Profiles vs pages

The "Profiles" we integrate with are personal user profiles, and for that we simply pull in user information as a user registers to one of a few 3rd party Joomla extensions. This has no bearing on the administrator's FB application, FB personal profile, or any FB Pages they may have.

The "Pages" we integrate with are Facebook Pages. These are meant to be areas where people can go to discuss and join around a certain topic or business. These Pages are different than a user's personal FB profile in that they aren't meant to be "Personal", they are meant to be about something, like Sourcecoast (www.facebook.com/SourceCoast). The FB Pages have Like buttons (Personal profiles don't), a community Wall, and can add "Tabs" to the left menu column, which link to FB Applications (that you created for JFBConnect).

Hope that makes sense. I know it can get confusing, but Pages and Profiles are different in Facebook's eyes, and JFBConnect treats them differently as well.

Thanks,
Alex

Kiwi,
There's no way to link a website to a personal FB profile. Facebook doesn't want you to. They want websites associated with Pages, as Pages are meant to have 'unknown' people Liking them: one-way connections- John Likes Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has no say as to whether they Like John or want John to Like them.
Pages are meant, usually, for more one-way communication or at least a central topic of conversation (what the Page is about).

Facebook Profiles are meant for friends to meet up with each other: two-way connections- John knows Sarah, and Sarah knows John.

I'll answer your questions below as best I can while trying to explain the differences:
Can an owner of a profile set up an application to run a comments box on a website?
A website can run a comment box no matter what.
What about a FanBox?
Only Pages can have FanBoxes. User's Like the Page. User Profiles can't have Fanboxes, because there's no way to Like any user's profile, you can only "Friend" them, which they need to do back to you.
Can it stream from a profile or just a page?
FanBoxes can only stream from Pages
And can you put a page tab on a profile?
Nope, Page Tabs only go on Pages (hence the name "Page" Tab.
Any other limitations for profiles?
Lots. Facebook wants you to use Pages for branding a website, or even a person. If you're a famous celebrity, you don't want to have to make friends with everyone that follows you. With a Page, you can easily manage this.

There's no way to convert Profiles to Pages. A profile has 'friends'. A Page has 'Likes'. They're very separate things in meaning in Facebook's mind, so you can't just convert them for each other. A user with a Profile can create any Pages he wants, you won't loose your personal account in doing so (in fact, you must keep your personal account).

Hope that all makes sense.
Alex

There are no tools for managing Liker's with a Page. That's what makes it easier to administer than a Facebook Profile.. anyone can Like the Page, it doesn't have to be done in both directions (each user friending each other).

Inside a Page's settings, you can restrict who's allowed to post to the wall. As for sending a message, when the admin posts to the wall, it can show up on all the wall's of the user that Like'd the page automatically.

As for migration tools, again, there aren't any. Facebook would want that user to use a Page instead of a profile, because usually, people with 1000+ friends are simply mutually friending everyone, and not talking about personal things, but more career or product promotion. That's the intention of a Page (lots of followers with a central theme). To do so, they'd need to start a Page, and then post to their personal profile to follow them there (Like their Page). It is a big task, but unfortunately, that's how Facebook has things setup and wants them to do it.

Finally, use Google and search for "Facebook Friend Limit". You'll see many discussions about this. The max friends a user can have is 5000. If you hit that, you simply can't have more. The recommendation, across the board and by Facebook, is that you should have been using a Page in the first place. That's their purpose, as with 1000 friends, your clients likely don't know each one personally, which is how a profile is supposed to be (close contacts).

Hope that all helps explain. In short, start again, but use your existing profiles and website to promote the Page heavily.

Alex

You're correct. It goes to the newsfeed, similar to how a normal profile post goes to the newsfeed.

As for Page transfers, to do so, you simply add the 'new' user as an Admin to the Page and then the new Admin can remove the old Admin. It's very simple, and allowed in Facebook's terms. Transferring a profile is forbidden though.. another benefit of a Page.

Hope that all helps!
Alex

I know you wrote a review, and I really appreciate that you did. Thank you!

Already had a beer.. just may have another. Not a terribly exciting Saturday night here.. which is fine by me!

Good luck,
Alex