Et tu, Brutus? A FarmVille Bedtime Story

Once upon a time, in the far off Realm of Zynga, there lived a mighty and wise king.

King Pincus I, Ruler of all Zyngadom

King Pincus had many kingdoms, but his sentimental favorite was the Kingdom of FarmVille, for it was the very first one he'd conquered, stealing it like candy from a baby from the weakened Duke of Farm Town.

SFC: A History

As Sharing Foals and Calves celebrates its One Year Anniversary, Farmer Brown recounts some of the history of Sharing Foals and Calves, the successes, the failures, the memories, and the future of FarmVille Link Sharing.

Part One: The History


June 3, 2010

Farmer Astrid Schenk becomes frustrated with the inability of her neighbors to collect the foals she's been breeding for them.  Many go in mere seconds, thanks in part to the popularity of a relatively new gizmo from Gamers Unite called the Snag Bar.  Although this tool has only been out for a few months, it has proven to be very effective - too effective.  She decides that it's time to share in an environment where she can be assured that whoever collects her foals are actually collecting them because they're playing the game and not asleep while some gadget just grabs everything it can.

Going to Facebook, she creates a group: Sharing Foals and Calfs.[sic]

The group is based on a simple premise: friends can share foals and calves with each other in a semi-private environment, they don't have to scour the Facebook feed to find what they want (most of it is gone at this point anyway, thanks to the snaggers), and they can socialize and interact with each other a little more.  Finally people will have a better chance of getting that rare foal or calf for their farm that they've always wanted!

She invites all of her friends to join, including Farmer Brown.

June 4, 2010

Introducing...Sharing Foals and Calves 2.0

The Sharing Foals and Calves Organization has decided to skip 'upgrading' the Facebook Groups due to their unsuitability and various bugs associated with the upgrades.  Instead, the team has created the next generation of  stand-alone, Facebook-connected Link Sharing Environments.

 Here's how to join up!

In a move which will forever change the landscape of how FarmVille Links are shared among members, the Sharing Foals and Calves Organization has launched Sharing Foals and Calves, The Website.

Lady GaGa Infects FarmVille

This series of entries, The Chronicles of GaGa, will be located at Sharing Foals and Calves.

New Facebook Groups format to replace all existing groups

In an Official blog post from Facebook earlier this week, Facebook announced that all existing groups under the 'old' format (such as Sharing Foals and Calves) will soon be 'upgraded' to the new group format. If you belong to ANY Facebook Groups, you need to read this.

The new group format features several distinct changes from the way the 'old' groups operate.  

Zynga Pulls The Plug

So...unless you've been living under a rock for the last few hours, Zynga recently announced that certain sheep/pig patterns and attributes, originally released by "hackers" (pause for dramatic effect and/or snickering), would be discontinued until Zynga decides to release those patterns and attributes in the normal course of gameplay.

The hue and cry from across the land has already taken place.  Fan sites and the usual FarmVille pundits have already taken their position on this decision by Zynga.  Causes have been created and are circulating more widely than ever before.

Facebook Security Glitch in Groups

It's not REALLY a secret, but we got your attention, huh?
This is important stuff to understand, folks!

There's been some sort of change in the way Facebook posts group activity to your own wall, and it impacts the group security of our FarmVille Link-Sharing Groups.

In a nutshell, this glitch allows you to view the wall of a group member on your friends list, and view their postings to that group, including comments and links posted, even if you may not be a group member.  Previously you could see these posts, but could not click-through to the original group posting.

The Curse of the Wishlist

We've all had it happen: You make a wish for something in FarmVille, and you go to collect the gifts your friends have sent you, only to get the 'Gift not found' error. It happens consistently when you use the wishlist (above) to make a request for badly needed parts.

Did you know that posts such as this one are also 'wishlist' posts?  Same mechanism that drives the regular wishlist also drives posts asking for bottles to feed your lamb.

How do you avoid disappointing your friends when sending an item from the wishlist?  While this doesn't work 100% of the time, your chances for a successful gift send increase exponentially when you let your farm load, completely, after sending the gift.


