Dear The Internet,
I have a Facebook account. I don’t mind having one; it’s useful for a few things, I use it rarely and I don’t post up anything on it which I want to keep private. But I’m not everyone. And I’m finding this new trend of requiring Facebook for things that aren’t Facebook plugins a little bit disturbing.
There’s really only one good reason to require a Facebook login, and that’s when you’re running a Beta of some new software and need a large but limited sample of people to test it, and would rather not handle your own signups. It makes sense to use Facebook to get word of mouth, spread usage among friends while not just opening it up for everyone.
Beyond that, just… don’t. By doing so you’re making a couple of assumptions that are a bit offensive to people who don’t have Facebook accounts:
The first is simply wrong and the second is not only wrong but beside the point. If someone doesn’t want a Facebook account, that’s their business and they don’t need a good reason.
Finally, it feels like this is all backwards. I think Facebook can be a positive, useful thing, but if you want to encourage people to use it (even though that’s not your job), let people get at your software and they’ll be able to see all the various neat ways it can integrate with Facebook. Don’t require it from the start, because if a regular internet user doesn’t have Facebook by now, chances are it’s because they don’t want one.
Love and Kisses,
Peter
