A few weeks ago, when Facebook shared its “Platform Roadmap” with developers (see details of all 19 changes), it also announced an update to its approach to platform governance: instead of having two classes of applications (verified and non-verified), it abolished the verification program and said it would apply “verified app principles” to all applications.

Today, Facebook has given some more clarity around what exactly that means. Aside from the policy change preventing pop-up feed forms, here’s the additional list of updates to the official developer policies going live on December 16th:

Highlights of Changes and Clarifications in the new Developer Policies

• Provide a link to your privacy policy in the Info section of your Application Profile page and on every page of your application. (DPP I.1)
• You can evolve and develop your application, but don’t repurpose it. (DPP II.6)
• Be sure users can easily report inappropriate content, and be responsive to their reports. (DPP IV.B.2)
• Don’t undermine the integrity of the social graph by encouraging the creation of fake accounts or inauthentic friend connections. For example, don’t gate content or provide rewards based on the number of a user’s friends who also use your application. (DPP V.2)
• Don’t prompt users to send invitations, requests, generate notifications, or use other Facebook communication channels immediately after a user allows access or returns to your application. (DPP V.4)
• Your “skip” button must be adjacent to and the same height and design as your “send” button. (DPP V.5.)
• Don’t send multiple communications in response to a user’s single action. (DPP V.7)
• Certain data fields you can submit to us through the API (e.g., the user_message parameter) must be reserved for content generated solely by the user. (DPP V.8)
• Don’t prompt users to bookmark your application (e.g., by using a modal window or pop-up dialog), and instead provide users with a button for users to explicitly invoke any bookmark option you provide. (DPP V.10)

In other words, apps that don’t conform to any of these previously non-existent or less-clear policies will be subject to app enforcement by Facebook’s expanding policy team. We expect most developers to get slapped for being too aggressive on the first-time-experience, sending multiple notifications in response to user actions, or prompting users to bookmark the app (relevant policies highlighted above).

In general, it’s clear that Facebook wants to signal to the developer community that it will be investing more in policy enforcement, and that the issues it will be pursuing will be ones that many developers may not have received enforcement actions for in the past.

Facebook continues to take an increasingly “philosophical” approach in its developer communication.

“While our policies will guide our approach, no document can itemize every way to generate a bad user experience, so we’ll be enforcing our broader principles as well. Those who try to circumvent the spirit of the policies or principles, or exploit a ‘loophole,’ will be subject to enforcement,” Platform policy team head Paul Jeffries says.

Jeffries also reiterated that developers will “continue to be able to launch an application without prior approval,” lest they think that Facebook is heading the route of Apple’s app store, instead saying that Facebook will continue to proactively review apps “at any time.”