We all know the power of social networks. They're great ways to promote yourself, your product, your business, your band... You can meet new friends, reconnect with old ones, relive your youth, spread good news and bad.. find a job, a lost purse, that scarf you left behind.
Photos can be uploaded in an instant, and you can share your adventures with friends who had to stay behind. Or taunt those of us too poor to do what you're doing.
If you're famous, your fans will follow you. If you're not- you might become famous- though not only in the best way. Some people have suffered from slander and libel and "re-branding" and had stalkers and imposters and even had their houses robbed when they posted they were on vacation... oh... all that stuff we hope never happens to us.
Sure, you may have typed some comments you've regretted- only to have them show up the next morning- but there is the DELETE button. Whew.
THAT IS.... Until someone wrote a program that allows you to view all deleted photos, comments and friends... hmmm. Somebody out there just HAD to know.
There have been posts that are the equivalent of "drunk dial" regrets.
But of course there will always be that.
Unlike Myspace, on Facebook, frequent status updates keep everyone in the know. Breakups announced via status updates, affairs uncovered via photos and comments linked to accounts you thought were private. The birth of babies, the first turn of the key in the new house. the divorce papers. A new puppy.
The strength and ease of such a network drew me in. Imagine? An aspiring novelist, yearning to make her mark on the literary world- on the world itself- launches a page with the goal to surround herself not with family or neighbors, but with writers, readers, book buyers.
Yes, it all started innocently enough.
Until all the hardwork ( 2725 frineds, 170 groups, 50 pages, 7 photo albums, 3 videos)-- POOF! disappeared with the flick of a button. I shit you not.
A button owned and operated by FACEBOOK Administrators.
And WHY? No one's talking. It must be a SECRET.
Those Men Behind the Curtain, issed a blip of a warning, then within seconds- made a computer decision to tell me in no uncertain terms that posting 4 website links in 4 minutes to a writing contest:
was a no-no.
"your account has been disabled"
which kind of sounds like:
It's not you, it's me.
Things just aren't working out.
I'm sorry. I'll always love you.
Yeah.
Not sure I'm feeling it Facebook. What do I do now? I made another account.
Which brings up the "I closed that account, so eveything is gone, right? cover your ass mentality.
well.. NOT SO MUCH.
Look here.
I'd rethink sending any messages via facebook that you want to keep private.
Even UNFRIENDING isn't that simple. If you don't go in and remove your posts, photo comments and photos from the person's page that you are unfriending... they will still be there. yep.
So, after a week of appealing to the unresponsive customer service/ diasbled facebook wizard... and hearing nothing, I took the advice of a commenter on a facebook fix-it forum who said he got his page back by slamming over one million emails to the appeals address.
Funny, how the very same activity that got me thrown off facebook, may very well get me re-activated.
2 comments:
FB is an odd, odd thing. I both love it and resent it at different times.
Linda,
I was "banned" for six months, apparently for no reason. My account was reopened as mysteriously as it was shut off. http://danrouthphotography.blogspot.com/2009/10/facebook-revisited.html
Dan Routh
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