Site Lets You Simulate a Facebook Hack, Goes Viral at PennApps

[thekevan]

I really don't understand the difference between this app and me posting a status on Facebook saying I am pregnant, then coming back later and saying, "I'm not pregnant, I got hacked."

[gailees]

It's a lot quicker, and we've already done the work for you.

[polkunus]

Wow, anything gets in the press these days. It's a 20 min, 1 page website. Get over it guys.

[gailees]

Have you tried it....it's actually quite a good time :)

[mattberg]

i am confused, why would you want to do that to your own Facebook account???

[flatline]

As someone who is older than the college age crowd, it seems pretty inane. I'm sick of political posts so would probably ignore those in someone else's feed. Having kids or dropping out of school to do a startup don't sound like crazy ideas to me, either. I actually think the idea is pretty funny, but the options are unimaginative, or perhaps I'm just too far distant from the target demographic.

[mutagen]

I had the same reaction. However, I've learned that different people use and see computers, the internet, and these social tools differently. It goes beyond not seeing the implications of posting certain types of content or exposing too much personal information, sites like Facebook are there to entertain themselves, their friends, and family. People have grown up with enough virus infections, identity theft and other digital shenanigans that it is a part of their life.

[gailees]

Try it. It's hilarious. Also, if you read the TIME article, originally it was intended to be used on your friends Facebook's when they left it open at your house or left their laptop for a moment when you were working next to them.

Then we got a lot of backlash about that; we realized it was even funny to do one of the hack flavors to yourself. For some reason, people enjoy being hacked on Facebook as long as it isn't malicious.

[gkoberger]

It was originally called Buddy Hack (to be used if a friend leaves Facebook logged in), but I presume someone made them change it to Hack My Facebook. More confusing, less liability.

[johnpmayer]

Wow. As somebody who has participated in PennApps in the past and actually visited this year for the Friday night kickoff, let me just say that it is a damn shame that this is getting so much of a negative reaction because there are so many other great projects that came out this year.

https://www.hackerleague.org/hackathons/pennapps-fall-2012/h...

[gailees]

How are we clowns? People actually use and enjoy using what we built at PennApps; why should that be looked down upon?

We had fun building our hack, and people have fun using it.

[staceyisboss]

Sometimes I wonder if this kind of thing is a complete waste of talent. Smart kids, wasting it on stupid webpages.

[vnchr]

The event is one for creative outlets. Even a low-utility project like this that goes viral provides many lessons applicable to more economically-stimulating projects in the future.

I don't disagree with the value of solving serious problems, but this sort of behavior should not in any way be discouraged. I think I would dislike working in that kind of environment!

[gailees]

I mean....if nothing else, we are learning from the experience, but I definitely don't think it's a waste of our time.

[habosa]

It's just a Hackathon. It's meant to just build something for the sake of building it. I made something that lets you stage an internet argument through a Pokemon battle. I don't think I am a "smart kid wasted on a stupid webpage".

[gailees]

TIME decided to write about our shift from Buddy Hack to Hack My Facebook

[gailees]

Our new pivot doesn't include any of the encouragement against the spirit of the Facebook platform or the fake "defriend all" button that our original app contained.