Facebook (again)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

ff seems to be confirming that life is too short to bother with Facebook.

My thoughts exactly, DP - that frenchie is prepared to devote so much patience in the name of "the Cause" says volumes for her dedication.

[Anna]

Considering the amount of tosh that regularly appears on FB and remains untouched the more suspicious elements of my imagination tells me that somebody complained and "reported" your page. FB are not, in my experience, pro-active enough to do anything unless it is brought to their attention. People on FB do not have to have avatars, fanciful or not.

Not wishing to promote conspiracy theories but the above does seem likely that someone has tried to sabotage the page. As to pictures, one member of this forum who FaceBooks has only ever had an avatar (which he changed constantly according to mood it seemed to me during my very brief FB membership)
The person who set it up, can they somehow migrate all the 'friends' over to a new page?

[french frank]

Considering the amount of tosh that regularly appears on FB and remains untouched the more suspicious elements of my imagination tells me that somebody complained and "reported" your page. FB are not, in my experience, pro-active enough to do anything unless it is brought to their attention. People on FB do not have to have avatars, fanciful or not.

It is certainly open to anyone to Report a page and the instructions are clear on how to do it. There does seem to be a connection between the disallowance of 'fake names' and 'fake accounts' and my identity check notice:

'It looks like your account might not be real. Facebook is a community where people share and interact using their real identities.

Facebook does not allow accounts that:

Pretend to be someone else
Use a fake name
Don't represent a real person

In order to regain access to your account, please complete the following security check to verify your identity and help keep Facebook secure.'

Some Facebook names do stretch credulity: I didn't think mine was one of them - but I did leave my BT email address with them, rather than the one set up to filter off all the FB stuff.

[amateur51]

My thoughts exactly, DP - that frenchie is prepared to devote so much patience in the name of "the Cause" says volumes for her dedication.

I whole-heartedly agree ferney - many thanks French frank!

[Dave2002]

Many people, often young, use Facebook. I have no idea what they use it for, and it seems to me a poor service to use because of the privacy issues which it raises.
Some people say FB is OK for dealing with distant relatives, and some use if for promoting a business. If others wish to use it, I have no objection, but I don't wish to be forced to use it myself.

On balance I have no desire to increase my on-line presence significantly further, and certainly no wish to get involved with a "service" which, although apparently it does try to take privacy issues seriously, has in recent years had a few hiccups which let things down considerably. I also thoroughly dislike the trend, as noted with Spotify a year ago, to try to make it easy to log into or join third party sites by "using your Facebook id". I don't mind if people really want to log in via FB, but the Spotify debacle which went on for a few months, made it impossible for anyone to set up a new Spotify account if they didn't already have a FB account. Fortunately that policy was reversed after about 6 months as quite a number of people complained.

That kind of behaviour is similar to assuming that everyone has a mobile phone, or wishes others to know their number, as with our local station car park where the ticket machines are often out of order - but "that's OK - simply phone a number to register your car in the car park ..." - at an additional cost of 20p over the price of the car park ticket. How long before we are all required to be micro-chipped like pets?

[french frank]

I have always respected people's decision not to join Facebook. When this is sorted and there is no need for it, I shall probably enquire how my blocked account can be deleted - assuming that hasn't already been done for me

But Radio 3 is an example of how both organisations and professionals who WANT the publicity, to pass on their news to the world, use it. The message of this site attracted 200 new supporters (not specifically to FoR3 itself, but to the current campaign) in 2 days: that's quite impressive, with all those 200 on Facebook having a network of connections to tell others what they had done.

How was this site being used? I was publicising my own - personal - research: what I had discovered from delving into BBC documents that are publicly available online (this isn't Wikileaks!) but most people wouldn't know they exist, even if they would find them enlightening.

[johnb]

ff,

Rather than deleting your account I strongly believe that you should persist in getting the Facebook page back online, if for no other reason that the people who instigated your problem shouldn't be allowed to succeed.

Needless to say, I am only too happy to help in any way I can (whatever that is worth).

[french frank]

ff,

Rather than deleting your account I strongly believe that you should persist in getting the Facebook page back online, if for no other reason that the people who instigated your problem shouldn't be allowed to succeed.

Needless to say, I am only too happy to help in any way I can (whatever that is worth).

John - I've just PM'd Sir Velo about this since he seemed to be an FB expert! - the page I was in the middle of creating, all correct with description, FoR3 website address, created as a community, is actually there, visible to me but with nothing on it (if there's one "Like" it's me, because they told me to do that).

Being blocked, I can't access it. It all went down before I had nominated an administrator (someone had already agreed to do it). I suspect that means that 'others' can't post there, and the Friends list from the old one doesn't seem to be there.

If anyone wants a look at the abandoned, Marie Celeste page, it's here. I agree that the best is to sort this out with Facebook and get the old one back

[french frank]

And the latest is that I've achieved the impossible by thought transference! - identified five photos (not all of the people themselves - one was a small baby - someone's grandchild?): these were just tagged photos from people's albums ....

So I now have both pages ... Does that mean the original one is available again?

https://www.facebook.com/sarah.spilsbury.73

[PJPJ]

You're back!

[antongould]

Well done.

[Dave2002]

And the latest is that I've achieved the impossible by thought transference! - identified five photos (not all of the people themselves - one was a small baby - someone's grandchild?): these were just tagged photos from people's albums ....

So I now have both pages ... Does that mean the original one is available again?

https://www.facebook.com/sarah.spilsbury.73

Does one have to have a FB account in order to see that page? Maybe!

Maybe it is meant to be personal, or subscription only, which is reasonable. If it's for public consumption then I won't even attempt it if I'm "forced" to have a FB page to be able to login.

It says I can't access it right now.

[Sir Velo]

All seems to be working again. Number of Friends running at 199.

[french frank]

Does one have to have a FB account in order to see that page? Maybe!

Maybe it is meant to be personal, or subscription only, which is reasonable. If it's for public consumption then I won't even attempt it if I'm "forced" to have a FB page to be able to login.

It says I can't access it right now.

Yes, you have to have an account for that one, hence the reason for trying to create a community page, which can be viewed by anyone. It's been wobbling round 197-200 for a while. It was certainly 200 when I first looked.

[teamsaint]

Wasn't sure where to post this, but here may do.

i was listening to Five live today, (i know, i know), and it struck me how much the BBC use and appear to endorse both facebook and Twitter. Both commercial organisations of course, so how does this fit with BBC rules on endorsement ?