If someone can give a good description, I would love to see it). My guess is that FB doesn't like the software doing this because it means the users aren't doing it themselves, and thus aren't able to see the ads they would have otherwise, cutting down on revenue. The only other reason I…

Facebook, like craigslist, has a history of extreme prejudice against any form of automation or scraping of its site. I think that your suggestion about ads is correct. Suppose one of these alternate interfaces took over a large chunk of the market. How would Facebook present any advertisement to these users? They'd have to go the twitter route and insert ads directly into feeds.

Re: Facebook intimidates developer, bans him and his code for life

#20

>but it also seriously limits his chances of finding employment as a programmer. That doesn't sound quite right. TOO HOT FOR FACEBOOK!!! could look great on the right résumé. The whole thing is just what we've come to expect from facebook by now tbh.

True, but it does suck to be banned from the ubiquitous platform in which you've spent time becoming highly specialized.

edit: Apparently he developed a browser plugin that doesn't use Facebook's API, so it looks like this may actually be a decent endorsement.

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