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The elephant in the room here is that this was announced at F8 - a conference for platform developers - yet this platform application was developed internally a

The elephant in the room here is that this was announced at F8 - a conference for platform developers - yet this platform application was developed internally and is one that, because of the neutering of the API, no outside developer could have built. They essentially said “hey developers, look at this neat thing we built that you can’t!”. I’m curious what the point of F8 actually is at this stage. The platform has become so restricted that social apps can’t be built anymore. Facebook should just acknowledge that outside developers have outlived their usefulness now that they have helped the service attract 2 billion users, and scrap the conference.

rusty_pete 8y ago
Agree completely. F8 is all smoke and mirrors. I got fooled last year when they announced Camera AR Studio. Was all excited but never granted access or 'accepted' despite having 8 years development experience in agencies. Surely their target market if there was one. The recent breaking instagram API update without warning was a big enough FU to developers to confirm this.
fjsolwmv 9y ago
F8 is like I/O, a way for corporate advertise.
aylmao 9y ago
Same with WWDC, I/O, or Build. Big tech's vertical integration always hits 3rd parties.
aviv 9y ago
When I wear my tinfoil hat it becomes clear that Cambridge Analytica was a manufactured crisis to give Facebook the public permission and mission to purge developers off its platform, which has been its plan for a while now.
- KhanMahGretsch 9y ago
  Never let a crisis go to waste.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  I mostly doubt Facebook would intentionally put itself through this much drama just to dump developers: The damage they took from CA was worse than they'd get for announcing they hated developers and didn't want to deal with them anymore. That being said, it's hard to criticize them for internalizing something like this given that letting external services build on them is what landed them in this mess in the first place.

rusty_pete 8y ago

Agree completely. F8 is all smoke and mirrors. I got fooled last year when they announced Camera AR Studio. Was all excited but never granted access or 'accepted' despite having 8 years development experience in agencies. Surely their target market if there was one. The recent breaking instagram API update without warning was a big enough FU to developers to confirm this.

fjsolwmv 9y ago

F8 is like I/O, a way for corporate advertise.

aylmao 9y ago

Same with WWDC, I/O, or Build. Big tech's vertical integration always hits 3rd parties.

aviv 9y ago

When I wear my tinfoil hat it becomes clear that Cambridge Analytica was a manufactured crisis to give Facebook the public permission and mission to purge developers off its platform, which has been its plan for a while now.

KhanMahGretsch 9y ago
Never let a crisis go to waste.
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
I mostly doubt Facebook would intentionally put itself through this much drama just to dump developers: The damage they took from CA was worse than they'd get for announcing they hated developers and didn't want to deal with them anymore. That being said, it's hard to criticize them for internalizing something like this given that letting external services build on them is what landed them in this mess in the first place.