
Updated: We’ve Deleted Our Facebook Page - duck
http://blog.limitedrun.com/post/28341629174/updated-weve-deleted-our-facebook-page
======
forgingahead
Here is the original FB post from the first thread (thanks to reustle for
copying it and posting it in the comments of the first thread):

\---

Hey everyone, we're going to be deleting our Facebook page in the next couple
of weeks, but we wanted to explain why before we do. A couple months ago, when
we were preparing to launch the new Limited Run, we started to experiment with
Facebook ads. Unfortunately, while testing their ad system, we noticed some
very strange things. Facebook was charging us for clicks, yet we could only
verify about 20% of them actually showing up on our site. At first, we thought
it was our analytics service. We tried signing up for a handful of other big
name companies, and still, we couldn't verify more than 15-20% of clicks. So
we did what any good developers would do. We built our own analytic software.
Here's what we found: on about 80% of the clicks Facebook was charging us for,
JavaScript wasn't on. And if the person clicking the ad doesn't have
JavaScript, it's very difficult for an analytics service to verify the click.
What's important here is that in all of our years of experience, only about
1-2% of people coming to us have JavaScript disabled, not 80% like these
clicks coming from Facebook. So we did what any good developers would do. We
built a page logger. Any time a page was loaded, we'd keep track of it. You
know what we found? The 80% of clicks we were paying for were from bots.
That's correct. Bots were loading pages and driving up our advertising costs.
So we tried contacting Facebook about this. Unfortunately, they wouldn't
reply. Do we know who the bots belong too? No. Are we accusing Facebook of
using bots to drive up advertising revenue. No. Is it strange? Yes. But let's
move on, because who the bots belong to isn't provable. While we were testing
Facebook ads, we were also trying to get Facebook to let us change our name,
because we're not Limited Pressing anymore. We contacted them on many
occasions about this. Finally, we got a call from someone at Facebook. They
said they would allow us to change our name. NICE! But only if we agreed to
spend $2000 or more in advertising a month. That's correct. Facebook was
holding our name hostage. So we did what any good hardcore kids would do. We
cursed that piece of shit out! Damn we were so pissed. We still are. This is
why we need to delete this page and move away from Facebook. They're scumbags
and we just don't have the patience for scumbags. Thanks to everyone who has
supported this page and liked our posts. We really appreciate it. If you'd
like to follow us on Twitter, where we don't get shaken down, you can do so
here: <http://twitter.com/limitedrun>

~~~
mehulkar
_If you're like to follow us on Twitter, where we don't get shaken down..._

This was from back in July right? Wonder how that sentence would change given
recent Twitter news.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
Additionally, how does that leap of logic make sense? They're no longer
keeping a presence on Facebook Pages in protest of Facebook Ads, but they're
proud of Twitter by comparison simply because Twitter doesn't offer a
comparable advertising service at all? Who is to say that, if Twitter did
offer a similar ad platform, that it wouldn't yield the same results?

~~~
wutbrodo
The fact that there's not much of a basis of comparison between the ad
services, and the fact that he used the term "shaken down", makes it pretty
obvious that he's referring to the part where he tried to transfer his page to
a different name and Facebook asked for a higher ad spend in return.

------
arihant
Facebook is, in a way, damaging the industry. PG already spoke about how their
mishandled IPO could hurt the funding landscape for startups.

If this happened to a non-technical coffee shop owner, it would turn him off
from the "whole social media thing" and not just Facebook.

On a higher note, I do not understand FB customer relations people at all.
They always use business buzz words and almost seem incapable of answering
anything directly. Would loose my sleep if I ever had business based on
anything Facebook.

~~~
gavinlynch
> "Facebook is, in a way, damaging the industry."

Which industry is that?

~~~
eckyptang
The tech-fad industry.

Fortunately not the one I work in. No cloud, no social here. Just problems
solved :)

~~~
gavinlynch
>> "The tech-fad industry."

Exactly. :)

------
DiabloD3
I have to admit this company has balls for calling Facebook on this issue and
then deleting their Facebook page in response to Facebook refusing to give a
shit about the little guys.

From one little guy to another, you guys rock. I wish you all the luck.

~~~
gavinlynch
Don't really get where this takes balls.

1) Everybody loves it when someone calls out "The Man"

2) They said flat out that they weren't getting the return on their investment
from FB that they had intended.

Deleting an account from a service that gives them marginal-at-best-returns
and is basically useless to their advertising efforts... Just seems logical to
me.

I know I'm supposed to like this story because "they're trampling on the
little guy, but the little guy is fighting back!", but I give it a hearty
"meh".

------
RexRollman
They probably received more traffic because they left Facebook than they did
from Facebook's ads.

------
duck
As I was trying to go back to read this post again from
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4312731> I noticed it was deleted. This
blog post explains why.

Edit: The reason I was going back is for my Wayback Letter project:
<http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/weekly/08-29-2012.html>

------
chris_wot
They really need to get an iPad and read their website in landscape mode.

~~~
iamandrus
Looks fine here, what's the issue?

~~~
darkarmani
The text is over top of the images with javascript turned off for me.

~~~
chris_wot
Why the heck have I got -1 for this comment? Pretty constructive feedback if
you ask me! The text is indeed overlapping... I would have thought their
target market consists of iPad users!

------
wind_whisper
No one cares.

