Facebook Plunges Again
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Dear Facebook: may I have my life back, please?
On Saturday night Facebook took my life away, now I'm asking nicely, can I have it back please?
As a blogger for Download Squad I've followed the rise and rise of Facebook with fascination as the social networking site has expanded on the scale of an influenza pandemic. I watched with avid interest as my inbox was bombarded with Facebook friend requests from seemingly every part of my life and every corner of the globe.
Succumbing to the Facebook phenomenon, I was quickly drawn in by the combination of applications, messaging and of course the competitive instinct to rapidly gather a vast following of like minded friends who would be able to share with me the excitement of online photo albums, holiday maps, interest groups, online graffiti or the simple pleasures of turning fellow Facebookers into zombies, vampires or pirates (arrrr).
And then, on Saturday night I was framed for a crime I didn't commit, and now I'm on the run Richard Kimble style - trying to clear my name of one of the worst crimes that an Internet user could be accused of - being a spammer
It all started innocently enough (I'm sure that's what they all say), I was researching an article on Facebook developers and thought that the best place to start would be, Facebook. