A controversy is brewing over a popular Facebook application called PackRat, where users collect sets of illustrated cards for points and levels. The company behind the application, Alamofire, says that users generate up to 500 daily page views per day on the application trying to hunt down the right card to complete a collection.
A big part of the game is “stealing” cards from friends, and so a lot of users add other users as friends so that their cards can be obtained. The application’s popularity has also led some users to create Facebook accounts for the sole purpose of playing the game.
Some of those accounts are now being disabled by Facebook, according to this discussion forum on the application site.
What’s curious is the email sent from Facebook to one deleted user, which states that Facebook isn’t a social network (it’s a “social utility”) and isn’t meant to build large groups of new friends. Instead, Facebook is meant to reinforce “pre-existing” social connections:
Please note that Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only. This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts. As stated on our home page, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you, not a “social networking site”. It is meant to help reinforce pre-existing social connections, not build large groups of new ones. If this is in direct contrast to what you expected as legitimate Facebook usage, I apologize for any confusion. This is simply the intention behind the site.
Accounts that are used solely for the purpose of applications are in violation of our Terms of Use. Unfortunately, I will not be able to reactivate your account. Sorry for any inconvenience, but this decision is final.
Thanks for your understanding,
Lauren
User Operations
It’s true that Facebook has stated clearly that their intention is to be a sort of mirror to the real world social graph. But it’s unavoidably true that new friendships are made on the site, too. Even friendships forged for the sole purpose of playing a game made by a third party developer.
Even former Facebook President Sean Parker (and current stockholder) said recently at TechCrunch50 that he had far more Facebook friends than real world friends.
Facebook’s real message here may be “please don’t make fake accounts just to play this game,” but that isn’t what they’re saying. I’ve emailed them for clarification.
Update: Facebook responded to the email I sent. A spokesperson says “To simplify this a bit, users on Facebook cannot have more than one account and creating another account for the purpose of playing this game violates our Terms of Use. We recognize and appreciate that each person uses Facebook based on their own interests and preferences and are happy to see people meeting new friends on Facebook. To ensure users are comfortable on the site and not burdened by unsolicited contact, we encourage users to add people that reflect their real-world connections and create trusted networks.”
Hey, I play PackRat, and it’s pretty addicting. It’s an awesome game.
I get friend requests all the time, from people saying they want to be friends because i saw this card i want in your pack, etc.
But this email is ridiculous. And it puts me off accepting friends requests from PackRat players.
Real identity is a must for facebook profile, no fake profiles allowed as per TOS. This is gud, so people dont waste time in making unnecessary things like profile for their dog, their band and add “friends”..
It’s not a gaming website. It’s a place for networking.
Looks like facebook starts to spit on its users… must be its microsoft side… I don’t give them very long before suffering from a backlash!
Absolutely not.
I agree 100% with what Facebook is saying. I don’t have one Facebook friend that I don’t know in real life – hell, I even denied Cashmere from Mashable
.
The quality of the community disintegrates when it’s no longer a network of friends, but a network of random people.
Facebook is a social network. Period. Get over it.
Mark needs to find new ways to be a different and unique social network than a play on words.
Main Entry: 1util·i·ty
1: fitness for some purpose or worth to some end
2: something useful or designed for use
My home phone is a social utility, so is my car, so is my phone number, so is my name, phone book, and margarita mixer.
users will grow up from facebook and position themselves on a professional business social network that is strategic to there agenda.
no one goes to facebook to go shopping, find a plumber or click ads. weak revenue model. time to expand mark and make your site a “Universal Social Utility” .
Quality declines? Sure Sure.
However having a lot of contacts but being able to discern real friends from e-acquaintances could ameliorate that. It’s like http://www.petershankman.com has an access to a lot of people, allowing him to crowd source much.
I for one like meeting new people. I have met new people from all over the world that I would not have been able to meet if not for Packrat…if I could go back and NOT meet them, I would not do it, because they are my friends now just as much as my “real life” friends.
Yes, it is nice meeting new people from different places in the world, but how do you truly know who you are meeting. FB profiles are created by individuals, which means that they can make up any bullshit they want to make them seem interesting or just to hide their evil intentions. Take Myspace for example. I have account on myspace and all I get is friend requests from porno girls all over the world. Do they want to meet me and make friends with me? No, they just want my money!!!!!! That’s why it’s better to use facebook to reinforce existing friendships or relationships. If you go to India and meet a nice lady or man over there who treats you with great respect or kindness, and he/she happens to have a facebook account then by all means that is a legitament reason to become their friend on FB b/c you met them face to face and got a chance to know them. Meeting some random person online, you don’t know shit about them except what they put on their pages and for all you know that could be a lie. All my friends on facebook, I have met when I’ve traveled, gone to school, or just hanging out. Strangers are strangers regardless if their on the internet or not. That’s why you have to be careful so they don’t pull the wool over your eyes and it is much easier to judge someone face to face.
