Actually, I didn't lose anything because I no longer play their games - specifically because of crappy programming like the current example.
We're "whining" because Zynga developers didn't take 10 minutes to consider how the promotion could be abused and take some very simple steps to prevent it.
This was not the first time something like this has happened. I remember at least 4 or 5 when I did play, but none with as drastic a reaction as this one. In the past, they just closed the loophole and were done with it - regardless of how badly it was exploited by players. Some of the "exploits" led to advantages just as bad or worse than this one. The reaction this time is over the top, especially for players that DO spend money on the game.
You'd think the developers, or at a minimum their managers, would have learned that players will abuse any opening they can to get ahead. They obviously still haven't learned their lesson.
And if you're 2-3 levels removed from where the code came from? I had at least 2 messages from people wanting me to get back into Mafia Wars saying essentially "Get back into the swing of things with free points. Use the code below". Until the post here, I had no clue it was an "exploit" because Zynga did stuff like this constantly.
- Free points for being a "loyal player"
- Free points every time you level up
- Free points for completing various in-game achievements
- Free points to make up for system problems
Based on past experience, it's not that hard to imagine the code being a "get players back into the game" freebie. Their own lack of communication and planning is what did this.
Look at it this way - all the developers had to do was add a second prompt and some additional text to the code input screen:
Tagged Account:
* Warning: This code is intended for Tagged users migrating to Facebook. Unauthorized use will result in account rollback or cancellation.
Code use could be limited to once per Tagged account address and would have stopped the complaining on rollbacks since the warning was right there.
The real problem here is that Zynga never seemed to consider how their code would be exploited. In this day and age, any development should be done with security and stability in mind. You have to assume from the start that someone is going to abuse what you create. It's your job as a competent developer to prevent that. Anything else is just plain laziness.
I used to be an avid Zynga fan playing a number of their games on Facebook with my friends. Over the last 3-4 months, I've ended up blocking every Zynga game because I got tired of dealing with the bugs and complete lack of communication.
The general feeling among users that were familiar with software development was that they would get the code to an alpha level of stability and release it. They would then rely on the users to "beta test" their code, occasionally to disastrous results. While likely not true, a favorite item passed around was a purpoted statement from a Zynga insider claiming they didn't have the resources to beta and with so many users, it was just easier to release and apologize than it was to build a quality product.
As far as this latest incident, color me NOT surprised. This is a fairly typical screw-up on their part and a standard reply, but with slightly bigger stakes than normal. I'm sure they're thinking that with so many users, they can afford to piss off some while they attempt to make people do what Zynga wants instead of accepting some responsibility for once... :-)
But the music is NOT a key part. The music was a MONTHLY (you know, one part of one day out of an entire month) open mic. From the article right above your cherry-picked quote:
"Among them is Magret Gudmundsson, who until recently hosted a monthly acoustic open mikeGudmundsson and her ilk."
For a business where they play music every day, I am absolutely certain the fees would be far higher.
From the article where you pulled the quote from ASCAP (yeah, no bias there...)
"said Newman, who also runs the Music in Melrose coffeehouse at Church of the Nazarene, which features monthly performances between September and May. “We couldn’t afford a thousand dollars a year [the price for licenses with all three PROs]."
Once a month performances at a church coffeehouse for 9 months out of the year. 9 performances = $1000?
The only thing they're doing is killing the golden goose. No wonder their revenue streams are drying up.
Much like the boost from format conversion from tape/record/8-track to CD, digital sales got a boost in conversion from CD to MP3. The problem for the "big labels" is that instead of replacing entire albums, I suspect a lot of people were merely buying the 2-3 songs that made them buy the albums in the first place. I know I certainly have.
Additionally, since CD's break, they need occasional replacement. MP3's, on the other hand, can be archived on backup media (external drives, flash drives, tape drives if you're that dedicated) and even if they do get lost, are far cheaper to replace.
Personally, I think digital sales will max out very soon.
The mixed messages have struck a chord of curiosity in me. I wonder if an enterprising defendant and attorney in the next mashup lawsuit could point to Glee as the driving reason why they started their mashup in the first place...
"We were just following the plaintiffs examples, your honor!"
/would love to see the plaintiffs lawyers after that one
And of course, the ISP that chooses to delete or deactivate their logging couldn't possibly be interested in saving the labor costs involved with fulfilling private data requests.
