Using Facebook Comments Social Plugin -- many Facebook users comments aren't Public

Question

I'd like to be able to use site comment features on sites that use the Facebook Comments Social Plugin. When I'm logged in to Facebook, I see my profile picture next to the comment box and I can see other comments if any have been made.

When I make a comment, it shows up right away, but doesn't seem to register publicly. If I log out of Facebook, my comment disappears.

More information is coming to light, as well (added March 26, 2013). There are several people affected by this bug who have attempted to get help on Facebook with the issue, so far withouth success.

After I added a fake app to my Facebook developer profile, I was able to post a bug to Facebook, however it has been since closed without being resolved.

Since Facebook comments are now being used as the exclusive online interaction method by several news media outlets, this problem means that some Facebook users are disempowered from being part of the community discussion of news of the day. Does Facebook wish for that to be?

Answer 1

Over time and in conversations with many people, I've learned more about this issue. From the perspective of websites which host the comments plugin, I've learned that comments from certain users, not on the site banned list, are automatically queued by Facebook for moderation.

Also, I recently ran across an answer here on Stack Overflow that indicates that "Fresh" Facebook accounts are designed to be held for moderation in the Comments Plugin, presumably to prevent someone who has just created a Facebook account from using the new account to post spam comments on other websites. I wouldn't consider my account "Fresh" but it is still less than a year old. In the Facebook response which closes the website report they state "The affected user you added to the report has no friends and we suspect the user to be fake and request moderation. This is by design." While it is understandable that Facebook wants to limit the potential for fake users to post in these comments, this metric apparently also snares legitimate users.

Answer 2

Q.Mark, I strongly recommend that site owners not use the Facebook Social Plugin to support commenting on their sites, unless they want to annoy visitors.

Facebook uses an Orwellian blacklist/censorship model which prevents many people from posting comments. Users get no explanation for why their comments won't post. Rather, it's made to look like a malfunction of the web site, and it is only apparent after the users waste their time composing a comment.

There's discussion of the problem here (among many other places): https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10200248881692914

(Copy saved here: http://burtonsys.com/Why_cant_I_post_comments_on_sites_that_have_the_facebook_social_plugin.pdf )

A FB "Like" button is useful, but site owners should not use Facebook to support comments. Use Disqus, or LiveFyre, or anything else besides Facebook.

(I realize this doesn't solve your problem, sorry! But perhaps if enough site owners dump Facebook for comments then Facebook will stop what they're doing.)