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Quiz apps – the scourge of Facebook

:: Thursday, June 11th, 2009 @ 2:59:47 pm

:: Tags: , ,

I’m currently blocking 87 applications (and 5 individuals) on Facebook for what I call “Facebook application spam.” I don’t care what kind of vegetable you are most like, and I don’t care to have a [random object here] thrown at me.

Facebook will probably add privacy features to account for this problem eventually, but in the meantime, we have to block every annoying application we see to prevent repeated spam from annoying applications / individuals.

Want to see my current block list?

Slide FunSpace
Pirates vs. Ninjas
Likeness
Movies
Traveler IQ Challenge
RockYou Live (formerly Super Wall)
SuperPoke!
Vampires
SpeedDate
YouTube Video Box
Snowball Fight!
Verbal IQ Test
Zombies
College Rivalries
Compare People
My Heroes Ability
Cars (Car IQ)
Speed Racing
(fluff)Friends
Friends For Sale!
Top Friends
Send Prosperity
Causes
DivePoke
Galaxy Trade Wars
Superlatives
Imperial Galaxy
Watch Colbert
??? Happy Chinese New Year
PackRat
Send Good Karma
Knighthood
SharkBreak
What Musical Instrument are you? (best version!)
SpeedDate
Triumph
(Lil) Green Patch
Owned!
Actions Pro [new name!]
Stanford Sixth Man
Which violinist are you?
Typing Speed
Movie Pong
Eyesores
Bumper Sticker
My Camera Gear
San Francisco Giants Fans
Where I’ve Been
Smarty Pants
Visual Bookshelf
Marvel Characters
Halloween Gifts
Coolest Person Contest
Korean Food
Save Our Oceans
Japanese Sweets
The Visa Business Network
NetworkedBlogs
20,000,000 Strong for Obama
Tetris Friends
Scramble
Earthkeepers
Re-Green Greensburg
Best Friend Contest
Kidnap!
(Lil) Blue Cove
SocialCalendar
Birthday Calendar
My Christmas Snow Globes
The Brain Game
YoVille
Mob Wars
Christmas Gifts for Friends
MyCalendar
Hugs
Most Beautiful Person Contest
MyCalendar
SCRABBLE
Pirates: Rule the Caribbean!
Adopt a Reef
Nicest Person Contest
Killer Whales
Starbucks Coffees.
Saudi LifeStyle
Birthday Cards
SCUBA Gifts
Interview

For me, it all started with the Pirates vs. Ninjas app. I curse all Facebook pirates and ninjas! The list continues to grow, every day.

| San Francisco, CA | link | trackback | Jun 11, 2009 14:59:47
  • Craig

    Of course many of these are a matter of taste. In most cases I agree wholeheartedly. However there are apps here with merit too. For example, some people (not that I know any), love to play Scrabble. Unfortunately Hasbro’s power play with Scrabble resulted in the killing of the best implementation – Scrabbulous – replacing it with a bloated monster. But still, the game is the game. Just saying.

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    I’ve got no problem with Facebook apps or wanton quiz-taking. I only have a problem with any ol’ app being able to insert items into my news feed BY DEFAULT.

    Play Scrabbulous all you want, but Scrabbulous shouldn’t show up on my news feed if I’m not playing it, myself…

    I know quite a few people who don’t use Facebook simply because they can’t stand Application spam. Without knowing how to manage the experience by blocking problematic apps and individuals, Facebook becomes overwhelmingly annoying.

  • Chester

    I could do without those types of “news” items myself, but I think your stance is a bit strong…e.g., that stuff doesn’t “ruin” Facebook’s utility for me.

    I don’t think those apps or how they publish results to news feeds, by default, are really the problem. Some simple additional control to one’s account is all one needs…to regain control.

    Various points:

    1. If you don’t limit your FB friend list to people with whom you’re actually friends, then…well, you’ll reap what you’ve sown.

    2. Remember when you could use those sliders to indicate your level of interest in particular types of “news”? They should bring that back. Right now, I think the only way to fine-tune your news feed are blunt tools like blocking applications or blocking people entirely. They should also bring back the ability to indicate people whose news you’d like to see less of (rather than not at all).

    3. Browsing the news feed by type of app helps clean up your signal-to-noise ratio. If you don’t want to see all those junky apps, browse the feed by photos, status updates, notes, etc.

    4. FB already allows you to categorize “friends” by “lists.” They should let you view news feeds of those lists, separated, as one can do in FriendFeed.

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    Chester – it certainly doesn’t “ruin” Facebook’s utility for me, either. But I do know people who don’t use Facebook because (in part) they find all the random notices from friends taking quizzes to be overwhelming.

    My list of Facebook friends is up past 800, and I realize that that is part of the problem. I have a public website here tied to my full name, so it doesn’t make sense for me to limit Facebook to just my close personal friends. I’ll add anyone I’ve met in real life as long as my impression of them is neutral or better. Only on rare occasions will I add people I’ve never met (but only if I have had a lot of correspondence with them in the past).

  • Rogier

    You should have attended the Web 2.0 conference last year in SF. It was all about how to add “functionality” to the social networking sites like Facebook and how to monetize it by sucking marketing data out of the users….

  • Adman

    To put it bluntly, with 800 friends, you’re fighting a losing battle.

    What kills me is when you give an app access, you’re not only giving it access to YOUR data, but also your FRIENDS’ data. That sucks.

    Adman

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    Yeah, I know it’s not going to be ideal with 800 friends on Facebook. But I’m looking for tools to make it better.

    I use Facebook every day and really enjoy the community. Keeping in touch with so many people (even if it is mostly superficial) has never been so easy.

  • http://mblj.livejournal.com Mark B.

    800? Oh my….you’re a celebrity, Eric. Do you feel like one? I sense some of the ways that you’re able to focus on people most important to you, but it does sound overwhelming to have 800 correspondents nonetheless.

    But regarding Facebook applications–I’ve ignored all invitations after trying one or two, I consider FB one way to be in contact with others, but during the past 8 years I’ve found livejournal satisfactory. If I were focused more on FB, I’d probably go crazy from application garbage. –markb

  • Chester

    I think they’ll end up refining things so that the news feeds are useful even for people with ~1000 contacts.

    I just took a look again and it seems that one can view news feeds containing only people on particular lists. I imagine it’d be a monster pain in the ass to sort 800 contacts into meaningful lists, but…well, it’s there.

    And, repeating myself, I often like to just view news feeds by the Status Updates, Photos, and Notes “applications,” because those are the things, in the end, that I really want to see.

  • Adman

    I recently pared my friends list down by about half (currently at 28). It’s a great feeling.
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