Viral Channels: Email to be Disabled by Default with Profile Redesign
In a recent note to developers, Facebook announced that because app emails have been so spammy, user emails will be turned off by default when users add apps. Previously, this option was presented to users on the app installation page, checked on by default. Facebook writes,
We know that email is an important communication channel for many of you to reach users. However, we’ve also seen a surprisingly high number of users mark application email as spam instead of simply unsubscribing from it. In order to preserve email as a channel for high quality communications, email to users is disabled by default. Instead, you can offer users a way (such as an FBML button or an FBML attribute you can append to your own link or button) to opt-in to receiving email from your application on your canvas page.
While many Facebook app developers have been sending spammy emails, turning email off by default for all app developers seems an overly severe policy change. Facebook should just tweak the email allocation limits based on user feedback as they have been doing at a more granular level.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I disagree. I don’t understand why all those checkboxes were on by default for a whole year. Of course that is going to encourage spam. People generally leave defaults alone. By doing that with facebook apps, you’re giving an app the ability to send you spam, and to shape people’s impression of you by what it puts on your profile and in your newsfeed.
Applications should have to earn these privileges.