Read the truth about the happenings with Facebook and Zynga. No Holds Barred. “This site & podcast is not endorsed by or affiliated with Zynga Inc. or Facebook Inc Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Game content and materials Copyright Zynga Inc. & Facebook Inc All rights reserved.”
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Check Out The Facebook & Zynga Podcast
We are back LIVE today at 6PM ET / 3 PM PT On Blogtalkradio.com
We will continue our discussion about Facebook disabling account and their anti social behavior. We will give you updates on your favorite games and take your calls to try and help you get some answers.
All you do is wait till show goes LIVE and call this number Call-in Number: (347) 327-9074. You also have the option to talk VIA Skype by clicking talk and that is a free connection. I am sorry for my deaf fans I dont have an option for you at this time but I do have a LIVE Chat that goes on during show and I will see your questions and will try to answer them in the chat room during the show as well as say it on the show. So Tune in and see what you missed during our past shows and please tell all your friends.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/john-sweene y-jr/2010/08/30/the-facebook-zynga-podca st
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Facebook Is Becoming More And More Of An Anti Social Site Than A Social Site
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Z Lotto for Zynga Games
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
How To Use Facebook Places For Your Business
- Create Your Place: You’ll need to load up the Facebook iPhone application or go to Facebook for touch devices site and check if your place exists already. You can do this by searching for the place. If it doesn’t exist, you can quickly create it by clicking on “Add” or the “+” sign depending on whether or not you are using Facebook for touch devices or Facebook for iPhone.
- Claim The Place As Yours: You’ll need to log in to Facebook and search for the Place that you’ve created. Once you find your business place you can click on the “Is this your business?” link at the bottom of the place and claim it. You will be prompted for information to confirm your business information such as physical address and other business related information.
- Merge Your Place & Page: Finally merge the Place and your Facebook Business Page (if you have one and if you dont I suggest you get one it is Free and really helps you get more business) once you’ve completed the verification proces. The result is a combined Page which effectively serves as your local business page. The new merged design will be completely different from your existing Facebook Pages but will still have all the same content your current Facebook page has so you wont lose anything you have already done to it.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Attack on Cancer Mock War - August 27th-29th
Mock War Details:
When you sign up for this mock war, you will be place on a side chosen at random. The mock war will be held from August 27th at 12:00 pm Central Time (1:00 pm EST), through August 29th, 6:00 pm Central Time (6:00 pm EST).
This war will only have the following rules: NO HITLISTING, and NO ASKING MAFIA TO ATTACK.
Sides will be determined randomly, and not by clans or tags. ALL TAGS ARE WELCOME.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU MUST FILL OUT THE REGISTRATION FORM IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MOCK WAR. https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform ?formkey=dGtLQnk1M2RCLUVZSGo3Qi1pMVAtbnc 6MQ
Here is the link to Donate: http://www.cancerresearch.org/give/memor ial.html?ekmensel=15074e5e_74_0_938_3OR
If you are in the U.K. -http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/
Zynga's Advice On How They Can Help To Get You Unbanned On Facebook
[8/20/10 4:13:38 PM] zynga: So obviously we want you to play the game and banned accounts keep you from doing so. It is not good for us nor is it good for you. So in order to help track these issues, we have a process we will need you guys to follow...
-----------------------------------------------
If you get banned...
Submit a Customer Service (CS) ticket... "I've been banned from facebook!" or something to that extent. You will get a response with a specific escalation URL for Facebook
Use that URL to appeal your ban to facebook...
If your ban is lifted... Halelua!
If not...
Copy the response you get from facebook and reply back to the CS ticket with the response. We will then be able to take that information and escalate it from our end. So... here is why we need to do it this way...
We need you to submit the ticket so that we can have a solid tracking in our system so no one gets dropped in an email shuffle. Use the URL that we provide you to appeal, while there are many URLs out there that can do the samething, this one is specific to our issues.
And we want to know the response that you get because we want to know what is being communicated back to you.