Ooops, that is definitely a danger – one of our research models http://www.hatebook.org showed the same results – let fake profiles live for points and everybody goes crazy!
I have never played packrat ! But I really admire Facebook team to taking the decision to suppress the acounts that do not play their games. Whereas everyone is claiming more and more users, they (now) play the quality card. This is not obvious, but this courageous and in the interest of their community.
I agree. Facebook is focused on real life social graph and it should stay that way. Facebook is not and should not be the only social networking on the net. There is place for many more and not all of them should biggyback on facebook why not develop their own for that game.
Oh, come on. Facebook is TOTALLY multi-purpose. Their mission of connecting “real” friends changed once they started allowing developers to start making all of these games. Now, their mission will depend on who’s using the site.
I use it to check up on old friends, look at their pictures and get birthday reminders. Some people use it to play Scrabble. And some use it so they can make connections to collect these silly cards.
Perhaps the message should be more clearer. That email is really dumb.
I agree. Poorly written communications never help make things more clearer.
lol
1+………………make things more clearer
i agree with you
It does point out the changing definition of “friend” through social media. I’ve asked the “how many people do you actually know” in your friend list on any given network for research but realized long ago that I had to change the description of “know” to “have met in person”.
If you are under 25….”have met in person and could touch them with your hand”.
Yep, that last one is my definition of Facebook “friend”.
Oh…and I love packrat
Do you truly, seriously have nothing better to do with your time than steal imaginary items from your facebook friends? It boggles my mind that such a thing is possible.
Apparently you don’t have anything better to do with your time then criticise other people. Have you ever played any computer game???? JUST ONE????? If you have, the same statement could be made about you that you are making about packrat players. Unless you have played packrat, you shouldn’t be judging other people. I have a stressful life and I use packrat to help unwind at the end of the day AFTER my daughter is in bed. I have met new people from around the world and I think it is great because it is another way for people to connect and maybe someday end all the hate in this world. I know that is basically impossible especially with people like you who fight it. Open your mind to new possibilities…you might like it.
I think Facebook has lost their way.
Now I’m going to sign on to fb and play this game.
Looks like facebook is going the LinkedIn way. Why would anyone want to log into facebook to stay in touch with friends? I can do that with a simple address book.
Facebook is great for what it does: allow you to see all your friends’ new updates(photos, location) in a short amount of time.
Address books/phones are too inefficient nowadays. There’s no need to call someone up to see what they are up to. At TC50, Mark Cuban said he was able to develop a lot of deals/relations through e-mail rather than phone or in person. Sometimes, electronic contact is all we need.
“Why would anyone want to log into facebook to stay in touch with friends? I can do that with a simple address book.”
Well, you could but I don’t think it’s really serving the same purpose, and it’s certainly not as effortless to just use your address book.
With FB, many conversation starters and general updates on people’s lives gets pushed to your account. Obviously, staying in touch via Facebook is not typically a replacement for staying in touch in real life, but it’s a nice complementary service. And for some – like my sentimental and community oriented self – it makes them feel more present in friends lives.
And also, in reply to Michaels post, just want to mention that neither I nor anyone I know has really started a friendship exclusively through Facebook without ever meeting the person. It’s really really not that kind of social network/utility/whatever.
My sister met someone in her local network on Facebook. They chatted on Facebook, then met in person. They actually got married in June of this year.
That said, all of my friends on Facebook are people I’ve actually met in real life.
To some extend it is good at same time it is dangerous too…
I’m not sure what the problem is – one of the key strengths of Facebook has always been that it is not primarily about “meeting” people but about connecting with people you already know in some other context. It seems to me they have always tried to ensure there was a “cost” to adding a bunch of Facebook-only friends, a subtle pressure to keep people’s social graph as representative as possible of one’s real-life connections.
This shift that Facebook introduced – older social networks were all about finding new people unknown to you – is precisely at the heart of why Facebook has succeeded in a different (and larger) way than many of its antecedents, particularly with a wider demographic.
Spot on. Quality of demographic is what we want. Finding new people and strengthening exiting relationships both existed since day 1 of online social networking, it is always up to the individual users to maintain the quality of their own networkings, and the sites can only encourage/discourage certain practices. Shifting the focus to strengthening existing relationships has partly contributed to facebook’s success.
Linkedin did the opposite (finding new people) but with success, however, with well guardian — finding among business people only.
