While I generally eschew the coarser invectives, this pretty much sums up my feeling toward a social networking site that has been hurtling toward self-destruction for quite some time. It was getting harder and harder to find out what my friends were posting as FB began hiding posts or picking and choosing what I may or may not see.
One of FB’s policies indicate that they want you to use a real name. I knew this when signing up with my SL name so it was always a risk I knew that might some day come back to bite me. And a couple of days ago, it did, when I find out that my account had been disabled. And thus I became educated in what happens when they decide that you aren’t a real person.
Keep in mind, I had been on FB for over 3 years, and FB chronicled many of my adventures, my ups, my downs, my relationships, my interests and my views. I had made many friends who I had grown very close to and very fond of. I even spent a bit of money through that account for a few of their games. So when I got shut down, it was a bit of a shock.
It became even more of a shock since they did not merely freeze the account, but they totally removed it and everything that I had ever posted there. All of my documents, pictures and posts: gone. It was as if I had never been there.
As I said, I was ready to accept the whole thing as it was a risk I knew I was taking when I signed up. Their terms of service clearly indicate they want a real person. One can appeal their decision by providing proof that you are a real person by supplying them with a picture of a government issues I.D, such as a driver’s license.
Ummm…..no. Even if it were my real life account, I wouldn’t do it. The Snowden Affair provided enough of a wake-up call to let me know that that would be a no-go, supplying a company like FB that much information. It’s bad enough they already have payment info on file, but a copy of my Driver’s License is simply going too far.
Fortunately Google+ has no such stipulation in their terms of service. They’ll still track my browsing and habits and whatnot for advertising but at least I don’t have to worry about them yanking me off their service for not being real enough for them. I had been considering a move anyway, but of course most of my friends are still on FB…I think.
It probably stemmed from one of my latest addictions which was the game Game of Thrones Ascent, and I had become a fairly good player in a fairly good and popular alliance. I’ll have to write another post about that game at a later date but it had started to take over my FB feed entirely. It is a cut-throat game made even moreso by some players who can be downright nasty. Nasty enough to have people’s accounts suspended (even legitimate, real people using their real names). FB doesn’t tell you exactly which of their TOS things you might have violated, or how they found out. They simply let you know that you violated one of several things on their list.
Since I did have multiple accounts, that would be a second violation so either the first or the 4th or both. It doesn’t matter what the reason, and FB is entitled to enforce their own policies– until they decide to change them. FB has a history of screwing with people’s feeds, timelines, histories, content and many other assorted sundry things that have angered or offended their base. But it’s where everyone is at the moment, which makes them the dominant platform for social networking– at the moment.
Someone might want to remind them of their predecessor: Myspace anyone?
Sooo….I’ve made the migration over to Google+. I was already there, I had just forgotten about it. I had one follower who was in my circle of “Favorite elves” but I already spoke at length about her in my last few posts.
I suppose I need to login to SL and warn my friends that their days on FB just might be numbered since most of my friends were in a similar situation as me. Who knows? Perhaps one of them were nicked and it has worked its way down to me. In anycase, FB’s outages and issues have also exacerbated the situation over there. They likely did me a favor by forcing me to migrate to an outfit that is looking to be more stable. Of course, g+ isn’t perfect and doesn’t have quite all the bells, whistles and features but the Google universe certainly does have more to offer when you look at its entirety. But then again, it’s good to have diversity in platforms, like using WordPress for example instead of Blogspot, which is Google’s blog platform. Google isn’t immune from the syndrome of pulling the plug on things they don’t think are working. Google Wave, anyone? Or how about iGoogle? That was one service I used a LOT but fortunately there were replacements that made importing those links and contacts painless.
Whether it’s better or not, I’m not going to argue, but I will say that I’m glad g+ is there as an alternative. For the past couple of years FB has used its dominance to push, bully and corral its users. The newsfeed has become littered with more spam and ads than ever before. It’s become more and more of a junkyard. So I get to try something new and see how it works. And I get more work done. Win-win win!
I spent at least 70% of my FB time under my SL account just because my gaming friends were more fun than family and ex-classmates. I could be a little freer in my expression without having to worry about my siblings seeing my posts and could play games with other gamers. My eyeballs (my real ones) spent a lot more time on FB under my SL account than it ever would with my RL one. I posted, liked, shared, poked, chatted and was fully engaged in FB but did very few of those on the RL account where any employer, co-worker, neighbor or other nosey person could be looking over my shoulder. I never posted anything wrong, I was just a bit more expressive. In short, it was closer to being a real me than my other account could ever allow. If FB thinks that by shutting this account down it will automatically increase the engagement with the “real one” they can think again.
Just be warned that all that content you post to FB is at risk, and if they shut you down it will be GONE. POOF! And your existence will be expunged, as if you were never there. It’s a good lesson in spreading things around a bit and it was very fortuitous that I started THIS site as a result of FB and Google site shortcomings. Wordpress has been around a lot longer than FB and it has the virtue of being open source and community supported, unlike the privately held corporate tentacles that have a stranglehold on other media platforms.
It’s sort of a new day and a new beginning more than an end and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next big thing is going to be. I’ll miss some of my old friends, but if they wonder what is happening, at least they have a couple of avenues of finding out.
Daza's Book of Magic and Stories 