Developer of Facebook App Now Taking Questions on That Poll

[Stephanie]

Interesting. The developer of the poll application used by an anonymous Facebook user to create That Poll has opened the floor to questions at Daily Kos. The poll was so officious that That Poll is all I can say about it. If you have questions for the developer, click the link and fire away. (He says he deleted it as soon as he saw the alerts, first thing Monday morning.)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/28/787366/-Facts-from-the-developer-of-the-Facebook-Poll-Application

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Ask him why he wants Obama killed

and has he been through the Secret Service questioning yet? Thoroughly? (Include waterboarding)

Hawkeye-X

[arcos]

2. Huh, you should read about it... he created the application, not the poll itself

"Facts

1. Neither I nor the application have any affiliation with Facebook.
2. Polls are created by other Facebook users, not me, anyone affiliated with me, or Facebook.
3. I am the sole person responsible for maintaining, policing, and developing the application.
4. Thousands of polls are created daily, sometimes as many as 10,000. Each poll has as many as 2MM votes and 200k comments. Of those thousands of polls, most are gibberish and a few are offensive, libelous, or otherwise beyond the pale.
5.

Facebook provides a mechanism for contacting the developer. For most truly outrageous, offensive, etc. polls I get an email directly from a user. If the poll is over the line -- as this one clearly was -- I delete it immediately and take further action as necessary.
6. Not a single person contacted me directly about this poll.
7. There is an automated reporting system in place, where users can report individual polls. Once a poll reaches a certain threshold of reports it is placed in a queue which I review daily. I reviewed it this morning and deleted the offending poll.
8. The poll was created Sunday evening and I deleted it first thing Monday morning. Facebook is not on call for these kinds of things, but I am. The only way Facebook can act is by banning my application, which they did.
9. I live on the west coast.
10. I've been an Obama supporter for a long time -- he was my state representative in Illinois -- and I've been on this site for over two years."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/28/787366/-Facts-from-the-developer-of-the-Facebook-Poll-Application

[Pab Sungenis]

5. No one contacted you directly

because they have NO WAY of contacting you directly WITHOUT adding your application to their profiles, giving you unfettered access to their data (including friends lists) and increasing your income.

I've complained directly to Facebook again. This guy is unable or unwilling to self-police and his application needs to be permanently removed. Anyone who agrees, send mail to [e-mail]

[arcos]

6. Why can't people fucking read? I'm not the one who created the app, duh!

I'm just quoting... READ!

[Pab Sungenis]

9. Not blaming you.

Responding to the quote in your article.

[phleshdef]

8. As a Developer, I can tell you that you have no clue what you are talking about.

[Pab Sungenis]

10. This is just the latest in a long series of polls.

Of course, a lot of people here on DU were blase when a poll on the app asked "SHOULD GAY PEOPLE BE KILLED?" - a poll which was up for weeks. Now, when it's the President who's threatened instead of an unpopular group, people realize the problems with this application.

If this application is to stay up, its polls need to be reviewed before being posted. The fact that the developer can't do that tells me that it shouldn't continue to exist.

If he's unwilling to properly police the polls himself, and wants to rely on crowdsourcing to do it, he needs a way to notify him of inappropriate content without adding the application. He won't do that.

[phleshdef]

11. Thats crazy. You can't 100% police the internet like that. You aren't being realistic.

And apparently you didn't read the article. They are working on a better way to moderate the polls.

You are being absolutely ridiculous.

[Pab Sungenis]

12. I did read the article.

And until there is a more realistic way to moderate the polls, meaning pre-screening them, this app needs to go.

And you can't 100% police the internet, but a developer needs to self-police his application. If he can't, it shouldn't be there.

[phleshdef]

13. Based on your logic, the people that make keyboards should pull their products from the shelf...

...because they can't police what people type with them.

I'm damn near laughing at how crazy your opinion on this is.

[Pab Sungenis]

15. No, you're setting up a strawman here.

Keyboard manufacturers don't disseminate the offensive material. This "poll" application does.

If I allow someone to put up a sign in front of my house asking if the President should be killed, that's different, and that's the equivalent case here.

I'm a blogger and a cartoonist. I take personal and legal responsibility for my content. I also take responsibility for any comments that are posted to blogs I control. I pre-screen comments because I'm responsible.

He can't or just plain won't pre-screen. He provides no easy way to bring offensive material to his attention (where, in my case, it's brought to my attention before it ever sees the light of day). You can "queue" stuff as offensive IF you give him permission to take all your data when and if he wants. You can't easily report offensive material without adding his app and making him more money. Screw that.

When I couldn't flag the material early yesterday morning, I did the responsible thing. I E-mailed Facebook and called in the Secret Service. If he was being responsible, this poll would never have shown up, nor would any of the other offensive ones.

Until and unless there is a mechanism for polls to be pre-screened, the app needs to go.

[phleshdef]

16. He provides a fucking open polling app, something that has been around since the dawn of the web.

And no, the keyboard analogy is EXACTLY the same logic and its seriously flawed. Someone who creates an app that millions of people use can't police it. That doesn't mean the app shouldn't be used. If someone does something wrong, take care of it when its reported.

Your point of view is extreme, unrealistic and basically shit. This kind of thing is what the Internet is all about and if you are too dense and uninformed and clueless about the nature of how these things work to realize that, its not my fault.

[Pab Sungenis]

17. I've been using the internet since 1994.

I know how it works. There is no effective way to report without giving him more money. He admits that doesn't deactivate repeatedly reported polls while they wait for review.

That is irresponsible.

[phleshdef]

18. My point is, if you pulled every application that could be used for bad, you'd have very little left

So what you are suggesting doesn't fly.