Use the above guideline if you ever find yourself FB banned.
Also, it was hinted at that accounts that are looked at are accounts that are created only for gaming purposes, have no personal data, one or two cartoon avatars at most. So basically fake names, energy mini's, and so on. Read below:
[8/20/10 5:02:16 PM] zynga: I don't... Zynga doesn't condone the creation of fake accounts for the purpose of playing the game... but this I can say...
[8/20/10 5:03:42 PM] zynga: If all you have is one cartoon image in your account and no personal info/message posts... it is highly suspect :).
[8/20/10 5:03:56 PM] zynga: And we completely support Facebook's ToS :).
We asked Zynga if there will be a platform for us to play on that does not require a FB logon (if you are banned):
[8/20/10 5:16:29 PM] zynga: Yes... we are looking at options to improve the game and playing experience... any change... be it swaping energy packs in game or creating an entire platform, requires time to plan, program, test and implement. The larger the change, the longer it is going to take. All I can say is that there are many projects currently in many different phases... and we still have to provide new challenges to keep the game interesting for all level of players :). Fortunately we have teams of people who are able to work on multiple projects at one time. So while it may seem that we keep launching missions or new cities... that doesn't mean we don't have another team working on other issues/improvements.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Ultimate Event Failure
Well once again Zynga has proven how they can screw up an event. Tonite they blew up the Armored Truck LIVE on USTREAM in celebration of US the players. LMAO what a joke.
I Am Fighting To Try And Get You Some Answers
Here Is an email I sent to Facebook & the mucky mucks there to try and get answers for all of you with these questions. I figured I would start with these questions first and try for more later. They never return any phone calls or answer any emails thats why I put some of the big boys on it.
from: john sweeney
to: pjanzer@facebook.com, bling@facebook.com, mzuckerberg@facebook.com, eschrage@facebook.com, elliot@facebook.com, josofsky@facebook.com, info@facebook.com, legal@facebook.com, customerservice@facebook.com, press@facebook.com
date Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 3:06 PM
subject I need answers for my show and column
mailed-by gmail.com hide details 3:06 PM (1 hour ago)
To the following at Facebook,
I have repeatedly attempted to contact you for comments to some questions I have for a column I am writing and for answers to my listeners on my talk radio show. I have never heard back from anyone to address these concerns that your users are encountering, So I will try once again. If you would be so kind as to answer my questions please I would greatly appreciate it.
My questions are as follows :
1. Why the sudden change in policy as to what a fake account is? You have been disabling hundreds of good peoples accounts for what you are saying, "they have been reported as fake accounts" . When in fact they are not fake accounts but have been reported this way to you as a tactic by some groups who play mafia wars in order to win a virtual war in a game.
Here is a sample of your form letter to some of the players.
Hi XXXXX,
Your account has been disabled because we have determined that you are not representing yourself authentically on Facebook. Fake accounts are a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. All accounts must abide by the following policies:
• You must provide your real first name and last name.
• Impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited.
• Profiles created to represent celebrities, pets, ideas, or inanimate objects are strictly prohibited.
• Profiles created for the purpose of spamming or harassing others are strictly prohibited.
People on Facebook want to interact with their real friends and the people they know in the real world. Since fake accounts can damage the integrity of this environment, they are not allowed to remain on the site
Unfortunately, we will not be able to reactivate this account for any reason, nor will we provide further information about your violation or the systems we have in place. This decision is final and cannot be appealed.
Thanks for your understanding,
Eli
User Operations
Now in a majority of these cases you have reinstated these people and in some like the letter above states but you have never offered them any reason why it was done and by whom as they do have a right to know who is reporting them especially when they spend alot of money on their account to play your social games. If you could, please clarify your position on this matter and what can be done to correct this especially on what can be done to the people who falsely accuse Facebook users of having Fake accounts.
