Facebook, and their über paranoid approach to "spam"...

[DieselDragn]

Ay up!
Thought I'd open a thread on Facebook greenage after an experience I had just now. One of my friends had posted a link to QuidCo on his wall, and I spotted a chance where I could make a genuine, topical recommendation for FJ.
When I tried posting my message though, here's what Facebook spat back at me...

Originally Posted by Facebook's badly coded interface (Surprise surprise!)

This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.

Now I can understand reflinks being flagged as spammy, but only when accompanied with text like "OMG i got free ipad click this link now and get urs!" and the like...But given my comment was entirely lucid and completely within context (A script written by a three year old could've spotted that, too!) I feel once again let down by Facebooks' obvious ineptitude.

I eventually managed to post my comment and recommendation with a somewhat artful workaround...But given the number of people "served" by Facebook (And I use that expression very lightly!) surely it's high time they started analysing peoples posts and not just banning every post that fails a regular expression check?

If ye want my opinion, it's a shame that Facebook - Having more holes than a years production of Swiss cheese, and more faults than the pre release of Windows Vista - Has managed to become the "de-facto" standard for social networking. That said, I'd be interested to hear of other people's experiences in this area.

[Diesel]

It's become way too difficult to get greens on fb now anyway

[DieselDragn]

Admittedly I wasn't going straight for the Green* - I was making a genuine recommendation to a friend about the service, and letting him know it existed!
Of course, Facebook saw what I was trying to post and - Without justification - Branded me a "spammer"...Something that I take great offence to, given how much I hate spam!

It's about time someone gave Facebook a Margaret Whitlam style kick up the arse, and got them to get their act in gear. Better still would be a more reliable, honest and fully accountable social networking service coming in and booting Facebook straight into the middle of Archive.org...Never to be seen again!

(* - Although any clicks on my reflink would be good, of course! )

[Maxx]

They blocked all links to freebiejeebies after MJ's facebook method got completely abused by people and half the comments were spamming ref links. That's why your comment was blocked, it doesn't block "free ipod" or things like that, just specific links. It would be kind of hard to make a system to determine whether a link is used in a spammy or legitimate way...

[MJ10]

Appogies for that... I believe it was my method a while back that caused the original banning of ref links

Seems people can't be trusted when given a method and just go completely crazy! If I'd kept it to myself I could have had a ton of greens, but instead I used it a bit, shared it, then it got spammed to hell and Facebook wasn't happy!

Again, sorry :$ But FB is a dying and dead method now anyway (unless your sgll!!)

[Maxx]

Originally Posted by MJ10

Appogies for that... I believe it was my method a while back that caused the original banning of ref links

Seems people can't be trusted when given a method and just go completely crazy! If I'd kept it to myself I could have had a ton of greens, but instead I used it a bit, shared it, then it got spammed to hell and Facebook wasn't happy!

Again, sorry :$ But FB is a dying and dead method now anyway (unless your sgll!!)

Lol it's not your fault, it was just a few people that took it to the extreme...constantly. What you're saying is like pillow manufacturers apologising because some people get suffocated with them...or something like that.

[DieselDragn]

Originally Posted by MJ10

Appogies for that... I believe it was my method a while back that caused the original banning of ref links
Again, sorry :$

No worries mate, it wasn't your fault...T'was that of others who didn't use it with restraint!

In any case, my issue is more from the fact that my post initially got blocked without any degree of proper evaluation. Anyone seeing the post (Quoted below with reflink dropped) can see that it's a genuine recommendation - To the point where even a bot with basic Thesaurus loaded could draw the same conclusion!

That said, I've never been happy with Facebook's "control" over Internet trends and whatnot...Whenever somethings gone viral from another social network, Facebook has mysteriously dropped posts from peoples walls which support that off-network viral before producing and seeding their own in it's place!

Originally Posted by MJ10

But FB is a dying and dead method now anyway (unless your sgll!!)

Just before I wrote this post, a potential idea came to my mind which I might have a go at. No details at this stage to prevent another Facebook flood I'm afraid (Plus I'd like to dev, test, evaluate, and possibly benefit from it myself first! ) but if I get around to crafting it, it could be interesting!

Originally Posted by My message on Facebook in reply to a QuidCo link:

I've come across them before a few times, and they're good for cash rewards if you can always route your shopping through them!

I've also been having a go with "Freebie" networks recently, which are pretty darn good in my experience (See http://www.exceem.co.uk/forums for genuine, impartial testimonials) and I've already managed to earn myself a bunch of high-capacity pen drives as my first redemption!

