So API 3.0 and rFacebook

[lucsulla]

1. Has anyone successfully either:

   A. Figured out how to get his or her app approved or
   B. Figured out how to use rFacebook without app approval?

Doing a screen cap video of how a user will log into an app that I never intend on sharing in the first place is too great a hill for me, helped in no small part by my feeling it's absurd. I've no idea what I would even document.

2. If the above is a no, is this package (and any other accessing Facebook through the API) pretty much dead for now?

I hope not, but I have to admit feeling rather pessimistic at the moment.

[nlch]

I haven't been able to use it as before without App approval. But for one case where I have a page token the package works as it did before all the changes (likes info, commenters names, etc). Granted, it only works for a very specific case...

[lucsulla]

I've previously been using it to teach web content analysis, but I can no longer scrape anything from a public page using it. It seems ridiculous to embargo searches for information via R that a person on the internet can see without even having a Facebook account, but then I recognize I am also basically yelling at a fence post about it as far as approaching FB.

[CZARKING]

All of these developments have been very frustrating. Anyone know how we might go about approaching someone at Facebook? Perhaps as a collective we might effect change.

I recognize the difficulty of the situation (from Facebook's perceptive as well), but the scientific community needs to start trying to create a dialogue with Facebook. How else are things ever going to get better?

[lucsulla]

I don't even know where to start. Facebook does an excellent job at being a social media platform that is nigh on impossible to contact, at least insofar as contacting anyone who might actually have anything to do with the issue.

[lucsulla]

Maybe try here?

https://www.facebook.com/academics/

[naikabhilash]

Has anyone found any solution yet?

[CZARKING]

No solutions that I know of.

Thx. Already following them.

Related, Facebook appears to be receptive to change and feedback (even if only from a select few). There was a recent article in the Chronicle that you might find interesting: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Facebook-Says-It-Will-Help/243126

I also read King and Persily's paper. Unfortunately, I don't think what they propose will trickle down to the R community. Looks like the fight for a better public Graph API will be a long one.