That's 100%.  Not halfway.  Not 'almost'.  100%.

If you click out of it before your farm loads all the way, odds are the recipient will NOT get what you wanted them to have...and subsequently they probably won't send one back.

Posting a shortened link using Bit.ly

Seeing links shortened with Bit.ly but not sure how to do that? This tutorial walks you through setting up Bit.ly, step-by-step so that you, too can post links to your wall, email or your favorite link-sharing group.

A lot of farmers are posting links nowadays.  Some use links to post bonuses to groups, and some post links in order to avoid having their bonuses appear in feed aggregators or collected by snagging applications.

Whatever your reason for posting a link, you need to know that Facebook has a limit of 420 characters when posting something as a status - so if you're posting a link, you will probably want to shorten it first.  If you try and post a FarmVille link that's too long, either the link will not post at all, or what does post becomes uncollectable.

There are many link shortening services available.  For several reasons, I prefer using a service called 'Bit.ly'.

This may all SEEM like a lot of work, but it's really just a matter of a few simple steps one time, and then it's set up for you permanently.  You'll be saving yourself hours of work in the long run, and we'll walk you through what you need to do, step by step.

March Mailbag - Q&A

With a Facebook Friends' list larger than most small towns, I get a huge volume of mail and messages every day, asking questions ranging from general FarmVille questions (how can I get a Stallion?) to Politics (you just don't want to go there with me).  Here are a few of the most helpful/insightful ones I've gotten this month!

Why won't my Shamrock Pony Foal grow up in the Nursery to become a Shamrock Pony?

This is an age-old FV question, and the answer's simple: money.

Horses and Cows purchased with Farm Cash produce both foals and calves when placed in the Stables and Dairy Farms.  Those offspring, however, will NOT produce a similar 'adult' animal - they will only produce 'common' adults.

If Zynga allowed 'Farm Cash' animal offspring to grow up into adults that are otherwise purchased with Farm Cash, nobody (okay, not nobody, but very few people) would purchase the adults in the marketplace.   It would also negatively impact player morale - as it does every time a previous 'Farm Cash Only' item is offered for free or for coins.  Not only does that lower the relative value of your Farm Cash purchase, but it's really a slap in the face to everyone who shelled out hard earned money for the adults in the first place.

I have limited Farm Cash, and can't decide whether to purchase a new horse or a new tree.  What do you recommend?

I see a sharp decline in the Foal Breeding trend in FarmVille.

While there are a myriad of groups available specializing in foal and calf sharing (Sharing Foals and Calves comes to mind, for some reason), the foal breeding microcosm is being quickly overshadowed by sharing specialized trees.  There are probably several reasons for this: Zynga's flooded the market with a new horse every week, many veteran players are already maxed out on space for foals and horses, etc.

There's no question that Trees are the new Foals - and if you're looking to get a few rare trees AND share some back to the group, I can't think of a better place to do so than Sharing Trees and Seedlings.

Sharing Trees and Seedlings is managed by the experts who manage Sharing Foals and Calves, so you know there's no spam, no nonsense, and the same spirit of sharing and caring that has launched Sharing Foals and Calves into FarmVille History.  Everyone's welcome, but we carefully 'vet' all new members to keep our wall there spam-and-scam free, so if you're one of these folks who just can't help but click on everything you see, this group probably isn't for you.

Why don't you post 'unreleased' items, or sneak peeks into the upcoming marketplace, or anything like that?

I don't generally post things like that because this really isn't a 'fan site' in the traditional sense.  I'm not out to make a buck on the hard work and notoriety that Zynga's invested millions of dollars to generate (and have very little regard for those who do).  Besides, Zynga would probably boot me from their Focused Farmers Group fast if I started turning this into a 'fan site'.

Can't spot one of these 'fan sites'?  They may inform, but they never empower.  For example, our Scams site always gives you links to block and report the scams - other sites just draw you to their site so that they can get impression and other monetization credit.  They're all about looking out for themselves, not you.