Take a look at Time Warner's response to the latest copyright obnoxiousness. It apparently takes an entire team 3 months to process 20,000+ accounts. Given that IPRED forces the release of private data based on accusation instead of court verified proof, it's not beyond belief that the RIAA/MPAA would submit at least that many requests over a 90 day period.
It IS a business decision, but not the one you are assuming.
"But they need to do this to support international treaty obligations"
Sarcasm aside, I tend to fall more in the camp of "ideas should be shared". It's not because I want everything for free (I'm a programmer and like getting paid for my work) but because I see ideas in the frame of Jefferson's candle/flame analogy.
If I light my candle from your flame, we both have flame. If yours goes out, you can relight from mine and vice versa. If you hoard yours and yours goes out, we all lose because noone has a flame.
In a way, free exchange and expression of ideas without hindrance is akin to a distributed backup. The more people that have access to the same idea, the greater the chance the knowledge will never be lost. In the end, isn't that the goal of progressing the "useful Arts and Sciences" - to make sure that knowledge is advanced and not lost?
Maybe it's a push from the phone book publishers...
After all, with the advent of online phone number lookup (i.e. whitepages.com), I can't remember the last time I actually used a phone book to look up someone's number. Even business numbers might get caught up in this if they are just using their name (i.e. Joe Accountant, CPA).
What's really scary is that I could see this process being abused with fake notices during an election by rogue voters looking to hurt the opposition. Heck, that could be done against any group with a name and phone number on their site.
The article doesn't give a lot of information, so we'd have to read the actual bill to be sure. That being said, given that I deal with end-users on a regular basis, a PARTIAL ban may be the only viable solution.
While some users do actually pay attention in training, a lot do what they can to breeze through so they can get back to their desks. I believe a reliance on training for all users to allow all users to have access to P2P software is just as problematic as banning the software for all users.
I think a ban is acceptable with one caveat - exceptions can be requested and easily granted. Where I work, our machines are regularly scanned for unapproved software. If it's detected, you get an email saying "XX app was detected. If there is a valid reason for using this software, please submit an exemption request via {link}". Requests go to your manager and if approved, on to IT.
Most people won't bother. The ones that need it, will. It works for us (30,000+ employees worldwide), they should be able to make it work for the government.
Everytime I see a story like this, my hopes get raised that "Hollywood" and the theater chains will come to their senses and start making DVDs available at the theater the night of the showing.
As part of a family of 4 and in today's economy, it's just not worth it to go to the movies on a regular basis. When we do, it's going to be something that we like and if the movie is good, we'll probably want to buy the DVD. Unfortunately, with the "release windows", we end up forgetting about the movie and not buying it half the time.
I guess it's good for my wallet, but not so good for Hollywood's bottom line. Oh well, their loss.. :-)
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
While the functionality DOES exist within Facebook already, the default settings are permissive (you have to explicitly block each and every application). While I do play Mafia Wars and a couple others, I don't want to see all the thousands of stupid quizzes that people are creating all the time. I'm tired of having to block them every time a new one pops up. Of course I'm misrepresenting the number of quizzes I see, but that doesn't mean they're not annoying.
This script is exclusive by default and if you want something to show up, you have to specifically "whitelist" it. It also gives you the ability to block status updates with select text phrases in them. For example, I do not play "Zoo World", but have several family members that do. They recently posted a number of updates regarding game play that I couldn't block with the built in tools, but once this script was installed and "Zoo World" added to the blocks, the posts disappeared.
You know, I never would have known (or installed and used) the script if Facebook hadn't been a bully about it. Thanks to the "Streisand Effect", not only is my news feed cleaner, but I'll be passing this along to ALL my friends and helping them install it too.
Seeing this exchange made me start thinking about examples where things could go wrong for the defendant and I quickly came up with this one:
In a case of mistaken identity, a person is arrested for a robbery they did not commit. An officer goes over the line and improperly coerces a confession after 16 hours of interrogation. This confession is leaked to a blog which is then picked up by multiple blogs following the story. The defense attorney gets the confession supressed. Trial starts.
At this point, the confession will NOT be a part of the evidence presented, but WILL show up in Google results. To allow jurors to perform searches unsupervised would allow evidence that should not be allowed.
Do you think this is fair?
Now, that being said, I'm curious what recourse a juror has when they DO have questions that were not answered at trial? What if they wanted a witness to clarify a statement because it was expressed in a way they didn't understand (something my kids do constantly)?
There are two sides to this and I really don't think it's possible to set any clear and hard rules on the matter.
