It is so easy to ruin a good thing. Facebook, for example, offers a social networking opportunity for millions of subscribers, who want nothing more than to share with family and friends. But the same networking tools available to them are available to others. Which is fine, until they get abused. Game developers, for example, use “push notifications” on Facebook to promote their apps, and at the same time diminish the experience for those who’d prefer not to be bothered.

Facebook wants to make sure that each party can be accommodated in the chunk of cyberspace it controls, and has announced a redesign that includes a “Game Dashboard”, which will better isolate the gaming and non-gaming communities. The dashboard API, which is now available in limited release, will keep game developers penned into a cyber-walled area that interested Facebook users can enter. Outside the walls Facebook users won’t be pestered by the non-stop game-related announcements.

Dean Takahaski at GamesBeat, sees some plusses and minuses in Facebook’s effort. If it works, life on Facebook for gamers and non-gamers alike will be improved. Non-gamers will be spared the stream of unwanted information about game apps, and gamers will have a place they can go where games will be more easily found and managed.

But, Takahaski warns, if Facebook messes up, it risks alienating both its gamers and game developers (who now have a wait-and-see attitude about the change). Takahaski holds up Microsoft’s attempt to manage games under Vista as a cautionary tale: it didn’t work, making a lot of gamers unhappy.