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Facebook Social Networks IT

Facebook Says a 'Technical Issue' Caused Drugs, Animals and Other Illegal Listings To Flood Its New Craigslist Competitor (businessinsider.com) 42

Posted by msmash from the tech-is-hard dept.
On Monday, Facebook launched Marketplace, its own take on eBay and Craigslist to offer users a platform to buy and sell things. Less than a day later, the company said there was a "technical issue" that caused drugs, animals, adult services, and other illegal items to appear in Marketplace. Business Insider reports: In a statement to Business Insider, Facebook director of product management Mary Ku said the company is "working to fix the problem" and "closely monitoring our systems to ensure we are properly identifying and removing violations before giving more people access to Marketplace." To police what is sold in Marketplace, a Facebook spokesperson previously told us that the social network will rely on its employees proactively looking for offensive listings as well as users reporting posts they think should be removed.
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Facebook Says a 'Technical Issue' Caused Drugs, Animals and Other Illegal Listings To Flood Its New Craigslist Competitor More

Facebook Says a 'Technical Issue' Caused Drugs, Animals and Other Illegal Listings To Flood Its New Craigslist Competitor

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  • Technical glitch (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ukab the Great ( 87152 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @11:04AM (#53011347)

    Or attempt at providing an authentic Craiglist experience?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well if they take out all the good stuff, this is an experiment that is doomed to fail.

    • Re:Technical glitch (Score:4, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @11:11AM (#53011375) Journal

      PHB1: "Hey, let's be Craigslist without the blackjack and hookers!"

      PHB2: "Excellent idea, I'll get on it! ... By the way, what's Craigslist?"

      PHB1: "Uh, blackjack and hookers."

      • PHBender: I’m going to build my own classified ad site with blackjack and hookers.
        PHPBender: In fact, forget the classified ads.

        Still can't make it work with Facebook's version of events, even when I tried really hard.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sims 2 ( 994794 )

      Is it possible to browse without a FB account?

    • H1B zombies will do what ever you tell them to do; but Machiavelli has said, "don't bet your life on it." So no one died, and we all got a good chuckle from this experience. Maybe next time, FaceBook will hire people that don't lie on their job application?

  • Hubris (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @11:18AM (#53011425)
    It's the height of hubris for Facebook to assume that can rely on the network effect from their huge membership to quickly and easily reproduce what took eBay, Amazon and Craigslist decades to develop (and even they still mess it up on a fairly frequent basis). In a year this mess will join the likes of Facebook Deals, Facebook Credits & Facebook Gifts on the scrapheap of Facebook's attempts to expand beyond social networking by creating a poor implementation of someone else's idea.
    • Hey, they need to generate actual revenue and find a purpose to their existence somehow!

    • hubris for Facebook to assume that can rely on the network effect from their huge membership

      Why doesn't somebody come up with a standard to share and control sharing of info so that one is not tied to a monopoly to house such info?

      Companies who "lost" the network effect fight or only sell generic hosting should be happy to support such a standard because it would level the playing field. Zuck would be zucked.

      It might require a non-profit "registry" of contacts, though.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Why doesn't somebody come up with a standard to share and control sharing of info so that one is not tied to a monopoly to house such info?

        We did, it's called HTML. People would rather click buttons on Facespace.

    • Where I get your perspective, why mess with success? I think there is good to be had here.

      Who knows that E-Bay has the most optimal solution for online auctions sites? Maybe there is something else to be learned? The only way you kick the huge guys like E-Bay off center is to innovate around them. The problem is that innovation is not always successful, often it isn't, but that's what makes this whole thing keep working.

      So what if somebody thinks they can make money on Craig's list idea? Or somebody

      • As both a buyer and seller I think gunbroker's auction system is much better than ebays. Just the 15 minute rule alone (any bids in the last 15 minutes sets the clock back to 15 minutes) turns a GB auction into an actual auction as opposed to a sealed envelope bid that closes at a specific time. Cheaper rates, no forced payment methods, etc. are all great for sellers as well.

      • Who knows that E-Bay has the most optimal solution for online auctions sites? Maybe there is something else to be learned? The only way you kick the huge guys like E-Bay off center is to innovate around them. The problem is that innovation is not always successful, often it isn't, but that's what makes this whole thing keep working.

        No argument here. I'm sure some scrappy little startup with a great idea will innovate eBay into obsolescence. However, Facebook is NOT a scrappy little startup and leveragin

  • Technical Difficulties (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @11:26AM (#53011489)

    Yeah. It was full of people.

    • Yes, that's a major design flaw. You should never get people involved. They might decide to actually do something.
  • Following the same sort of logic one can claim the entire site is a 'technical issue'

  • Smells like... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @11:53AM (#53011659)

    "...the company said there was a "technical issue" that caused drugs, animals, adult services, and other illegal items to appear in Marketplace."

    Er, a technical issue?

    Smells more like simple supply and demand to me. One would think one of the largest for-profit corporations on the planet would recognize a revenue stream when they see it.

    And don't bother talking about morals or ethics. They sold your digital soul ten times over for far less.

    • "Facebook Road", anyone?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by chihowa ( 366380 )

      Smells more like simple supply and demand to me. One would think one of the largest for-profit corporations on the planet would recognize a revenue stream when they see it.

      Exactly! The next step is to launch Zuckerberg into orbit so that he's outside of any jurisdiction! Maybe sometime afterward somebody can send him a habitat and some oxygen... or not.

  • Did they REALLY think that WOULDN'T happen?!?

    As long as they've been in the Social Networking business???

    Hahahahahahahhahahahahaaaaa!!!!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      The problem is the internet has changed from the late 1990's and "everyone" now has accounts.
      So the more varied life experiences now have to be considered when creating open marketplaces on the once useful and pristine internet.
      Copy existing rule lists other online sites have and play catch up?
      Or rush out a beta experience, gather real raw data, build inner city mind share and then regulate as the brand builds.
      • But, but, but...

        They've already BEEN compiling that data for YEARS; so I think they should have known to start with a stricter ruleset.
  • Just get the wetware out of the system and all your technical issues will be resolved.

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