As a programmer, I now have to dislike you because I am now aware of the patent. I guess this means that my company division with 300+ programmers can no longer use doubly-linked lists in any of our code.... greeeaaaaat.
Can someone get the EFF on this... I've got an idea for an app I want to start working on in 10-15 years... :-)
On the post: Blaming Users When You Screw Up
Re: Pathetic
We're "whining" because Zynga developers didn't take 10 minutes to consider how the promotion could be abused and take some very simple steps to prevent it.
This was not the first time something like this has happened. I remember at least 4 or 5 when I did play, but none with as drastic a reaction as this one. In the past, they just closed the loophole and were done with it - regardless of how badly it was exploited by players. Some of the "exploits" led to advantages just as bad or worse than this one. The reaction this time is over the top, especially for players that DO spend money on the game.
You'd think the developers, or at a minimum their managers, would have learned that players will abuse any opening they can to get ahead. They obviously still haven't learned their lesson.
On the post: Blaming Users When You Screw Up
Re: wtf?
- Free points for being a "loyal player"
- Free points every time you level up
- Free points for completing various in-game achievements
- Free points to make up for system problems
Based on past experience, it's not that hard to imagine the code being a "get players back into the game" freebie. Their own lack of communication and planning is what did this.
Look at it this way - all the developers had to do was add a second prompt and some additional text to the code input screen:
Tagged Account:
* Warning: This code is intended for Tagged users migrating to Facebook. Unauthorized use will result in account rollback or cancellation.
Code use could be limited to once per Tagged account address and would have stopped the complaining on rollbacks since the warning was right there.
The real problem here is that Zynga never seemed to consider how their code would be exploited. In this day and age, any development should be done with security and stability in mind. You have to assume from the start that someone is going to abuse what you create. It's your job as a competent developer to prevent that. Anything else is just plain laziness.
/MMORPG player for 5+ years
//Developer for 15+
On the post: Blaming Users When You Screw Up
Zynga games were always buggy...
The general feeling among users that were familiar with software development was that they would get the code to an alpha level of stability and release it. They would then rely on the users to "beta test" their code, occasionally to disastrous results. While likely not true, a favorite item passed around was a purpoted statement from a Zynga insider claiming they didn't have the resources to beta and with so many users, it was just easier to release and apologize than it was to build a quality product.
As far as this latest incident, color me NOT surprised. This is a fairly typical screw-up on their part and a standard reply, but with slightly bigger stakes than normal. I'm sure they're thinking that with so many users, they can afford to piss off some while they attempt to make people do what Zynga wants instead of accepting some responsibility for once... :-)
On the post: More People Realizing That ASCAP And BMI Are Killing Local Music Scenes
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Quotes WITHOUT emphasis this time:
Among them is Magret Gudmundsson, who until recently hosted a monthly acoustic open mike in her Middleborough cafe, Coffee Milano.
But Vincent Candilora, ASCAP’s senior vice president for licensing, has no sympathy for Gudmundsson and her ilk.
/sorry
On the post: More People Realizing That ASCAP And BMI Are Killing Local Music Scenes
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Among them is Magret Gudmundsson, who until recently hosted a monthly acoustic open mikeGudmundsson and her ilk."
For a business where they play music every day, I am absolutely certain the fees would be far higher.
On the post: More People Realizing That ASCAP And BMI Are Killing Local Music Scenes
Re: Re: Re:
"said Newman, who also runs the Music in Melrose coffeehouse at Church of the Nazarene, which features monthly performances between September and May. “We couldn’t afford a thousand dollars a year [the price for licenses with all three PROs]."
Once a month performances at a church coffeehouse for 9 months out of the year. 9 performances = $1000?
The only thing they're doing is killing the golden goose. No wonder their revenue streams are drying up.
On the post: More People Realizing That ASCAP And BMI Are Killing Local Music Scenes
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: The Rise And Fall Of The RIAA
Re: Re: Almost expected.
Additionally, since CD's break, they need occasional replacement. MP3's, on the other hand, can be archived on backup media (external drives, flash drives, tape drives if you're that dedicated) and even if they do get lost, are far cheaper to replace.
Personally, I think digital sales will max out very soon.
On the post: The Rise And Fall Of The RIAA
And how long until...
/joking, but still think it could happen.
On the post: As Hollywood Sues Over Copyright Infringement, Hollywood Celebrates Copyright Infringement In Glee
Glee as evidence in the next trial?
"We were just following the plaintiffs examples, your honor!"