Aside from that, the poll was a horrible thing to create, but can you honestly tell me how it did any damage to President Obama? If anyone gets damaged by it, it will be the person that made the stupid poll in the first place, whenever the secret service has tracked them down.

You are overreacting.

[Pab Sungenis]

19. I'm not for pulling every application that can be used for bad.

I'm saying if he can't police it better, then it shouldn't be up. The fact that the poll was there for at least 24 hours, and appears to have been up there for a MONTH, shows that he can't police it and until and unless he can it needs to disappear.

[insanity]

28. That's insane

By your logic, DU should not be up because it can't stop the crazies from posting stupid. Further, because of that you think Skinner should be liable for every word written on his server space?

Policing the internet is impossible to do effectively. It is both good and bad that globalization gives us a tool to communicate and some people will exploit that tool to advance their whacko agenda, but it can't really be stopped. The fact remains for the internet to ever be useful it has to be open because it is how the technology works and attempts to change that can alawys be backdoored.

An example:

Say a guy that is really into rocket science and want to teach some one how to build a really good and safe model rocket to share his hobby. Hell, he wants to teach everyone about it because he thinks it is that interesting or at least helpful for others with a similar interest. He makes a well designed plan that has full disclosure. On his site he has instructions for making rocket fuel, which in the quantities instructed would only be mildly dangerous. However, a keen student of math visits his site and decides to up the ratios to make a much more dangerous and (if used wrong) deadly device. Who is responsible for any damage- the person who created the content to share, or the person who abused it to make it very hazardous to the public, or maybe the ISPs (pun intended, for the rocket science types)?

Another example:

I get a random IM that says some really dangerous stuff and I pass it along to AIM and notify police the relevant details. Because AIM might be flooded with moderator requests from teenagers with hurt feelings and the police might not know what to do, the very real threat is more or less ignored. Now there is a lot of blame to go around if something goes down, but what do you do? Do you make every IM filtered by a moderator (crippling the usefulness of the service), get rid of AIM (shutting off a very big channel of communication), continue unchanged (because bad shit happens with and without warning all the time), or try and find subtle ways of monitoring conversations (which would be a slippery slope towards censorship)?

Are we all somewhat liable for everything said ever on the internet because we are simply connected to it thus furthering the channels people can use to do illegal shit?

[Stephanie]

31. No, DU ensures sufficient moderation that it would not take 12 hours to pull such a poll

This guy did not staff his operation overnight. He was a one-man moderating committee and that set-up failed.

[Pab Sungenis]

32. No, because DU is MODERATED and MONITORED.

These polls AREN'T. Only if "enough people" flag a poll (for which they have to sign up and make more money for the developer) will he even look at it and consider whether it should be deleted or not. Questioned videos aren't even temporarily shut down.

Here at DU they get the cranks quickly, and those offending posts are locked and deleted. This guy does nothing even close to the level of monitoring and moderation we have here.

Until he can, it should be killed.

[Stephanie]

24. Even had you alerted by allowing the app access to your profile, it STILL took12 hours

12 hours for him to review the alerts. That's just irresponsible on his part.

[Stephanie]

23. What you said.

He said in the Kos diary that the poll went up Sunday night, but since he and he alone monitors the alerts, he didn't review them until Monday morning, AFTER he'd driving his gf to class. If he's going to run a business that includes monitoring of content, he needs to hire enough staff to do that job properly.

[Stephanie]

22. No. He owns the company, he took on the responsiblity of monitoring the polls

He profits from the ads. He didn't sell the app to Facebook, Facebook allows him to run his app on thier site. For. His. Profit. If he's unwilling to hire enough staff so that alerts go unheeded for 12 hours, he needs to rethink this project.

[ima_sinnic]

21. should Bill Gates be checking your docs to make sure you're using Word okay?

as pointed out by other posters, your points are ridiculous.
He created a program for inserting polls on a web page (is my understanding of the situation). He has no control over how that program is used--that is up to the individual websites.

[Stephanie]

25. Wrong. He is the ONLY one who has control over how it's used.

As part of his business plan, he took on the responsibility of monitoring the polls, responding to alerts, and deleting offensive content. The problem is that he was understaffed to respond to alerts in a timely manner. He's not just a developer, he's the owner and operator and monitor. MS Word is not a good analogy.

From his diary:

I am the sole person responsible for maintaining, policing, and developing the application.

[Dappleganger]

27. All of those polls are STUPID, which is why I hide them.

It's like grafitti in a truckstop bathroom.

[phleshdef]

7. Maybe you should read the link. He didn't make the poll and he is an Obama supporter.

[trueblue2007]

3. That guy who made the poll should be put in the electric chair

[SpartanDem]

4. Nah just send them to Gitmo

a little waterboarding should teach the perp a lesson

[prolesunited]

20. That's just a stupid thing to say.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Why was that poll up for a month before it was taken down?

There were comments posted that were dated a month ago. Several DUers saw them.

[Stephanie]

26. Probably didn't generate enough alerts at that time for him to take notice.

From his diary:

There is an automated reporting system in place, where users can report individual polls. Once a poll reaches a certain threshold of reports it is placed in a queue which I review daily. I reviewed it this morning and deleted the offending poll.

[DangerousRhythm]

29. He actually said the poll went up on Sunday and was taken down Monday.

He's lying about that. For what reasons, only he knows for sure, but that thing had comments dating back to about August 25th, last I (and others) saw. It's just weird of him to lie about that stupid detail, even if it's an attempt to make himself look better somehow. Just odd. :\

[Stephanie]

30. Maybe alerts only reached the threshold to come to his attention on Sunday night?

I'm only guessing and not defending him. The whole thing is outrageous.