The freebie site itself can be found via http://select.freebiejeebies.co.uk if anyone's interested in having a look.
(The Search function there is based on Amazon's catalogue as well - So entering an Amazon product ID and searching under "All Categories" will allow you to load and redeem for anything on Amazon, so long as it's sold directly from them and not an Amazon merchant.

[SometingStu]

Originally Posted by DieselDragn

Ay up!
Thought I'd open a thread on Facebook greenage after an experience I had just now. One of my friends had posted a link to QuidCo on his wall, and I spotted a chance where I could make a genuine, topical recommendation for FJ.
When I tried posting my message though, here's what Facebook spat back at me...Now I can understand reflinks being flagged as spammy, but only when accompanied with text like "OMG i got free ipad click this link now and get urs!" and the like...But given my comment was entirely lucid and completely within context (A script written by a three year old could've spotted that, too!) I feel once again let down by Facebooks' obvious ineptitude.

I eventually managed to post my comment and recommendation with a somewhat artful workaround...But given the number of people "served" by Facebook (And I use that expression very lightly!) surely it's high time they started analysing peoples posts and not just banning every post that fails a regular expression check?

If ye want my opinion, it's a shame that Facebook - Having more holes than a years production of Swiss cheese, and more faults than the pre release of Windows Vista - Has managed to become the "de-facto" standard for social networking. That said, I'd be interested to hear of other people's experiences in this area.

I would agree that this is a pretty stupid situation, and to be honest, it is the spammers that have ruined it for us.

However, as far as the de-facto facto goes, FaceBook is good at what it was designed for, which is seeing what your friends are up to, and then talking to them.

Other things such as applications etc, where not in the original scheme, so they do have holes and stuff in them. But that's not FaceBook's problem nor purpose.

It's like complaining about your phone's web browser, a phone's primary function is to make calls, and more recently to text. Anything else is effectively a mod-con.

People have a right to complain about their phone's though, because they payed money for them, FaceBook on the other hand is free.

[sgll]

it is bad that. but people should bloody know not to spam your ref link everywhere. use a url shortner if you dont have a domain.

[the_icks]

even the bit.ly s a re spotted on facebook now!!

[sgll]

bit.ly is i know but there are others you can use

[jwardmagic]

I think its quite fair that facebook blocked all links to freebiejeebies. So much advertising isn't nice and quite rude. You need an honest helpful approach not one just trying to get free stuff by bribing people etc. I think that happened a lot on facebook and I applaud their idea to crack down on it. There are plenty of other methods available, website, blogs, twitter, trading etc.
I'd hate facebook to turn into a big advertising thing.

[Harvez]

*yawn*

[the_icks]

is he for real? lol

[FurbtasticM]

He's entitled to his opinion and has a point.

A lot of freebie hunters trawl the net looking for places to spam links and then get annoyed when the site owner does something about it. Contrast that with someone who comes here and posts what we consider spam, what reaction do they get?

[the_icks]

Originally Posted by FurbtasticM

He's entitled to his opinion and has a point.

A lot of freebie hunters trawl the net looking for places to spam links and then get annoyed when the site owner does something about it. Contrast that with someone who comes here and posts what we consider spam, what reaction do they get?

if you have a look at the persons other posts (which I think is Harvs point) they seem to be almost 'spam like' in their content, the sort of thing you might post if you wre just looking to add content for contents sake. Usually accompanied by a link. This may not be the case and if not then i apologise to the poster!!

[FurbtasticM]

Originally Posted by the_icks

if you have a look at the persons other posts (which I think is Harvs point) they seem to be almost 'spam like' in their content, the sort of thing you might post if you wre just looking to add content for contents sake. Usually accompanied by a link. This may not be the case and if not then i apologise to the poster!!

I see what you mean but several of the posts have made valid points that just got dismissed out of hand.

[the_icks]

Originally Posted by FurbtasticM

I see what you mean but several of the posts have made valid points that just got dismissed out of hand.

thats Exceem all over!!.. maybe people dont see them as being genuine posts, but Scrapebox/Xrumer posts where they have forgotten the link! lol

[Frankelbert]

I've had the same problem with the suposedly 'spammy' posts.

I used xr.com url shortener to get around the problem and it works fine.

Facebook just doesn't seem to work for me, I invited 470 friends to join my freebie page and only 1 out of 470 liked it... I was like 'wtf'.

I then tried adding strangers and fb told me off for that too

[Cefca]

Originally Posted by the_icks

thats Exceem all over!!.. maybe people dont see them as being genuine posts, but Scrapebox/Xrumer posts where they have forgotten the link! lol

If the poster has fewer than a certain amount of posts, some people either just dismiss them or assume they're spammers.