2. There is also a major issue that has been coming across from 1000's of users about being disabled for adding friends. Some of these people are being disabled for adding just 4 people. Now you say this is a social site and you encourage people to add their friends and be social BUT how can they is they keep encountering this issue. You do realize that people must add people as friend to play your social games and some of these game require alot of friends to play the games properly. My question is this, Is this just a bug on your side or is this your policy now? I was told once before from a former manager there that the threshold setting were just off and needed to be reset but that has never happened.
3. A big issue people are having is the fact that you are storing users credit info on their pages instead of in a secure location when they purchase Facebook credits for games and other virtual items on your site. Thus exposing the users private credit info to hackers and thus putting the real persons credit information and financial life out there to be stolen from them. Will you be correcting this major issue any time soon ? You also make it impossible for some who have purchased Facebook ads in the past to remove any information without giving you new credit information.
4. Will you be adding REAL customer service for the users of your site instead of directing them to your help center and having other users answer their questions for them? Like adding telephone or online support features. I really appreciate your help in getting these questions answered as they public really needs answers. please feel free to contact me directly either via email or by phone.
Thank you,
John Sweeney
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Who To Contact If Your Account Is Disabled.
info@facebook.com ; disabled@facebook.com ; appeals@facebook.com ; privacy@facebook.com, abuse@facebook.com ; warning@facebook.com ; customerservice@facebook.com ; legal@facebook.com
471 Emerson St.
Palo Alto, CA 94301-1605
or
156 University Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Phone#'s:
650-543-4800
650-853-1300
650-543-4811 (Interview Request Line)
Fax #:650-543-4801
Customer Support Site: http://zynga.custhelp.com/app/home/
Customer Support Guide: http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?t=324238
or their direct email for mafia wars support is : mwsupport@zynga.com
Zynga Game Network Inc.
(866) 820-2321
365 Vermont Street San Francisco, CA 94103
Saturday, August 14, 2010
This Weekend In Mafia Wars Land.
Hey everyone well looks like we have a couple of new things this weekend for everyone to play with on Mafia Wars.
They also have something called the Mystery Reward Points Piggy Bag. It is a mystery bag that comes and give you reward points. These are rare and come randomly so don't get your hopes up for to many of them.
We'll keep you posted on the status of the event as soon as we have more information for you. Again, thanks for your support!"
Mafia Wars Community: The Past, the Present, & the Future.
Hello Mafia Community Members,
I’m writing this address today because we have several important issues currently that affect many of you and we’d like to take some time to give you an update on our progress as a team. One of the more recent complaints from community is a lack of communication from us and I’m letting you know that this responsibility is on the shoulders of me and my team. We are taking big steps in the right direction to ensure you get your messaging from the development team quicker and in multiple viewing locations.
My team is on the forums daily and one thing we have been great at is delivering your messages to the team, a major kudos go out to Al Catraz and Bandilero our Super Moderators and their moderation teams for staying in constant communication with us at all hours of the day. Also a huge kudos to you, our forum community for working with us to catch issues early after release so we can stomp them out faster. I’ll be addressing several topics which I have highlighted in bold so you can read the portions that you are most interested in hearing about.
COMMUNICATION: Part of our dedication to opening our communication is a promise to deliver release notes to the community. We are ramping up this process now and you all should see our latest notes delivered in easily accessed locations this weekend or early next week. Our Developer Section is full of authorized developers and designers, these folks have been having active discussions with members of our community since that forum was opened in February. If you haven’t stopped by, please visit and see what the latest hot topics in the Developers Section.
