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Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

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Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#51

Post by jacquesm »

lbrandy wrote: post #23
untog wrote: post #6

This is an isolated incident. "Irrelevant or Inappropriate" sounds like a euphemism for spam- if Facebook is fighting comment spam then I applaud them. Their algorithm just isn't quite right yet. No story here. "Is this censorship?" Are false positives on a spam filter censorship?

Hi, fb engineer here. This is exactly what's going on. If you recall, there were several articles written a few months back pertaining to comment spam, and very low quality comments (ascii art or 'LOOOOOL!!!') from subscribers. This is part of an effort to curb that and has likely gone awry. It only affects subscriber -> subscribee comments.

If you want to get rid of spam simply ban programmatic posting to walls from apps.

What users get up to is a lot less bad than what apps do.

And get rid of the 'like' un-feature. That will go a long way to restoring sanity.

Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#52

Post by thespin »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #49
thespin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So FB tries to filter out ASCII art. It sounds to me like FB is trying to win over advertisers who really are not interested in the web, except to the extent they can profit from it. And they may learn FB has led them to believe there is much more potential than the results actually show. Meanwhile, the "consumers" using the web are generally interested in it. That includes ASCII art and LOL, as a means of communicat…

It sounds like you've gotten it completely wrong. He didn't mean people can't use ASCII art of write 'lol'. If you have an account and have a lot of subscribers you will notice many comments (obviously spam) which write lol, hello, hi etc and are not contributing anything to the conversation. These are people that just want to expose their account in as many places as possible (spammers). Facebook aren't trying to st…

Are you focussing on the post in question, and what it says, or are you just focussing on the notion of a spam filter and silly comments? No one is arguing against spam filters. FB sends a lot of email that serves no purpose other than to try to get a user to log in. Is that "spam"? Would FB be opposed if an email provider filtered all that mail out of the user's mailbox?

The question is: Does the post in question appear to contribute anything to a conversation? Or not? Perhaps it appears to promote other websites and seems a bit short on "content"? What makes it "spam"?

Look at the words the post contains.

If FB is really having trouble with spam, then that speaks to the design of FB. Does every FB user need to use a website on the open internet, that any spammer can access, to contact their friends and family?

The FB employee says they shut off the filter. I think that speaks for itself.

Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#53

Post by chrisrhoden »

taligent wrote: post #46
chrisrhoden wrote: post #2

Based on the anecdotal comments below the original post, it seems like there's a very high correlation between posts that get flagged as inappropriate by Facebook and those that mention Google+ or link to it. Which seems absurd, on the face of it, but I am going to have to experiment.

Interesting. Based on anecdotal evidence I actually believe that there is a high correlation between flagged Facebook posts and alien abductions. It seems absurd sure. But I am going to have to experiment.

Perhaps this is an issue of my tone not coming through on the internet, but I wasn't giving anecdotal evidence any weight on its own, which was the point of my experimentation. Experimentation, which, as you will see from my reply, yielded nothing. The only thing I can figure is that you read what I said in a hurry and didn't digest what I meant or you don't understand the scientific method.

Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#54

Post by chc »

thespin wrote: post #37
untog wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's an overwhelmingly negative perspective. Facebook was (for me, at least) a draw initially because it wasn't drowning in crap like MySpace was. It was a locked down experience, and everyone benefitted from it. In all honesty, I don't see this as a dramatic move away from that idea.

The MySpace interface was an abomination. The fact that users would tolerate it says something about the standard one has to meet to hold an audience. It's not very high. FB has a clean interface, generally, but it's what's going on "behind the scenes" that is at issue here.

The MySpace interface in and of itself was OK, especially for the time when it was made. It's what MySpace allowed users to do with it that was an abomination.

Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#55

Post by mikescar »

jacquesm wrote: post #51
lbrandy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, fb engineer here. This is exactly what's going on. If you recall, there were several articles written a few months back pertaining to comment spam, and very low quality comments (ascii art or 'LOOOOOL!!!') from subscribers. This is part of an effort to curb that and has likely gone awry. It only affects subscriber -> subscribee comments.

If you want to get rid of spam simply ban programmatic posting to walls from apps. What users get up to is a lot less bad than what apps do. And get rid of the 'like' un-feature. That will go a long way to restoring sanity.

Why ban API use by applications? Wouldn't that kill a large part of Facebook's valuation?

Users can turn email off for all or individual apps, and people could only add apps which use their information more responsibly.

I'm not a FB user, and in a more ideal situation the FB 'like' button would not be so heavy--you can't really remove it for sites because it's a lifeline, but for site performance it's slow.

Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#56

Post by [deleted] »

Natsu wrote: post #33
matznerd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely not isolated, and it definitely feels like censorship. A company shouldn't be deciding what we can or can't say, especially if it's not profane. They once tried to block me from posting a link to a site that was critical of facebook.

I find it interesting that your comment and the one above it, both of which express mild, but polite disagreement, were downvoted into grey.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#58

Post by jsprinkles »

jacquesm wrote: post #51
lbrandy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, fb engineer here. This is exactly what's going on. If you recall, there were several articles written a few months back pertaining to comment spam, and very low quality comments (ascii art or 'LOOOOOL!!!') from subscribers. This is part of an effort to curb that and has likely gone awry. It only affects subscriber -> subscribee comments.

If you want to get rid of spam simply ban programmatic posting to walls from apps. What users get up to is a lot less bad than what apps do. And get rid of the 'like' un-feature. That will go a long way to restoring sanity.

So basically, get rid of Facebook, Jacques?

Re: Facebook Stops You From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments

#60

Post by joering2 »

taligent wrote: post #50
AJ007 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also take in to consideration Facebook is trying to get companies to spend a lot on advertising their Facebook pages. One way for Facebook to do this is prevent users from making "irrelevant or inappropriate" on the advertiser's page. I have never seen a message like this before, but I rarely post comments on Facebook. I have, however, had issues with business associates spamming me. I found out firsthand just how di…

You know what makes your point so hilarious is you could replace Facebook with "internet". The internet is nothing more than a controlled place for spamming. The internet is for attractive girls to spam themselves to hundreds/thousands of males. The internet is trying to monetize all of this noise without scaring away its users. Now let me ask you. Is that ALL the internet is for ? Is that ALL Facebook is for ?

I am sorry, but isnt it just like describing life on its own?? Bunch of women try to look and smell and feel younger than other women in order to win most guys affections (or at least, the most)
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