I much prefer to inform and entertain on the rare issue that arises during gameplay - if you're looking for helpful links, current events and all other things FarmVille related, I highly recommend visiting Locke Michaels and his gang over at The Dirt Farmer.

Anything earned on my meager little web page here from impressions or affiliate links is directly passed along to our Farmer's Foundation, which is currently benefiting a fellow gamer and his family facing a terminal illness.

Why do you encourage folks to stop the auto-publishing feature of one of those 'fan sites'?


Another simple answer.   They over-spam the newsfeed AND that site openly offers to sell game hacks for cash.  Why would anyone support something that's so obviously criminal in nature? Here's the link to the gizmo that does all the publishing.  I recommend the old 'report and block' treatment.


I see your posts for The Farmer's Foundation - what is that all about, and how can I help?

The Farmer's Foundation was established with one specific purpose in mind: to help out a specific fellow farmer, mentor, and good friend who's been battling cancer for months now.  Many, many generous gamers have contributed to this effort, and like "Ding" himself, we're not giving up or slowing down in that effort now.

Imagine, if you will, being told that you're simply not going to be around much longer.  As the primary source of support for his family, Ding has faced not only the realization that he will very likely succumb to his illness, but he's also been faced with astronomical medical bills, normal everyday bills and challenges (just because your primary breadwinner's sick doesn't mean the family stops eating, folks), and concern for his family.  In fact, he's been far more concerned with his wife and daughter than he has for his own well being.

Our purpose in establishing the Farmer's Foundation was to try and alleviate a small portion of that worry so that my friend can focus on his treatment and beating this demonic illness.  Aside from just being the right thing to do, this really hits home for me personally.  It wasn't all that long ago that I sat at this very keyboard, in this very chair, and suffered a heart attack while working on a blog post for our group.  I had some of the very same concerns that Ding has now, so I know precisely how helpless that can make you feel, and how negatively that can impact recovery.

Sami Baker and I are covering all fees associated with PayPal, so every dollar donated goes straight to the family. Sami's also created some gorgeous crocheted goodies for sale, with the proceeds going straight to the family as well - we're picking up postage/insurance/etc.

Right now, Ding's out of town receiving aggressive treatment and that magical "R" word has been mentioned more than once.  We're now hoping to raise enough to send the family to be with him, but this won't be possible without your help.  Click here to help, and show the FarmVille Community that it's not about the game, it's all about the people who play it.

Blood Calves?

Due to the proliferation of "fan pages" and individuals who take wandering animal class links (calves, bulls, llamas, etc.) and use a hacking tool to convert them to post themselves, we are asking all members of Sharing Foals and Calves who wish to post calves to use a link shortening service, such as http://bit.ly or http://tinyurl.com to shorten your calf links before posting them in the group.  


Actually, it's a good idea to do this when you post ANY calf, because they're being taken and converted by many people lately.

NOBODY Legitimately Acquires THIS many calves to share in this timeframe. Nobody.

Got Snaggers?

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is "How do you deal with people who use the snag bar?".

Are you being snagged?  If you don't like it, solve it!

Well....it depends, and it's purely subjective.  Some 'Insane Snag Bar Users' (people who really tend to overdo the whole snagging thing - we pretty much know who they are) are also nice people, and you may want to keep them on your list because they're entertaining or informative.  Of course, the easiest way to deal with anyone who you feel is abusing your game feed is to simply remove them from your friends' list.  Problem solved.

A more creative way to keep them on your Facebook Friends List (but to block them from game posts you feel they may be snagging) is through the use of Facebook Lists and Custom Security on individual posts.

In order to do this, you first need to create a list of people from whom you'd like to block your game posts.

The Crying Game: Zynga Caps Gamefeed Collections

I have to click now? With my hand? Noooooo!!!!!!

In a move which was fully expected, Zynga (via Lexi) announced on Wednesday that they're placing limits on the number of items which you can collect from the game feed for FarmVille every day.  While this won't actually impact most players, it does seem to have impacted the most vocal ones - the ones who claim to need to collect more than the newly-imposed limit of 125 items per 24 hour period.


