Re:API and Other Platform Product Changes
by SmellyGeekBoy on Thursday April 19, 2018 @02:04PM
(#16878340)
Not to mention the fact that that we've lived through all of this before with Twitter. Entire businesses were built on their API and then were obliterated in one fell swoop.
Time to move on to the next thing, unfortunately.
Re:API and Other Platform Product Changes
by LeifCarrotson on Thursday April 19, 2018 @02:07PM
(#16878377)
I'm out of the loop, what is the next walled garden everyone's playing in right now? Instagram? Snapchat? Youtube?
Re:API and Other Platform Product Changes
by nkozyra on Thursday April 19, 2018 @02:12PM
(#16878442)
I'm hoping folks will have a "fool me twice" mentality with this.
No API is permanent and no service will ever be reliable in this regard.
Re:API and Other Platform Product Changes
by AznHisoka on Thursday April 19, 2018 @02:20PM
(#16878552)
On the other hand, there's been a decent number of people who have made lots of money because they were the first to build an useful product on a platform.
Examples being Buffer, Hootsuite, BuddyMedia
Re:API and Other Platform Product Changes
by nkozyra on Thursday April 19, 2018 @02:55PM
(#16878913)
Sure but then you're in the boat where you have some n finite period of time to slingshot from needing API Service to having a viable enough business to live without it.
Re:API and Other Platform Product Changes
by return1 on Thursday April 19, 2018 @02:23PM
(#16878575)
Yeah that is absolutely true. Facebook used the platform as a way to keep people busy while they were focusing on growing the network to include everyone and their dog. After that they used the platform as an accessory and testing ground for new platforms (mobile / news sites / chatbots etc) .
Add to that the constant nightmare of rearranging chairs in the APIs for no reason. Still, facebook provides virality, but you can have that with minimal data usage from their platform if you ask your users to enter the data you need manually.
Re:API and Other Platform Product Changes
by krausejj on Thursday April 19, 2018 @02:06PM
(#16878373)
we do have a plan. but we also expected facebook to at least tell us when and if they cut off access — not put up a blog post that says they are removing some endpoints, and then just cut them all off regardless without warning.
this simply doesn't seem like the way to treat people who have invested time in a platform.
Yes?
Look, I hate to be "I told you so", but this shouldn't be a surprise: this is how Facebook has treated partners all along.
Remember when the big thing that drove engagement on Facebook was games? Zynga was making a mint on that. Until one day Facebook's metrics showed that the constant "Help my farm!" updates were pissing people off; they flipped a switch and games disappeared, and Zynga got kneecapped. I think it still technically exists, but it's a shell of what it was.
Then it was all about sharing as many news articles as possible, and Facebook built all these relationships with news publishers. That lasted until fake news and Facebook deciding people want more status updates from friends, and the publishers all got their traffic slashed with naught but a "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."
When your business lives on Facebook's platform, you exist at their whim. As soon as they decide you're no longer useful, you're cut off. You really should've had a plan for this.