Facebook has a valid point but they blew the delivery. Its original intent was to connect or re-connect with people users actually “know” in the real world.
But now it’s evolved to the point where people are creating accounts for less innocent purposes than playing PackRat. I’ve had random people try to add me just to promote their business or, worse, get involved in pyramid schemes.
But this was a hasty decision coupled with a poor choice of words. Looks like Facebook needs to decide who counts as a “Friend” and who doesn’t.
This is not a new model for third party applications. When MobWars began, you could rack up some serious cash by inviting every friend you had. After people complained, Facebook made MobWars stop offering incentives to invite other friends. Still, beginning then and continuing through today, you can find groups of people on and off Facebook who are MobWars friends only – the only thing you may have in common with that “friend” is the desire to get ahead in the game. But like any other hobby/pasttime, it is entirely possible that you might meet someone in the course of playing and actually become “real” friends, thus moving the person from your internet-only circle of friends into your real-world circle of friends. Shouldn’t that be one of our goals – making our new socially-connected online world inspire real-world action (and interaction)?
IMHO Facebook doesn’t want to be the next scapegoat for Chris Hansen and his To Catch a Predator segment on Dateline NBC. It is unfortunate for PackRat that they have been made an example of but Facebook needs to take a stance for its own liability purposes.
I so agree with what you just said in this post Rick.
It’s obvious what their saying Michael… anyone with half a brain can work it out… do you have nothing better to do then make a fuss over something so insiginificant?
this kinda method is used by many other apps. eg: Texas Holdem Poker. and i have to admit that i invite friends who doesn’t have this app yet to earn more “cash”. but i only invite friends/connections that i knew tho.
so, i’m guilty as charged…
but still, i totally agree with this article… those days should’ve been over by now –along with friendster. geez, back then some people even have more than one account on friendster.
Geeze I’ve set up dozens of accounts simply to vote ‘NO I wouldn’t date her’, on this bitch I hate. I guess a lot of those accounts have been wiped. The votes still count though.
If Facebook is meant to mirror real-world friendships, how come the cap on friends is currently 5000…. surely no one really has that may real-world friends? Or maybe I’m just unpopular, hmmmn….
EXCELLENT POINT MEL. It seems the rules are twisted to fit their wishes.
In my opinion this is a clear difference between social networks – is it simply a utility to keep track of existing friends/collegues (e.g. LinkedIn / Facebook) or is it a network that allows you to connect with new colleagues and meet new people for social or business (e.g. Fast Pitch, Xing)
Facebook is just another “web boom”, maybe tomorrow we see another another boom on the web…like a new napster or something else.
649 Numbers, can you please make better comments so your spam looks little more legitimate.
Thanks.
Strange way to drive off new adopters.
Didn’t friendster start moaning about what users were up to in its heyday?
oops, Facebook…I guess you should start telling all those brands with “Business Pages” to take ‘em down…all those people connecting with other people they don’t know…
I don’t see why its wrong to make accounts to play this game. Thats part of being a social utility. Facebook are idiots, including whoever designed their new pages.
Perhaps Facebook is run by a shady harvard grad. Did you read the rolling stone issue about this guy?
Facebook, Myspace… whatever.
Dan – September 15th, 2008 at 7:27 am PDT
Alive Media Pro – September 15th, 2008 at 7:28 am PDT
Same posters, same spam.
These people annoy the shit out of me too. I much prefer anon trolls to spammers.
This is the same policy that says (well doesnt say actually, just stops you) you cant have over 5,000 friends. Why? Why that number? Why not allow us users to use it in creative ways as we see fit if we are getting “utility” out of it? I have 80 friends waiting to be accepted….they have asked me but i cant accept them. I am not spamming anyone, i just travel a lot and go to a lot of conferences and meet a lot of people.
“Now I’m going to sign on to fb and play this game.”
me too
“This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts.”
So a friend is defined as anyone I’ve met as long as I didn’t meet them on internet?
If this is the case, why does Facebook recommend people to be my friend based on my network?
“You and Sara both live in Miami.”
Do they honestly think I know that particular Sara in Miami? Do I go against their mission if I add her?
I play PackRat and I have added people as a result of playing. But I consider them friends. I learn about them via their profile, and engage in dialog like any other friend. PackRat is a social object. Friendships are formed around social objects. Whats the difference between PackRat, and say dogs, scrapbooking, cooking, photography, etc. Friendships are formed playing the game, especially when played in Co-Op. Are the friendships formed in World of Warcraft guilds artificial?
Ultimately it is up to Facebook to decide what they will enforce, but when people are interacting together, seeing posts/comments/photos/etc by non-friends, connections will be made. Don’t give us all that rope to hang ourselves with if you can’t handle us doing so.
