Facebook is NOT going to launch a Preferred Developer Program
A few weeks ago, there was some speculation that Facebook is planning a “Preferred Developer Program” to reward popular applications that play by the rules. The thinking went that just as Facebook punishes bad developers, it would reward good developers with preferential treatment – perhaps with softer limits on viral channel restrictions or more News Feed visibility.
However, I received confirmation from Facebook today that the company is indeed NOT working on a Preferred Developer Program. “We aren’t doing a ‘preferred developer program,’ but are experimenting with new ways to better communicate with our developers,” a Facebook representative said.
Facebook’s efforts include its recent Developer Roundtable events, the Profile Preview Page, continuing to answer questions in the Developers Forum, and Developer Garage events.
Although some remain skeptical of Facebook’s even-handedness, Facebook is making major strides to open up its developer communication channels much more broadly. How do you think Facebook could improve communication with the developer community?
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 am
How do you think Facebook could improve communication with the developer community?
How about hosting a roundtable for the hundreds of developers not in the valley. Maybe they could allow for a video feed or at least video-tape the whole thing and post it up somewhere so that we can actually watch it instead of relying on Justin’s notes.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Justin’s notes, but failing to video-tape and post the video is quite poor in this day and age.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:49 am
Anon beat me to it. There are a lot of us who are thousands of miles from the Valley, who want to be part of the developer community more effectively, but it’s proving hard.
Heck, having the occasional meet-up somewhere in the NYC/Boston corridor would be a nice start…