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The Facebook API: A Case Study in Not Caring About Developers

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Re: The Facebook API: A Case Study in Not Caring About Developers

#31

Post by hrabago »

portman wrote: post #27
tsycho wrote: post #17

I have a humble request for all of you developers who are building facebook apps. Please create an open source project (or a forum with all the tricks you are discovering) so that everyone doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. Basically, please collaborate your efforts to create a more reliable unofficial API documentation for FB. Ryan Waggoner wrote a similar post like this a few days back ( http://news.ycombinator.co…

For starters, more people could support the Facebook Developer proposal at StackExchange. http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7285/facebook-deve... Personally, I think the StackOverflow engine would be a great way to build up a crowdsourced wiki of FBAPI knowledge.

The problem is, with every iteration of API changes that FB makes, existing entries in such a forum would go obsolete. This could just increase confusion.

Re: The Facebook API: A Case Study in Not Caring About Developers

#32

Post by rbanffy »

ben1040 wrote: post #12
rbanffy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or YC-related startups I don't think a startup would enjoy special access to FB technology just by being related to YC

http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/405 We’ll provide product, technical and design resources to support new Y Combinator companies interested in working with us to build deeply social products, whether a website or an application on Facebook.com. These companies will have priority access to our technologies and programs such as Facebook Credits, Instant Personalization and upcoming beta features.

OK. Obviously, I haven't paid the needed attention.

Re: The Facebook API: A Case Study in Not Caring About Developers

#33

Post by jonny_noog »

sprout wrote: post #8

On the contrary. I think Facebook cares very much about developers. They do not want to give developers enough tools to create enduring products, because this would kill their walled garden, in a variety of ways. The biggest way is they don't want to make it easy for you to get your data out of Facebook. Any robust, well-documented API would have to enable that. In some ways this is even a good thing. A small number…

Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence.

Re: The Facebook API: A Case Study in Not Caring About Developers

#34

Post by sprout »

jonny_noog wrote: post #33
sprout wrote: post #8

On the contrary. I think Facebook cares very much about developers. They do not want to give developers enough tools to create enduring products, because this would kill their walled garden, in a variety of ways. The biggest way is they don't want to make it easy for you to get your data out of Facebook. Any robust, well-documented API would have to enable that. In some ways this is even a good thing. A small number…

Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence.

I really don't believe that Facebook's developers are incompetent. And it's quite easy to neglect work when there's a business case for leaving that work undone.

Re: The Facebook API: A Case Study in Not Caring About Developers

#35

Post by tsycho »

hrabago wrote: post #31
portman wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starters, more people could support the Facebook Developer proposal at StackExchange. http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7285/facebook-deve... Personally, I think the StackOverflow engine would be a great way to build up a crowdsourced wiki of FBAPI knowledge.

The problem is, with every iteration of API changes that FB makes, existing entries in such a forum would go obsolete. This could just increase confusion.

Yes, but if enough people are using this wiki/forum, then it will remain updated as users experience breakages due to API changes.

Re: The Facebook API: A Case Study in Not Caring About Developers

#36

Post by jonny_noog »

sprout wrote: post #34
jonny_noog wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence.

I really don't believe that Facebook's developers are incompetent. And it's quite easy to neglect work when there's a business case for leaving that work undone.

I suspect that as with any large enough organisation there is a spectrum of competence across their workers, raging from high to low. I obviously have no proof that there isn't some big conspiracy afoot, but given the choice to bet on conspiracy or incompetence as the primary factor for the issues we're seeing, I know what I'd put my money on.
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