Host Facebook App?

[spacepir]

Ok, so for the first time in about two months, me and my developers have reviewed the Terms of Service again. Since then, we moved our game, which is still in development, to Facebook.

As we reviewed the ToS, we came across the following line:

"Accounts may not be used for mirrors, game file hosting, or any other type of file hosting not specified here."

Is using x10 to host an app on Facebook considered a violation of this agreement? We do have a site, and a forum, and soon our own Wiki to be hosted too. We're looking at upgrading to paid hosting, also, as I've just receive a large sum of cash that I'm willing to invest.

"game file hosting" isn't really clear. I've backed up everything on our server, just incase it does mean hosting apps too.

Thanks in advance,

Dexter.

 

[spacepir]

I know the Free Hosting section isn't really popular, but our work is halted until we can the go ahead. An answer soon would be really nice.

Thanks.

 

[essellar]

"Game file hosting" is not quite the same thing as "game hosting". That section of the ToS addresses things like maps, mods and levels that are used in conjunction with a game application that would live elsewhere, the point being that Free Hosting accounts are not provided for file storage but for web sites. In your particular case, you are creating an application that lives and works on the server, and could operate as a standalone web site (it just happens to use the Facebook API for some of its functionality). So for the current point in moot, you wouldn't be violating the ToS by having the files needed to run your website uploaded to your website, no.

That said, I'm not sure that you'd want the app to live on Free Hosting at any point beyond the development phase. Even with the back end code optimized as well as it can be and time between requests stretched out as far as it can be without breaking, you're very likely to run into resource problems with any sort of user uptake at all, and you're going to experience latency issues (requests sometimes taking a long time to answer and occasionally timing out) in any case. (Somewhat ironically, the second problem may well fix the first one—not a lot of people are going to bother sticking with a game that has a sort of non-deterministic responsiveness to their inputs.) Remember that your game is going to be competing for resources with a whole big bunch of resource-hungry and poorly-written forums, rambling CMS applications that would have been better off as static HTML sites and five-part tutorials hosted inside of full-blown "I can run your school district" learning management software packages. No matter how lean you make your site, the server is going to be spending most of its time fulfilling requests for accounts that didn't do anything right.

I have no dog in this fight, no axe to grind, no <insert cliche here> (I'm just another user here) but I have no problem saying that cheap will be better than free when you go live. Even the cheapest VPS option (the "S1" package is under $7/mo if you pay yearly) would be a huge improvement, mostly because your own personal server space is always on, always listening specifically for your requests, and always has your base share of CPU and RAM available (you don't have to queue for the base resources). $80.55 gets you a one-year "runway" to gather users and tweak out minor issues that remain, and that ain't bad (particularly if you're planning to have in-app purchases or advertising); you can upgrade if traffic warrants, and if things don't work out, you're not too much out of pocket (more than a week of no-name instant ramen, but less than a month of Starbucks).

 

[spacepir]

Yeah. I'm sure we'll move to two server in the future, when we can afford it. One dedicated to the game, and the other for... Other stuff such as froums, wikis, etc, etc, etc.

Thank you for your reply. I would love to discuss further, but I've been awake a very long time, and now I need to go out and fix a PC, before grabbing a McDonalds, and calling it a day.

Thanks sooooo much!!!!