Oh, the tears!  From posts on Zynga's forums to GU to the various Facebook pages which have sprung up in opposition to the 125 item limit, it's clear that many people assume that this limit is on everything, and from the tone of some of these things you'd think the world was coming to an end.  


A few of these mouth-breathers making the most noise about the limit are some of the same people who tend to get confused while going through the checkout line at the grocery store - I end up behind one or two of their ilk every time I go shopping, it seems.  Lexi could put up illustrations and nudie photos and a LOT of folks just aren't going to get it.

2010: A FarmVille Odyssey

WARNING:  Unlike fan sites, there will be no fond trip down memory lane here.  The opinions here are strictly my own, your results may vary.  It's all based on the past years' worth of compiling opinions, reactions and other various data from several select mega-farmers: those, like myself, who have the Facebook limit of 5,000 friends, all relatively dedicated FarmVille players.  While some choose to orally copulate Zynga for everything they spew forth, here you're only going to get honest reaction and analysis - the good (Fertilize All!), the bad (pigpens), and the ugly (me).Oh - there may also be the occasional 'adult word' in here.  Most of us can't play FarmVille without uttering or at least thinking a few of them anyway.  It may be safe for work (depending on where you work), but it's probably a little too cynical for your kids to read.  Fair warning, right?

So....maybe by this time I should have titled this "FarmVille Remembered".  Is this a Eulogy?  It may be, folks.  If Zynga continues to lose players by the boatload as they've been doing for months now by alienating their strongest advocates - the advanced players - they risk losing not only their gaming crown but the position they've coveted for so long: the premier social gaming producer.

We saw a vast number of milestones and notable 'occurrences' in FarmVille in 2010 - here are just a few of the more notable ones.  They aren't in any particular order.

I'm sure I've either missed some, forgotten some, or intentionally blocked some of them out of my brain in order to maintain my own sanity.  Feel free to remind us of those in the comments section.

Yes, it's a long read, but in retrospect it was a VERY long year.  Get yourself a cup of coffee, or maybe bring the whole pot.  Just be careful, there may be spots here where you'll end up spraying it out of your nose.  You've been warned! Enjoy.

Removing Unwanted Games and Applications on Facebook

If you get infected with a rogue application (i.e., the 'trojans' you get from clicking on scam posts, etc.), this is the way to remove them from your account.  Be sure to bookmark this entry in case you need to refer back to it, and feel free to share it with your friends

- we all need to clean our our apps and remove games we don't play anymore - it helps you and it helps the rest of us so that we can focus our efforts on helping people who actually do play the games!
Sooner or later, we all get tired of playing some of the games on Facebook.  We tire of seeing and ignoring the requests for the games, the posts going past us and cramming up our newsfeed, etc.

Sometimes, we also inadvertently allow a rogue or bad application to do things in our name like make posts while we're not looking, advertise a service or scam, etc.

Note: A lot of people are hesitant to completely remove a game from their account because they don't want to lose all the progress they've made on the game.  Zynga keeps your game intact for at least 6 months after you remove it, in case you change your mind and want to go back to it....but frankly if you go 6 months and don't play it, you probably don't want to go back and play it at all anyway.  6 months is a LIFETIME in the gaming world, so at that point you may as well start over again anyway, and reap the benefits they pass out to new players, no?

Well, it's a new year and it's time to clean up our Facebook applications.  Not only will this make our accounts safer, but it will really help out our fellow gamers, since removing an application removes your name from the players list.  Your friends will thank you for not wasting their precious 'sends' for things like invitations, free gifts, and other game play in which you need to participate.

So...let's remove some games we don't play anymore, and get rid of some annoying applications we don't need or want around.  To do this, start by going to http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=applications

This brings up a screen which looks similar to this:

CityVille: Tips for Levels 10-50 and Beyond

I know, I know.  It's not FarmVille, but that's okay.  

CityVille, Zynga's newest foray into the Social Games Market, has taken Facebook by storm - it was even recently reported that it knocked FarmVille out of the number one spot.

