Facebook Developer Guidelines Added to Developer Wiki

I noticed this set of guidelines posted to the Facebook Developers Wiki on Saturday. The guidelines are not surprising, considering the recent backlash surrounding forced invites in many of the applications currently on Facebook. The guidelines are as followed, and I’m sure more will be added:

Invites

  • Do not force a user to send invites.

    • Show the invite page after performing an action.
    • Make it clear the action has been performed, and that the user is not forced to send invites to continue using the app/perform the action.
    • You may also include a link to the invite page somewhere in your application.
    • Sending invites for an app using another app is prohibited by the TOS.

  • Do not use invites for ranking purposes.

    • When using invites as part of an application’s function, such as user ranking, make sure there are other ranking methods that can replace invites.
    • Using invites alone increases the chances for the application, and the user’s rank within it to lose value.

  • Do not use blocked markup, or attempt to use sketchy methods to gain a user’s attention in the Requests page.

    • Usage of CSS, large fonts, and other prohibited markup is looked down upon by the community. We highly discourage this.
    • Usage of blocked markup can also lead to the removal of your application due to violation to the TOS.

User Interface

  • Do not use Javascript alert().
  • JS alerts are annoying to the user, disrupt the smoothness of the experience, and does not fit in well with the Facebook UI.
  • JS alert() is not allowed by Facebook.

Are there any other guidelines you think need to be added that frustrate you?

This entry was posted in 46, 47, 48, 49, Facebook, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, OSS, Social Media. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a comment