/would love to see the plaintiffs lawyers after that one
On the post: Swedish Police Say Anti-Piracy Law Has Harmed Ability To Catch Criminals
Narrow vision abounds...
Take a look at Time Warner's response to the latest copyright obnoxiousness. It apparently takes an entire team 3 months to process 20,000+ accounts. Given that IPRED forces the release of private data based on accusation instead of court verified proof, it's not beyond belief that the RIAA/MPAA would submit at least that many requests over a 90 day period.
It IS a business decision, but not the one you are assuming.
/never assume
On the post: Does Intellectual Property Go Against Traditional Views Of Knowledge In India?
Okay... I'll bite...
"But they need to do this to support international treaty obligations"
Sarcasm aside, I tend to fall more in the camp of "ideas should be shared". It's not because I want everything for free (I'm a programmer and like getting paid for my work) but because I see ideas in the frame of Jefferson's candle/flame analogy.
If I light my candle from your flame, we both have flame. If yours goes out, you can relight from mine and vice versa. If you hoard yours and yours goes out, we all lose because noone has a flame.
In a way, free exchange and expression of ideas without hindrance is akin to a distributed backup. The more people that have access to the same idea, the greater the chance the knowledge will never be lost. In the end, isn't that the goal of progressing the "useful Arts and Sciences" - to make sure that knowledge is advanced and not lost?
On the post: Justice Dept. Boosts Number Of FBI Agents, Attorneys Focusing On Copyright Infringement
Re: Out of touch...
On the post: Bill Would Extend DMCA-Style Takedowns To 'Personal Info'
Maybe it's a push from the phone book publishers...
What's really scary is that I could see this process being abused with fake notices during an election by rogue voters looking to hurt the opposition. Heck, that could be done against any group with a name and phone number on their site.
Scary stuff.
On the post: House Passes Ban On File Sharing Use By Government Employees
Re:
While some users do actually pay attention in training, a lot do what they can to breeze through so they can get back to their desks. I believe a reliance on training for all users to allow all users to have access to P2P software is just as problematic as banning the software for all users.
I think a ban is acceptable with one caveat - exceptions can be requested and easily granted. Where I work, our machines are regularly scanned for unapproved software. If it's detected, you get an email saying "XX app was detected. If there is a valid reason for using this software, please submit an exemption request via {link}". Requests go to your manager and if approved, on to IT.
Most people won't bother. The ones that need it, will. It works for us (30,000+ employees worldwide), they should be able to make it work for the government.
On the post: James Cameron: Innovation Trumps Any Piracy Threat
DVD sales at the theater
As part of a family of 4 and in today's economy, it's just not worth it to go to the movies on a regular basis. When we do, it's going to be something that we like and if the movie is good, we'll probably want to buy the DVD. Unfortunately, with the "release windows", we end up forgetting about the movie and not buying it half the time.
I guess it's good for my wallet, but not so good for Hollywood's bottom line. Oh well, their loss.. :-)
On the post: Facebook Threatens Greasemonkey Script Writer
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
This script is exclusive by default and if you want something to show up, you have to specifically "whitelist" it. It also gives you the ability to block status updates with select text phrases in them. For example, I do not play "Zoo World", but have several family members that do. They recently posted a number of updates regarding game play that I couldn't block with the built in tools, but once this script was installed and "Zoo World" added to the blocks, the posts disappeared.
Rather handy in my book.
On the post: Facebook Threatens Greasemonkey Script Writer
Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
Thanks Facebook!
On the post: Judges Allowed To Use Google To 'Confirm Intuition' In Cases
Example against...
In a case of mistaken identity, a person is arrested for a robbery they did not commit. An officer goes over the line and improperly coerces a confession after 16 hours of interrogation. This confession is leaked to a blog which is then picked up by multiple blogs following the story. The defense attorney gets the confession supressed. Trial starts.
At this point, the confession will NOT be a part of the evidence presented, but WILL show up in Google results. To allow jurors to perform searches unsupervised would allow evidence that should not be allowed.
Do you think this is fair?
Now, that being said, I'm curious what recourse a juror has when they DO have questions that were not answered at trial? What if they wanted a witness to clarify a statement because it was expressed in a way they didn't understand (something my kids do constantly)?
There are two sides to this and I really don't think it's possible to set any clear and hard rules on the matter.
On the post: Why Real Programmers Don't Take The USPTO Seriously: Doubly-Linked List Patented
Gee... thanks....
Can someone get the EFF on this... I've got an idea for an app I want to start working on in 10-15 years... :-)
/patent system is a joke
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