I hate the official Facebook app.  The thing’s huge, slow, and buggy as all get out, at least on my Android phone.  I haven’t heard kind things about the iPhone version either.

So when I saw FriendCaster mentioned on Lifehacker a few weeks back, I figured I’d give it a try.

I like it!

It’s a lot faster than the official app, it updates better and doesn’t break nearly as much.

But here’s where they were able to pry the $4.99 out of my wallet: they listen to their users.

Crazy, huh?

I ran into a problem where the input text box for the status update wasn’t showing the text.   The text was there, but you couldn’t see it unless you press and hold the box, not ideal.   So I went to the developer’s website and was able to file a service request where I made sure to mention the OS I was using and detailed the problem.    They wrote back, and quickly at that.

The fix was rolled into an update that came out today and it works.   I had mentioned in my request that I liked the app enough I might shell out for the paid version if we can get it sorted, and true to my word, I downloaded the pay version tonight.

So thank you to One Louder for being responsive to your users, it gained you a customer and some free advertising.

Yeah, we’ll see come morning.

Why do you suck so bad?  How is it that I’m seeing an update saying 2 new posts, yet if I try adding a clarifying comment to my status I get this message:

Transport error (#1001) while retrieving data from endpoint `/ajax/inline_comments.php’: A network error occurred. Check that you are connected to the internet.

If I weren’t connected to the internet, I wouldn’t be seeing the post count update, now would I?  Sams/Que publishing makes a wonderful line of books, the “Teach yourself” series.  Might I recommend a few of them for you on data transport?

UPDATE:  Ok, maybe it wasn’t all Facebook’s fault.  But still…

My final message to the J at FB.

Thought you’d like to know, my ban’s finally ended! It’s been fun, and don’t take this the wrong way, but let’s not do it again anytime soon.

Tom

The only irritating lack of closure here is I still don’t know what, if anything, I did wrong.

¡Viva la revolucion!

¡Viva la revolucion!

Edit:   Just for the sake of closure, they wrote back….

Hi Tom,

Glad it worked out and enjoy the site!

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

[REMOVED]
User Operations
Facebook

Daily correspondence:

Ah Independence Day, the day the American’s told the British to stuff it.   Funny, the British were oppressing the nacent Americans.  Imposing taxes and restrictions.  Somehow I think Facebook may have been bought out by the British as after 10 days I find I’m still banned from posting comments on the site.  But that’s ok.  I’m more than happy to keep on keeping on.

You might want to change the message that pops up telling someone they’re banned to say “This ban is temporary and may last a few hours or several weeks, months, years, and you’ll find yourself emailing Facebook daily to remind them of it”.

Have a nice holiday!

Tom

Facebook is based in Palo Alto, maybe I should send Mark Zuckerberg a dictionary with the definition for “few” highlighted.

In case you’re confused by the Lazlo reference, see this.  And thanks for making me feel old

Morning mail:

Good morning, and welcome to day 10 of my ‘few days ban’!

Just checking in to say hi, how’s it going.  Oh, while I was navigating the site, not posting on anything, I noticed that there are a few glitches.  Notifications of new comments others had made (because I can’t obviously) don’t fall away correctly every time.  Also, I’ve seen some hidden apps unhide immediately.

I’m sure the guys in engineering will just whine that Chrome isn’t supported, but honestly, they should check it out, it’s a good browser.

Ok, most likely back tomorrow.

On the off chance ‘a few days’ is defined as 11 at Facebook, have a great 4th of July!

Tom

“Please note this block is temporary and can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days.”

Just keeping ya’ll in the loop, my daily hey howdy to my home girl J at Facebook:

Good morning!  Time for my daily email since after 9 days I’m still temporarily banned.  How’s it going?  I know, I know, you can’t tell me any information about the system, so I figure at this point we can just chit chat.  Where are ya’ll located?  Like it there?  Nice building?  I used to work in a place that seemed pretty nice, then they fixed the lights in the stairwell.  Yikes!  We actually considered breaking the lights ourselves.

Tom

Scourge of Facebook

I heard back from Facebook, unfortunately their answer was pretty inconsequential.

Hi Tom,

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide additional information about this system or when the block will be lifted. When you are allowed to resume using this feature, we recommend that you proceed with caution to avoid reaching the limit again.

Thanks for your understanding,

[REMOVED]
User Operations
Facebook

Well, since you offered, is it possible to find out when this block is going to be lifted?   I try to post periodically to see if it’s lifted and I keep getting a message that I’m blocked, it’s temporary, that it’ll be lifted in a few hours or a few days.  However the block went into place back on 6/24.

The message also says to refrain from using the services I’m blocked from using, but since I can’t use them it’s sort of a moot issue.  But I can’t tell if I’m still blocked or not without trying to use the services I’m blocked from using.

Tom

• The image uploader that breaks once a week, twice on Sundays
• Notifications of comments that don’t appear
• Notificatons that won’t die
• Applications that refuse to hide
• Numerous “something broke, we’re working on it” type messages
• Data transport errors on status error updates  falsely indicating missing PHP files on their end that clear up when you simply try again.

Anything else I’m forgetting?   Hmm..maybe I should send them, though somehow I think they’ll just reply that Chrome (my browser of choice) isn’t supported.

Facebook’s love letter:

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your feedback and insights. We will certainly keep them in mind as we continue to improve the site. Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

[REMOVED]
User Operations