As if to prove my point -
As if to prove my point, I just came across this evidence that Facebook users really are starting to backlash against applications that force invitations. Alongside the rapidly growing groups (like this one), this research pretty much proves what was already pretty clear, that users don’t want to have to pimp their friends to an application just in order to use it.
If a developer makes a decent application that I think my friends will be interested in then sure, I’ll invite them. Forcing viral growth by telling me I have to invite 20 friends before doing anything works in completely the opposite way, as the polls show, in that 61% of users will uninstall the app rather than invite friends. It’s a pity my friends aren’t in that 61%.
Forced invites also applies to those applications that you can happily use without inviting people, until they present you with a ’skip free’ invitation page. For the more computer savvy user it’s a basic case of navigate away from the page, but amongst Facebook’s population of millions there are plenty of people who may not understand that this is not something Facebook is forcing you to do, but something an application developer is trying to force you to do.
Facebook - please stop forced invites!
via Saunderslog.com
