
Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop' - britman
http://valleywag.com/tech/hypebusting/facebook-has-thrown-the-entire-startup-world-for-a-loop-273359.php
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amichail
Why is it so important that users explicitly invite their friends to use an
application?

Isn't it enough that the application shows up on the user's news feed?

I think the main reason that recent applications are not getting as many users
is simply because there are now quite a lot of applications and users are sick
of trying everything that comes along -- particularly as most of them are not
very good.

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bilbo0s
Because a prompt screen with that question is coming . . . and the default
will be NO. At least let's hope it is a prompt, Facebook may simply choose to
disable it.

There is a perfect storm right now of too many user complaints about
application spam, competitors like Hi5 and numerous others circling, and a
desire to go public without an ability to do it until the requisite time has
past. A lot can happen in that time frame. I think we can expect Facebook to
do whatever their user base asks them to do. Why? Because if those user
metrics dip at all prior to the exit attempt they are screwed.

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ntoshev
Who you know is not that great predictor of what you like. Once the invites
get annoying, Facebook should limit them, I think this is obvious. You
shouldn't hope they will give you a mechanism to spam and irritate everyone.

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vlad
I think it makes sense that first comers will have special benefits, and those
who don't release fast enough will probably face some kind of restrictions.
It's the same way for everyone.

On the other hand, apparently some companies had facebook api BETA access for
weeks or months in advance to prepare for this.

If all companies had to race to build a product right away, I don't see why
it's unfair for facebook to change the way things work after a month into it.
But since some already had apps that were ready, it does seem to be very
unfair.

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joshwa
Facebook is way ahead of MySpace when it comes the extent of the integration
they offer, but they still have a long ways to go when it comes to the
transparency of policy changes and managing their relationship to the
developer community.

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Harj
well if you can opt out of having applications appear in your news feed then
developers lose out on both friend invites and news feed growth - both of
which apps such as ilike/slide had access to.

i think that's the point of the article - you can still use fb as a viral
platform, it's just as viral for new apps as it is for the more established
start ups.

~~~
amichail
The default is what matters. Currently the default will show apps in your news
feed.

~~~
joshwa
Actually the one thing you _can't_ turn off in your news feed is to _receive_
app notifications. The person who adds the app can turn of _sending_ them, but
I can't turn off the flood of app messages in my incoming news feed.

Also, even if you disable the ability for the app to publish items in the news
feed, it still publishes the add/remove notification. You have to remove that
one manually.

As a user, the cluttering of the news feed is my biggest frustration with the
new platform--- I don't care if all my friends add this junk, but I should be
able to opt out of the messages with the news feed sliders.

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acgourley
Thank God. I had like a dozen invites for stupid apps.

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awt
Did you hear that everyone? Stop developing for Facebook now. Yup, pack up and
go home.

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someremains
ha, socialmoth moth showed up there.

