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> is this how FB treats developers? Yes? Look, I hate to be "I told you so", but this shouldn't be a surprise: this is how Facebook has treated partners all a

> is this how FB treats developers? Yes? Look, I hate to be "I told you so", but this shouldn't be a surprise: this is how Facebook has treated partners all along. Remember when the big thing that drove engagement on Facebook was games? Zynga was making a mint on that. Until one day Facebook's metrics showed that the constant "Help my farm!" updates were pissing people off; they flipped a switch and games disappeared, and Zynga got kneecapped. I think it still technically exists, but it's a shell of what it was. Then it was all about sharing as many news articles as possible, and Facebook built all these relationships with news publishers. That lasted until fake news and Facebook deciding people want more status updates from friends, and the publishers all got their traffic slashed with naught but a "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further." When your business lives on Facebook's platform, you exist at their whim. As soon as they decide you're no longer useful, you're cut off. You really should've had a plan for this.

SmellyGeekBoy 9y ago
Not to mention the fact that that we've lived through all of this before with Twitter. Entire businesses were built on their API and then were obliterated in one fell swoop. Time to move on to the next thing, unfortunately.
- LeifCarrotson 9y ago
  I'm out of the loop, what is the next walled garden everyone's playing in right now? Instagram? Snapchat? Youtube?
  - nkozyra 9y ago
    I'm hoping folks will have a "fool me twice" mentality with this. No API is permanent and no service will ever be reliable in this regard.
    - AznHisoka 9y ago
      On the other hand, there's been a decent number of people who have made lots of money because they were the first to build an useful product on a platform. Examples being Buffer, Hootsuite, BuddyMedia
      - nkozyra 9y ago
        Sure but then you're in the boat where you have some n finite period of time to slingshot from needing API Service to having a viable enough business to live without it.
krausejj 9y ago
we do have a plan. but we also expected facebook to at least tell us when and if they cut off access — not put up a blog post that says they are removing some endpoints, and then just cut them all off regardless without warning. this simply doesn't seem like the way to treat people who have invested time in a platform.
return1 9y ago
Yeah that is absolutely true. Facebook used the platform as a way to keep people busy while they were focusing on growing the network to include everyone and their dog. After that they used the platform as an accessory and testing ground for new platforms (mobile / news sites / chatbots etc) . Add to that the constant nightmare of rearranging chairs in the APIs for no reason. Still, facebook provides virality, but you can have that with minimal data usage from their platform if you ask your users to enter the data you need manually.
abraae 9y ago
And BranchOut. Raised $50M or so, and experienced hypergrowth for a while by hanging onto Facebooks coattails. Until it stopped.

SmellyGeekBoy 9y ago

Not to mention the fact that that we've lived through all of this before with Twitter. Entire businesses were built on their API and then were obliterated in one fell swoop. Time to move on to the next thing, unfortunately.

LeifCarrotson 9y ago
I'm out of the loop, what is the next walled garden everyone's playing in right now? Instagram? Snapchat? Youtube?
- nkozyra 9y ago
  I'm hoping folks will have a "fool me twice" mentality with this. No API is permanent and no service will ever be reliable in this regard.
  - AznHisoka 9y ago
    On the other hand, there's been a decent number of people who have made lots of money because they were the first to build an useful product on a platform. Examples being Buffer, Hootsuite, BuddyMedia
    - nkozyra 9y ago
      Sure but then you're in the boat where you have some n finite period of time to slingshot from needing API Service to having a viable enough business to live without it.

krausejj 9y ago

we do have a plan. but we also expected facebook to at least tell us when and if they cut off access — not put up a blog post that says they are removing some endpoints, and then just cut them all off regardless without warning. this simply doesn't seem like the way to treat people who have invested time in a platform.

return1 9y ago

Yeah that is absolutely true. Facebook used the platform as a way to keep people busy while they were focusing on growing the network to include everyone and their dog. After that they used the platform as an accessory and testing ground for new platforms (mobile / news sites / chatbots etc) . Add to that the constant nightmare of rearranging chairs in the APIs for no reason. Still, facebook provides virality, but you can have that with minimal data usage from their platform if you ask your users to enter the data you need manually.

abraae 9y ago

And BranchOut. Raised $50M or so, and experienced hypergrowth for a while by hanging onto Facebooks coattails. Until it stopped.