If you're a user of Facebook, then you probably got a bazillion PicDoodle notifications early last week. In fact, if you clicked on a link, you probably generated part of those notifications. According to Facebook, it was just a broken app and not spam. Frankly, I don't care how you explain it away, it was bad. So, I sent a spam notification to Facebook saying "this app is killing us - please kill it". Now, the proper response here would have been to route it to the right people and fix the problem. However, here's the response I got from Facebook instead:
Hi Benjamin,Thank you for reporting this potential abuse. Your issue relates to an application that was not built by Facebook. Unfortunately, Facebook cannot provide service for applications built by third parties, so you will need to contact the developer of the application directly. To do this, please visit the application's About page and use the "Report Application" link at the bottom of the page. Be sure to give a detailed, accurate description of the problem and include links (URLs) to the relevant pages.
Facebook is not responsible for the support provided by this developer. If you continue to have problems, please note that you can remove and restrict applications by clicking on the Applications menu in the bottom left corner of any Facebook page and selecting the "Edit All" link.
Thanks,
User Operations
Obviously this is a dumb form letter response. However, it seems to me that it's also wrong. The problem absolutely was Facebook's. They obviously had bad code that allowed this problem to occur. And, it's their responsibility to keep app developers in line. Oh, well... I guess it's just easier to pass the buck sometimes...