Granted, a sack of flaming dog poo (don't they have that on FrontierVille?!?) could've knocked FarmVille out of first place given ALL the bugs, issues and tomfoolery in FarmVille these days, but still it's an achievement for which Zynga should get credit.

If you're going to play this game, there are some things you should know which will help ALL of us level up more quickly and be a little more efficient in our game play.


These tips assume you've completed at least 10 levels of the game, and are familiar with the concept of goods, crops, businesses, trains and boats. To get those first 10 levels, just follow the in-game tips, complete the quests/missions they direct for you, and pay attention to what you're doing.  Don't be afraid to try different things - I'm pretty sure you can't break anything that can't be fixed later.

How to report and block a rogue application in Facebook

Okay, I get this question a lot, so this ought to be of some help.  Here's the situation:

You see a request from something you know is NOT a normal game application (a/k/a a SCAM!), either in the game feed:

Scam Application request from the game feed.

...or in your game requests:

Scam Application request showing up as a gift request.

Still Can't Load FarmVille...? Here's what you missed this week!

If you're one of the 850,000 others who can't load your farm at all, or can't load it much past the immediate Out of Sync, here's what you didn't miss this week:

• Zynga rolled out the 28x28 expansion, for Farm Cash Only ($120FVC). Coin price has yet to be set, they're still working on it.
• Tuesday's update was bungled.  They put Poinsettias and the Gingerbread house (buildable) in the market and OOS ran rampant until they pulled them off.  They came back within the last day.  Aside from that, there wasn't much rolled out Tuesday at all.
• Thursday night's update was nonexistent.  No word from Zynga on why they skipped a day. Rumor has it that there is a huge upheaval in their Product Studio area, and some are speculating that this is the very first death knell being rung for FarmVille.
• The Winter Workshop has started appearing, although it's unclear as to whether it's a legitimate release or something Uncle Charlie has helped everyone with.  So far, it hasn't broken anything yet.
• CityVille was released this week.  Think FrontierVille, except with a City theme.  So far, it's moderately playable despite requests not working correctly, rampant disconnects, and buggy Flash code that causes spontaneous system reboots for more than a few players after several minutes into the game.
• Facebook changed the way game requests are handled across the board, and as usual it was done with little notice.  As a result, most of the tools used to 'accept all' or 'ignore all' aren't working correctly, and they aren't working at all well with the new CityVille game.

All in all, it was a good week to be Out of Sync - you didn't miss much.  I've actually started removing FV completely between farming sessions to avoid people sending me things, posting pigs, etc., since I'm one of the 850,000 impacted by a time limit of about 3 minutes on my farm before I hit OOS.

Farmer Brown
FarmVille Curmudgeon

Bigger isn't always better.....

So...the word from Zynga is that soon our gift box in FarmVille will have a capacity increase from 200 to 500.  While the recent increase earlier this year from 50 to 200 was fairly welcome, it was not without it's caveats - and the increase to 500 is just going to multiply those problems.  I know a lot of you are really excited about this change, but wait a few moments to break out the bubbly, O Ye Of Short Memory...

Five Reasons the Increase to 500 is a Bad Idea

Another Zynga Holiday Debacle

Hiya, Zynga!

How's it hanging?  Got a question for you......

How many times, Zynga?  How many times do you have to make the same epic mistake over and over again before somebody in your brain trust realizes you're doing something wrong?

It's a nice thought - it truly is.  Many people in our community look forward to long Holiday weekends.  They get to spend some time with the family, further traditions of food, fellowship and the inevitable family drama that seems to occur sometime during the festivities (Aunt Bootsy just can't hold her liquor, folks), and then spend some extra, quality time playing their favorite game.  It's just a bonus that Zynga chooses these long weekends to make them 'Double Mastery' weekends, so we get rewarded even more for our hard work and effort.

The only problem with this formula is that two times ZERO equals...yep.  Zero.  That's how many XP many of our neighbors have been able to gain since Tuesday or Wednesday of last week, because either their farm won't load, or because it goes Out of Sync the moment it *does* load. The complaints have flooded the forums, as usual, and all we hear are crickets chirping in response.