I signed up for the Ping.fm service, which is specifically designed to allow you to update your status on multiple social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.) all at once. With the Ping.fm Wordpress plugin, I can easily keep my blog synched with my Facebook status… I just update my status using one of the Ping.fm methods, and everything else is automagic.

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It seems that Facebook doesn’t want its users to be able to do such a thing, since (a) they do not easily make available a link to get your own status RSS feed, and (b) they continually disable the workarounds that clever users have developed to obtain their status RSS.

My question: WHY don’t they want to allow us such a thing?

Are they worried about advertising exposure and revenue? They shouldn’t be. My argument is: Giving me this ability won’t stop my Facebook visits… on the contrary, I’m more likely to visit so that I can make sure my status is kept up-to-date.

There has to be a way to do it. Back to the search.

Update: Thanks to these excellent instructions from a user named Otto on the wptavern.com forums, I now have what I want. Though it did require implementing the Facebook developer API on this site. (I think the phrase “Using a sledgehammer to kill a fly” might be more than appropriate here…)

Update #2: Ugh. Apparently, it only works if the viewer is currently logged into Facebook. Guess I need to either go back to the drawing board, or hack something together prompting the person to log in. It’s been removed until I have more time to work on it.

Update #3: I found a workaround!

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