Fb:comments Tag No Longer Notifying Users
In accordance with a news item Facebook posted last Thursday, the fb:comments FBML and XFBML tag will no longer send notifications to users when another user replies on a particular comment board. Oddly, this change was not mentioned on the Developer Roadmap, and seems to have caught several developers off guard. Facebook says this change is to ensure that “users aren’t surprised after they post content in comment boards”.
Up until two weeks before this unexpected change, Facebook said that the fb:comments tag would remain unaffected in a discussion about the removal of platform notifications, which further complicates Thursday’s news.
The change was most likely planned to coincide with the complete removal of the platform notification system; however, it does create a sort of double standard given Facebook’s plans to keep notifications live for its own use, like notifying users when they have been tagged in photos, or content they’ve posted has been “liked” by friends. Facebook followed up the news today with this:
Regarding fb:comments – we apologize for the change in direction. We’re looking at possibly working in ways for friends to get notifications if another friend comments after them in a post, but for now fb:comments will not generate notifications for follow-up posts.
The fb:comments tag behaved more predictably than standard application-to-user and user-to-user notifications and more closely mirrored expected functionality found elsewhere on the main site, so their demise is somewhat unfortunate. Does Facebook have larger plans for the notification system in general? There has been much fanfare recently regarding platform notifications; we will be sure to keep you up to date with any changes.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:50 pm
I’ve had applications banned because of this behavior, even though it’s built into an FBML tag. So, I’m glad they got rid of it.
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:11 am
Hmmmm…too many rules now …
April 21st, 2010 at 8:05 am
I’ve just noticed around the web that the fb:comments functionality has been totally removed? – currently users of applications with comment boxes cannot post a comment as the ‘comment’ box is no longer visible? – theres a strange “Facebook social plugin” link there now in its place? – is this a bug orRi has it to do with the notifications you mention above? – with the comment boxes i use on my pages, users just post answers to questions we write – there are no user to user notifications, there never were? – its just a comments box with all users comments?
April 30th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
This is a big problem for blogs. What’s the point of comments if there’s no way to be notified when someone leaves a comment on your stuff? Pure stupidity.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:58 am
hope you can help me out.. on the right drop down menu .. “My profile” link is missing.. how to get it back
How to add for example “My Test” in the top ribbon next to “My Link” ?
also the top bar in the site settings is missing ? how do it get it back ?
Neel
August 29th, 2010 at 5:52 am
Facebooks developer API has too many bugs. It behaves unpredictably. I put “Likes” in my website and when user clicks on it, it doesnt appear in his friends news feed. Later after a week of struggling i figured out its a bug and fb is working on it. Now the comments thing that it needs an APP iD to work, and we cant use existing fan page but create a new one altogether! using fb social plugin is like hitting at the wall. eh!