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Replying "this is not a bug" is equivalent to saying "I have read and understood your report, and this is not a bug, it is a feature." First off, it's not a dis

by iyulaev 13y ago

Replying "this is not a bug" is equivalent to saying "I have read and understood your report, and this is not a bug, it is a feature." First off, it's not a dismissal, it's an acknowledgement. Second, since it's not a bug but rather a feature, then how does using the feature violate the ToS? The correct reply might be something like "cannot understand or reproduce, can you explain more clearly?" along with some bug report guidelines.

yogo 13y ago
Exactly! In any kind of support role the number one pattern you observe is that there is always a lack of information. Maybe they are flooded to the point where they really cannot respond to these reports, but from what I've seen over 2/3 of support requests and bug reports require extracting more information from the submitter (even when the form specifically states to provide as much detail as possible with examples). I just chalked this up to a guy that was so excited to have discovered such a major flaw on facebook in disbelief. And yes they have rules and guidelines in place to protect users but clearly this was a case where a little creativity in handling situations would have helped educate the developer that this isn't how things are done at FB and get him on the right path while acknowledging his contribution without celebrating it... amateurs. This was almost guaranteed to be a publicity incident but then again maybe any publicity is good publicity :).
Oculus 13y ago
I definitely agree with you on this. The response from the engineer could've been better. Some sort of canned response would have worked. IMHO, the whole ToS business was a way to give him a slap on the wrist for embarrassing them.
- webvictim 13y ago
  Embarrassment is a very relative thing - it looks to me like the majority of comments on this HN post are saying the guy was in the wrong for breaking the TOS and I have to say I agree. Facebook haven't been embarrassed, they've just upheld a policy which says that they won't pay anyone who doesn't play by the rules. Quite fair, in my opinion.
  - synchronise 13y ago
    It is within our right however to protest against Facebook's decision, especially with the way it conducted itself before with the 'This is not a bug' response it gave.
  - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    >they've just upheld a policy which says that they won't pay anyone who doesn't play by the rules. Quite fair, in my opinion. My first thought is to say to facebook "Oh, I thought you were interested in fixing bugs. I'll know better what to do next time." Are you forgetting that the purpose of the bounty program is to protect facebook users by discovering and fixing bugs before spammers get the chance to use them? And that spammers pay real money for bugs like this one? It's an awfully high standard to hold people to, considering the fb ToS is not translated to the guy's native language.

by iyulaev 13y ago

yogo 13y ago

Exactly! In any kind of support role the number one pattern you observe is that there is always a lack of information. Maybe they are flooded to the point where they really cannot respond to these reports, but from what I've seen over 2/3 of support requests and bug reports require extracting more information from the submitter (even when the form specifically states to provide as much detail as possible with examples). I just chalked this up to a guy that was so excited to have discovered such a major flaw on facebook in disbelief. And yes they have rules and guidelines in place to protect users but clearly this was a case where a little creativity in handling situations would have helped educate the developer that this isn't how things are done at FB and get him on the right path while acknowledging his contribution without celebrating it... amateurs. This was almost guaranteed to be a publicity incident but then again maybe any publicity is good publicity :).

Oculus 13y ago

I definitely agree with you on this. The response from the engineer could've been better. Some sort of canned response would have worked. IMHO, the whole ToS business was a way to give him a slap on the wrist for embarrassing them.

webvictim 13y ago
Embarrassment is a very relative thing - it looks to me like the majority of comments on this HN post are saying the guy was in the wrong for breaking the TOS and I have to say I agree. Facebook haven't been embarrassed, they've just upheld a policy which says that they won't pay anyone who doesn't play by the rules. Quite fair, in my opinion.
- synchronise 13y ago
  It is within our right however to protest against Facebook's decision, especially with the way it conducted itself before with the 'This is not a bug' response it gave.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  >they've just upheld a policy which says that they won't pay anyone who doesn't play by the rules. Quite fair, in my opinion. My first thought is to say to facebook "Oh, I thought you were interested in fixing bugs. I'll know better what to do next time." Are you forgetting that the purpose of the bounty program is to protect facebook users by discovering and fixing bugs before spammers get the chance to use them? And that spammers pay real money for bugs like this one? It's an awfully high standard to hold people to, considering the fb ToS is not translated to the guy's native language.