Last week Facebook mentioned in a thread on the Developer Forum that it had updated its application reputation system. One of the prominent changes listed was new allocation buckets for developers with unverified Facebook accounts. (Note that this means the verification of developers’ personal Facebook accounts, NOT Facebook’s application verification program.)

Several developers had originally posted in the thread questioning why their allocations had suddenly dropped overnight. Facebook’s Ryan Merket responded outlining some aspects of the new reputation system. We tested the new system out to see the difference in terms of allocation limits for verified and unverified accounts, and here are the results. Both sets of metrics are from brand new applications created using the Developer application.

How can developers verify their account? This process is the same for all Facebook users:

There are two ways to verify your account.  First, you can verify your cell phone, which allows us to verify that a real person is in control of the account.  This process is explained at: http://www.facebook.com/confirmphone.php

The second way to verify your account is to affiliate with a college network.  If your school provides you with an email address, you can add a college network from the “Networks”  tab on the Account Settings page, which can be accessed from the “Settings”  dropdown menu at the top of any Facebook page.

This change should affect only a small number of developers, since most developers have probably already verified their personal accounts, but it’s another move to increase quality on the Facebook Platform.

However, this reputation system is likely at least conceptually similar to the one which Facebook will use when it introduces the verified application program. We’re still waiting to hear the official effects of being a verified application; however, these details should be released in the next few weeks.