So true Mike- I really laughed at this part: If this is the case, why does Facebook recommend people to be my friend based on my network?
“You and Sara both live in Miami.”
Do they honestly think I know that particular Sara in Miami? Do I go against their mission if I add her?
i find it supremely admirable that, at they size they’ve reached, facebooks folks are still able to react to micro groups such as this one – it shows a tremendously high level of surveillance and control over their audience – wonderful, but also and highly scary!
Facebook sucks! I never liked it. Now it proves it really sucks!
Facebook is not a blah blah blah…please God stop the facebook news and posts…pretty please, we have had enough torture…ok facebook runs the world..they are the greatest, they are life, air, oxygen…ok we submit to the media brainwashing
Does FB really think that I know all the people that are in the groups I belong to? But after having exchanged enough public messages in the group boards I can decide to become friend of some of them. What’s wrong with that?
I think that FB had a good point (no fake accounts) but they produced the wrong explanation.
Totally agree with what Facebook is saying here…as a platform they have a chance for survival. As a social network, their shelf life is 3-5 years (see: Friendster, MySpace, etc.). As many have stated above, perhaps the email could have been worded better.
No post yet on locking users to the new version? Thought that would have been written by now. Seriously though, isn’t MySpace more for people who want to randomly “friend”, and isn’t it a more welcoming place to do it anyway?
Generally speaking, what’s wrong with users joining just to play the game?
If users are willing to spend/waste their time playing the game and generate traffic for FB, what’s wrong with that?
If this is against FB vision of the site use, maybe there is a space for a network/utility to join to play games?
I think in the long run it can be very beneficial to uphold the integrity of a product. Meaning that sometimes certain action may cause a spike in userbase growth or activity but in fact will end up being detrimental to long term success.
Jippidy.com – Video Yellow Pages
Good for Facebook. This kind of cultivation of the walled garden is exactly what keeps me in Facebook. They go overboard sometimes with all these dumb games and it’s good they have correcxtives like this. I don’t really need the games to share news and views with other people that I want to actually have a reason for having known. This is yet another case of APIniks demanding eminent domain and right of away, and encountering natural barriers that aren’t just some evil company; they are an evil company that is defending its customers from abuse.
The PackRack people should make their own game on another site and get people to sign up and play their game there. Gamers think they can endlessly cross into social media; they can’t as people have natural intolerances for the intrusion of games after awhile.
This is like the same fake issue of not being able to transfer my friend’s list. I don’t care. I don’t want to. I’m not Scoble. It’s a geek affectation that people supposedly have this pressing need to roll friends all over into every network.
Teenage-oriented sites like IMVU encourage absolutely promiscuous friending. There are so many other places to go if you endlessly want to “friend” that people should go there. I don’t have a problem with FB being a utility, with use, rather than a network, which is just a lot of overblown theorizing these days.
FB and LinkedIn have it right … if I can’t pick up the phone and call you, then you shouldn’t be my Friend or Connection. Creating a shill account just for a game destroys the value of the system.
No one really cares about the size of your social or professional network. It’s quality – not quantity – that counts.
If you can pick up the phone and call all these people then why bother being on Facebook at all???????
Excellent point Janice!!
Arrington, I think you are in your blogging prime right now. I like this “stop whining and be practical” mentality. This and the iPhone dev article have powerful headlines and tight writing. Something’s changed and keep this up.
well I still remember Friendster trying to dictate what their users can and can’t do and was an at event where the Abrams said that people should only be linking to friends they know.
I think I’m going to go add some fake accounts to play….
How did that person get a reply from Facebook customer service at all?
I sent in a question in August and have yet to receive a human response.
Facebook needs to be careful here. They really are playing with fire. What happens if ten million or so create two – or twelve – new accounts?
I have been laid 11 times on facebook. Nuff’ Said.
Facebook is turning into 50% AOL and 50% Microsoft… in other words, 50% unable to have fun with tech and 50% shady and invasive
Michael – Facebook’s efforts to force users to play by their rules can be quite costly. Think: Friendster and the whole Fakester craziness. For those of your readers looking for a broader context of this issue and how it is haunted other companies, I wrote a blogpost mapping out the implications of this move (and of creating an incident that upset you enough to post). Enjoy!
Facebook and Techcrunch: the costs of technological determinism and configuring users
FB has been quite disappointing. I’ve had more success making professional connections in smaller social marketing venues.
I appreciate the concept but it’s just not the right “mesh” for me, personally.
Leslie
Totally fair and useful policy. They are policing exactly what they said they would. Doing what is expected of them. Good luck.