We (a local hackerspace) have a Tumblr blog and wanted to make ourselves a Facebook page. Before going live we wanted to import all our Tumblr content to Facebook so our fans on Facebook can browse it here as well. For this I have made an app that reads all the posts from our Tumblr blog and publishes them to our new Facebook page (backdating those posts as well). Here's my problem: after the app does about ~130 re-posts (~260 operations: publish + backdate) I start getting an error:
Received Facebook error response of type OAuthException: It looks like you were misusing this feature by going too fast. You’ve been blocked from using it.
Learn more about blocks in the Help Center. (code 368, subcode 1390008)
The block is gone the next day, but after a similar amount of operations it's back. After a couple of hours later, when the block is gone again, I introduced 6 second delays between operations, but that didn't help and after 19 re-posts I'm blocked again. Some facts:
I am publishing posts to a feed of (yet) unpublished page I am the (only) owner of.
The app is a standalone JAVA application and uses restfb to work with Facebook.
The line that is causing the error: facebookClient.publish("me/feed", FacebookType.class, params.toArray(new Parameter[0]));
All publish operations contain a link, mostly to respective posts on out Tumblr. Some contain message, caption or a name (depending on post type).
I need to re-post ~900 posts from Tumblr, I have done ~250 so far. When over, I will likely put in on server, scheduled, to keep syncing single new posts.
This app is not meant to be used publicly, it is rather a personal utility (but the code will be posted to GitHub, should anybody need it).
This is my first experience with Facebook API and I wasn't able to find a place where I could officially address them with this question. I could proceed by doing 100 posts/day, but I'm afraid I will eventually get banned for good, even though I don't feel like doing anything wrong.
I haven't put any more code here, as the code itself does not seem to be a problem, but rather the rate at which it is executed.
So, should I proceed with 100 posts/day and hope I won't be banned, or is there another "correct" way of dealing with this?
Thanks in advance!
I'm answering a bit late but I just had this problem too so I did some research : it seems that besides the rate limits shown in Facebook docs, there's also a much more limited and opaque rate for POST requests to limit spam.
It's not clearly set but it could depend on your relationship to the page you're writing to (admin or not), if you post to multiple pages and finally if you post too quickly.
To answer the question, it seems that it would have been okay if you had done like 1 post per minute or less.
I think you exceed the rate limiting for your user Id.
- Your app can make 200 calls per hour per user in aggregate. As an
example, if your app has 100 users, this means that your app can make
20,000 calls. One user could make 19,000 of those calls and another
could make 1,000, so this isn't a per-user limit. It's a per-app
limit
- That hour is a sliding window, updated every few minutes
- If your app is rate limited, all calls for that app will be limited, not
just for a specific user
- The number of users your app has is the
average daily active users of your app, plus today's new logins
Check this: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/advanced/rate-limiting
It looks like you were misusing this feature by going too fast. You’ve been blocked from using it.
Learn more about blocks in the Help Center.
If you think you're seeing this by mistake, please let us know.
Related
I've been tormented for a few months by this question!
I don't understand how Facebook pixel works deeply (and I assume only FB devs Know) but I have a few questions, if anyone can help me:
1- I launch a conversion campaign on Facebook ads, a specific ad gets a click, and a unique "fbclid" gets attributed to that click (?); if a conversion happens, and I send back the fbclid, Isn't Facebook supposed to be able to attribute it to the specific ad that generated that click, thus that fbclid? I thought that was the whole point of having a Server-to-server solution? since Apple announced iOS updates blocking cookies?
I come from an affiliate marketing background, we use tools like "Everflow" to track affiliate links, with a "transaction_id", that is, a unique value generated on every outgoing click. I thought the same logic would apply to fbclid.
Why are we asked to pass back to Facebook so much data when a conversion happens, like a name, email, etc... to be able to attribute the conversion to a campaign
( AND EVEN SO! Our Tracking is only 80% Accurate!!)
2- Can anyone explain how Facebook pixel actually works ? ignoring the Server to server (Conversion API ) solution, how does the Facebook base code + the conversion event script work to be able to attribute a conversion to a specific campaign? does it store the fbclid in your cookies? and when a conversion happens execute a request to Facebook?
3- AM I talking about 2 Different things here: FB attribution to campaigns VS Event matching? are they the same concept? Why is this so confusing to me? I couldn't find someone that's asking the same question, is it because I am missing something very obvious?
Thank you in advance!!
This is not exactly a programming related question but it is closely related to developing so I think it is pertinent.
I´ve been charged in my work with developing an app with access to Facebook Messenger. I needed a Facebook Account and I didn´t want to use a personal one (and I don´t use Facebook anyway) so I created a new gmail account to use it to sign up in Facebook, as user and as a developer.
After a couple of days of work, having created the page, my webhook, done some tests, etc., and investing a good deal of work hours, my account appeared as disabled.
I have to admit a didn´t use much of real info on this account (I´m kind of allergic to disclosing personal information unless mandatory), and the account was new so I thought that maybe that was the reason (they don´t give you any).
So I tried again a second time with an account I had been using for years (just for logging in some sites, not much of real information there neither, as I say I don´t really use Facebook), and after a couple of days, same results, locked account.
I can´t stress enough I don´t use the API extensively, I just send some messages to another user I have added as one of the application developers so I can test (that other account is never blocked, by the way). It´s not like I am sending hundreds of messages or anything like it. And by the way, I have never been blocked while I was doing something (so I could indentify my wrongdoing). It just happened that at some point when I was going back to work (first hour in the morning, or after lunch for example) I tried to log in again and then I got the warning.
So I have tried a third time, this time I have given all my real information, reluctantly uploaded a personal picture, given all my data to Facebook (yikes!).
