Last week I wrote about my annoyance of Facebook Apps forcing people to invite their friends before being able to actually use the App. While I was browsing my feeds, I found the following good news from Caroline McCarthy on WebWare:
[Facebook Apps that do this are] annoying And now Facebook has done something about it. Developer applications must “offer some navigation option to leave the friend invite process,” according to a change in the social-networking site’s platform policy. If an application’s friend-invite page doesn’t contain one of Facebook’s in-house “Skip This Step,” “Cancel,” or “Skip” buttons, it has to contain an alternative way to navigate away from the friend invite process. Developers whose applications ignore the new regulations reportedly receive warning letters that threaten shutdown if they fail to comply.
Good riddance! I’m glad to hear that Facebook is responding to critics in this way. Their ability to adapt to issues like these solidifies their position as the “anti-MySpace”. Now only if they could do something about the “we have your data forever” problem…