Explain "21 questions" to me

The Game Room
1

I received notice that a friend on facebook had “answered a question about (me)”.

To find out more, I had to sign up for an app called “21 questions”.

To do that, I had to give the app permission to access the info I have on facebook, and to email me directly.

Before agreeing to that, I’d prefer to know a little about this game. (Who is asking questions of who? What kind of questions are they? Who are the questions and answers viewable to? What is the point of the effing game?)

The fact that the whole thing seems so hush-hush (googling didn’t help), along with my natural paranoia, makes me hesitate to sign up.

Can someone enlighten me?

2

It’s just a silly facebook application. If you join it will want you to answer dumb questions about your friends and if you answer like 50 questions, it will offer you a chance reveal who answered something about you. You can also speed the process up by paying money. Just save yourself time by clicking the link to block the app and if you’re particularly vicious, you can block whoever sent you the invite from sending you anymore.

3

Thanks for the info.

Does the app generate the questions? Or do the people?

And yes, I’ve blocked the app.

4

Generally it’s the app. I’m not familiar with 21 Questions itself but there are oodles of apps on facebook just like it and they all have the same sort of questions. Would you date X, Do you think X is hot, Which of X’s personal traits do you think is most attractive. It’s the sort of stuff middle school girls love.

5

I’ve gotten a few of the same notices. As soon as I saw that it won’t let you read what people said behind your back until you’ve said a lot of stuff behind their backs, I blocked it.

In fact, I block every FB app that shows up in my notice feed.

6

Looks like it is actually a phishing attempt.

When I read this earlier this morning I didn’t think it was, but then I read this yahoo article which talks about dangers on facebook. #2 is your OP.

7

I wouldn’t be surprised. As far as I know, it’s not at all difficult for a programmer to write a malicious program that looks like a facebook app and because they all need to access your information to work, no one questions it. I’ve read more than one article about someone making a fake app and getting 1000s of names and addresses and stuff within hours of releasing it to the community.

8

The best programmers design a real app, but still get and sell your information. To support themselves, the apps have to make money in some way.

9

I haven’t approved a facebook app in almost two years now. In fact, I just went through and cleaned up my approvals from way back before I recognized facebook apps are crap. If I want to play games I’ll start up World of Warcraft. If I want to beg people for something, I’ll do it on the street for real money, not on facebook for a rare jade dragon statue or to add to my Mafia numbers.