GIFTING: Gifting is a natural and fun part of the social sharing within Mafia Wars. Many of you have requested the ability to send more gifts daily. We are working on solutions to this request. We have some changes coming to our system that we hope you are going to enjoy and that make your life a little bit easier. We’ll be able to share more specifics about these changes with you early next week as we get final approval and testing on the things we have been working on since Vegas was released and Myspace was updated. In June we made some changes in the system that slowed down gift sending and we removed some items that were previously giftable to a non giftable state. These decisions were made at a high level because some users were exploiting the systems and duplicating items. Slowing down the gifting program and removing items from the gift list was a temporary solution for us so that we could build in some more sophisticated exploit management tools and detection alerts. As we implement these systems you will see us open up the gifting world again and place more items into the lists again. If you have an item in the game that you would really love to see on the gift list, please visit this thread and make your suggestion. Gift Suggestion Thread
CHEATING: From checkers to chess people will find ways to cheat in a game when you aren’t looking. Mafia Wars is no exception. Earlier this year, our Mafia Wars Executive Team made a commitment to the community that we would crack down on cheating and exploiting in the game. While the evidence of our success may not be obvious to everyone, we have made tremendous progress decreasing the number and impact of cheaters and exploiters in the game. We have a dedicated effort composed of members of our CS, QA, Community, Security and Development Teams working together to fight this fight. Playing against a cheater is a frustrating and non enjoyable experience and we have a serious commitment to eliminate the areas where people can cheat against other honest players.
3rd PARTY TOOLS & PROGRAMS: Are against the rules. We are currently assessing many of these programs and finding out how they interact with our systems to prevent them from causing game imbalances. Furthermore, installing any unverified software can be dangerous to your own system, from both a virus and security standpoint. If you are using a tool or program for some aspect of the game please understand you are doing so at the risk of being flagged for investigation. Investigation on accounts could lead to more serious action or the removal of items or points if it is determined that those items or points did not come from legitimate sources. If you are involved in player to player trading you cannot always be certain that the goods you are receiving are legitimate. We are working on solutions to combat this issue.
3rd PARTY LOOT & POINT SELLERS: Are engaging in fraudulent & illegal activity often obtaining their goods using stolen identities and credit cards. Purchasing points or loot from these sources could leave you at risk within Mafia Wars and within the real world. Before you purchase make certain you are purchasing from an authorized vendor of Zynga and Mafia Wars. Many groups and individuals are good at making fake virtual store fronts. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so be careful to protect you, your account, and your credit score. Make a dent in real internet crime by not supporting unauthorized sellers.
BOYCOTTS & THREATS: These tactics are not necessary to get our attention and often end up ruining relationships that can be constructive rather than destructive. Our forums are the best way to get our attention on matters that are important to you. Mafia Wars community consists of millions of people that play our product daily and tens of millions that play monthly. That’s a lot of people who have a lot of wishes and desires for improving the game. Help us keep our communication lines open. While many of us work long hours, we are required by law to take some down time. This means we must prioritize and schedule the time we do have to work on the issues and features that will bring the biggest impact and improvement to the game and community. With millions of people wanting things from us we are in a constant state of adjusting our road map and resources to meet the most needs fastest. While we understand some issues are more important to you than others our ultimate eye is providing the best social crime game in the world. Any time we have to focus on a boycott or threat from our community this effort takes resource time away from our end goal. Do all of us a favor and keep us working on the things we should be working on. If there is a problem or project you think needs attention use our Customer Support system, forums, or email feedback@mafiawars.com
Mafia Wars has a very bright future and we want all of you to be part of that future. We have some new announcements coming up very soon about features and designs we have been working on and we will to share those with you. We currently are still very much involved in the Las Vegas launch and are looking forward to when our game reaches 10,000,000 visitors so we can blow up the Armored Truck. We also have a few more prizes and promotions surrounding Vegas so keep your ears on for more news on this coming this weekend or early next week. Help us maintain the lines of open, constructive communication and we will respond.
Thank you all for your contributions and supporting us by playing the game. We hope you enjoy the boss event and some other goodies we have ready to go during the continued promotion surrounding our most recent Las Vegas launch and we look forward to bringing you some new and hot announcements very soon about some new features we’ve been working on that we hope will blow you away.
Best,
Jonezie Malone
Senior Community Manager Mafia Wars
"This is being shared as a courtesy for Zynga Game Network Inc."