And after a couple of days: damn, same result. Blocked account. Work lost. They prompt you to upload a picture to check your Id, but to no avail (no answer yet, not even a notice of any kind) and they don´t give you absolutely any reason why the have blocked you.
And if I go to https://facebook.com/help/contact/260749603972907 to fill the form where they ask you to upload an ID then it says that the email doesn´t belong to a disabled account!
What is the unusual activity they have detected? What have I done wrong? Has someone experienced the same problem? Has someone got any clue of what it is that I could be doing wrong?
Because I don´t want to go through the whole process once again only to get blocked in a couple of days.
Thanks.
EDIT 1:
Ok, after checking again now it recognizes the account as a disabled one. I have gone to https://facebook.com/help/contact/260749603972907 to fill the form and I have uploaded my ID (even though I completely disagree with disclosing that kind of information).
Honestly, I don´t know what it means by "shortly". It´s been two days now and I have not received any kind of notification yet.
By the way, I haven´t received any kind of notification (mail, sms, anything) during any step of the process EVER. No one. Nothing. Not even an automatic email response. Plain absolute silence.
Honestly, if Facebook uses a security system like this, that lets hackers in while blocks legitimate users, creating false positives and making us lose many hours of work, without any reason or notification or explanation, then Facebook security is plain wrecked.
And I cannot do anything less than to strongly discourage any developer to use it if they can avoid it (what unfortunately I can´t).
EDIT 2:
After some days I regained access to my account again. Without any notification, I just tried again and now it worked (really good communication policy, Facebook, congratulations).
My App had disappeared, so I had to go through the whole process again. And after sending ONE message to the API, this again:
And once again the asked me to upload a picture of myself (I think they already have enough pictures of me to make an album).
This is just plain crazy.
I applied twice in the google forms for a developer key for soundcloud to use a widget on my website. It has been more than 3 weeks and I have still not got any reply from them. What do I do?
I'm afraid you just have to wait until they respond. I have applied 3 times now and keep getting rejected and the response is a generic answer not explaining why you were denied. For me I think it is the APP URL, yet they don't explain, it is so frustrating.
Did you try email api#soundcloud.com on my first rejection they were very friendly and replied with advice, however second time they did not.
You can also try calling help on +4930467247600 however they have not worked for me.
Lastly I read online that one person heard nothing from them for weeks and checked his SoundCloud developer page under 'YOUR APPS' and his app was there set up and with the client id and secret etc. He was just never informed that he got it. So hopefully that is the story in your case.
For me it took four weeks. I contacted them via Twitter and Email. They responded but all they said was:
"As mentioned previously, we’re currently working through applications
as quickly as possible, although there has recently been more requests
than usual lately causing delays.
You should receive confirmation soon though."
good morning!
Since last week my website URL - www.musiconline.xpg.com.br - and others sites from www.xpg.com.br , is/are with the LIKE BUTTON blocked.
I need the solution for this problem Urgently, because I'm NOT a Spammer!!!
My Fan Page is with a problem too: http://www.facebook.com/musicasonline
I'm trying to talk with Facebook in Forum and Support, but I still have no answer until now.
Thanks a lot for all!
I finally got my URL back. Facebook blocked use of our URL for years, yes years. For some reason no one would include our website URL (a-fib.com) in any post, or even on our own FB page. They'd get an error message saying our site had been flagged as spammy. This had been going on for years! FB has zero customer service.
Here's what worked. After trying everything else over the course of three years, we finally resorted to writing a pleading letter on our letterhead, asking why would anyone block a non-profit trying to help heart patients? We sent it 'registered mail' to FB headquarters. (Advice I found among other ideas online from those with a similar problem.) It worked. Praise the lord!
Facebook does not care if you personally are a spammer or not – it just blocks the whole domain, in this case most likely xpg.com.br.
This is a risk you’re always taking when using a shared domain. To avoid it, the best way is to get your own domain – then it’s you and only you who’s responsible – whereas now, if one of the users on this domain does not behave, all other users of the same domain will get punished as well.
Jeff Lindsay, who coined the term 'webhook', said that the difference between webhook and http callback is that webhooks are user-defined. I think I understand what he meant, but I was thinking about it and I asked myself, can webhooks be effectively used by regular users (I mean: non-developers)?
Usually people don't have a clue how the internet works, they don't know what http is, terms like URL, callback, or request-response don't say anything to them. I've heard that many people do not know the difference between a web browser and a web site, they think that internet really starts at google.com and they type in all urls in the google search box... I mean, what's the use of webhooks when you're not a developer?
Do you think services like AlertGrid make sense? It's a webhook consumer that you can configure to dispatch alerts (SMS, phone, email) either when the callback is NOT received in x amount of time, or when the received data meets user-defined condition, plus it does some data visualization. We wanted it to make webhooks usable for non-developers. But still it requires an initial integration by someone who at least knows how to configure the source to send the webhook events. In many cases it only takes pasting an url to a textbox, but it seems to be beyond the skills of a typical user.
So, are the webhook doomed to be used by software developers only, or is there a chance that millions of Facebook or Twitter users will start making use of them somehow?
I think that something implemented using Webhooks can be made very user friendly.
Suppose Stack Exchange allowed users to define a webhook that would be notified whenever you earned a badge. You could supply a custom URL, or there could be simple buttons to click that would set it up for your Facebook or Twitter account. It could be as simple as the Facebook Like button.
YES I think this is a great idea. It's actually something I designed in my head a couple months ago and didn't think the product existed.
Webhooks are extremely powerful and having a 'service bus' aggregate/manage/dispatch these callbacks is extremely compelling to me.
I think that we are a long way from the general public consuming webhooks in any sort of meaningful way but I don't see why not. I remember when RSS was a 'developer' only technology.
Thanks for the link. I'll be digging in more this weekend.