Facebook Support

[clookie]

I just discovered something:
with adium you can also logon to your facebook account and use the facebook chat feature through adium
it would be great if this could be realised within amsn too
but as I don't know anything in how far it's possible
I'm just asking =) and saying =)
but as it's released under GPU/GPL I thought it could be possible

well yeah again I'm saying I think this'd be great, someone else may think different about it
it's just a Suggestion
it just would make aMSN even (!!!) better then what it already is
clookie

[kakaroto]

it's not "facebook support" it's "facebook protocol".. but amsn is single-protocol, we support MSN, and not facebook, yahoo, icq, etc... so no, it can't/won't be done.

[phantom]

In my opinion it would make aMSN alot worse. It would make me stop recommending it to people. Facebook and such sites are pointless and annoying (Spam emails, anyone?).

Glad it won't be done.

[vivia]

OT: you can stop facebook apps from emailing you, but you need to do so on every application one by one... and you can also restrict the type of emails facebook itself sends you. Just that the instructions are either well hidden or completely missing

[phantom]

OT: you can stop facebook apps from emailing you, but you need to do so on every application one by one... and you can also restrict the type of emails facebook itself sends you. Just that the instructions are either well hidden or completely missing

You have to sign up to it before you can do that. That's only the sort of thing people would do if they LIKED the spam.

And this too is the same with every single similar spam site (wayn, hi5, bebo, etc).

[clookie]

ok, didn't think about that =)
thanks for the reply!

ps: phantom, just block facebooks emailadresses....
just block
@facebookmail.com
(I use the same but then in as a filter to archive & label them (=put in folders for hotmail))

[PjhN]

Well, I don't think it would be necessary as a core feature, but if it were implementable as a plug-in it would be cool.

I'm certainly surprised you guys shot this down so vehemently ("It would make me stop recommending it to people."). For starters, saying being a Facebook member means you're inundated by spam is plain not true. You only need to know how to configure you're privacy and messaging settings properly and it'll only send you the messages you WANT. No more. Fact.

As for "amsn is single-protocol, we support MSN", well of course that's fair enough. Although I thought aMSN was a cross-platform open source MSN client replacement, which therefore would require the MSN protocol to run. Of course, MSN is out of date now, it's Windows Live Messenger that's the current official client. And that does have Facebook support integrated, though not Facebook chat support, which is a pity as that would be the most appropriate Facebook feature to support. What happened to the 'anything they can do, we can do better' ethos? lol

Anyway I know you guys would never do something like this, and I'm happy that you'd rather concentrate on aMSN and aMSN2, which rocks, and I'm sure will rock even more, respectively. I just don't think it's fair to say it's that bad an idea. Facebook has a lot of useless features, that are not in any way compulsory. What it is, is a very good social, shareable, online photo album. Not to mention a great way of keeping in touch with friends, which is what MSN etc. are all about. And incidentally I get a lot more spam from MSN than I ever did from Facebook, even though I've told MSN Featured Offers to bugger off and leave me alone more times than I can count. :roll:

[kakaroto]

PjhN: your arguments make no sense...
this is "facebook protocol" support, and amsn is single protocol, so why the hell would you say we shot it down so vehemently, it's not our job to implement that, as simple as that!
"Although I thought aMSN was a cross-platform open source MSN client replacement, which therefore would require the MSN protocol to run. Of course, MSN is out of date now, it's Windows Live Messenger that's the current official client."
Well, being cross platform, open source, MSN client replacement, doesn't mean we need to support facebook! it's cross-platform, not multi-protocol, two very different things... and msn is not out of date, and it's not windows live messenger now, it's still the same old MSN protocol behind it all.. there's no difference between MSN messenger and Windows live messenger apart from the name, it's all the same protocol, and that's what we support, the msn protocol, not the msn client...
you're telling me that WLM has facebook support? really? then that's new and completely different. Could you give details on how that works ? thx.. oh and no need to be so agressive in the way you say all that stuff.
oh, and I never said it's a bad idea.. I just said it's not our job as an msn client, not a facebook client.

[PjhN]

Whoa kakaroto, I'm sorry to upset you. None of that was meant aggressively at all, you know I love your work! My post was more a response to phantom's first comment anyway, although no offence was meant to him either. But that was what I'd call an aggressive post; If a feature were added that was not compulsory to use, and would make no difference at all to someone who didn't use Facebook, I don't see how it would suddenly ruin aMSN. And the point about Facebook spam was irrelevant and untrue, it's just a matter of getting the settings right. (Worth noting: they have changed the way these settings are handled several times - and included more control at users' request).

All I meant was I've always thought of aMSN as it describes itself, a 'platform-independent MSN Messenger clone'. If it's only usage of the protocol that interests ya, then fair enough, but that description's wording ['clone'] does kinda imply aMSN seeks to implement MSN Messenger features as well or better, and assuming WLM falls into that purview as the most up to date MSN Messenger iteration. And as I said WLM does support Facebook, to an extent, via one of its tabs. It allows you to change your status, view friends' status updates, and browse photos, all within the contact-list pane. Facebook-chat protocol is the logical evolution of that support, even though it does change the program's function to a multi-protocol client.

Anyway, WLM has plenty of pointless features; I never said that it's your job or that you 'need' to do anything anyway. I know I couldn't make something like aMSN and I wouldn't dream of presuming to say anything of the kind. And the first thing I said was that would be cool as a plug-in, which is what you usually recommend to people who request features you don't want in the core.

All I meant was this simple:
What was suggested would be a useful (for some) improvement on something that Microsoft's messenger client already offers.

[kakaroto]

hey PjhN. ok, let's forget about this. now, as I said, we're only an MSN clone, so, as long as you tell me that MSN implements it, then we'll do it too (as long as we have some free time to do it). What I thought the request was, was to add full facebook protocol support, independent of msn.. like a new combobox to choose whether to connect to msn or to facebook.
anyways... I just tried to see this facebook thing in WLM and I don't see it anywhere, which version of WLM are you using? and do you need to do something special to enable facebook support ?

[PjhN]

Glad we're okay. x

I'm using Windows Live Messenger, Version 2008, Build 8.5.1302.1018

Make sure you've got the tabs bar visible on the left of the contact pane. On my PC, Facebook is the sixth tab from the bottom.

Incidentally, funny that you should have mentioned it, but I just noticed another new feature they've added is support for Yahoo! contacts... http://get.live.com/EN-GB/messenger/addyahoo

[kakaroto]

yeah, yahoo contacts is old, and we want to do it, but it's hard... and it's a contact in your list, no need for tabs or whatever...
I do have the tabs, and I checked them all.. no facebook tab....
once I get home, I'll check which version I have. I'll keep you informed.

[H@t Trick]

Hi,

This looks like the FB tab is exclusive to UK based passport accounts: http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/15080/16104/microsoft-facebook-updates-tab-Messenger.phtml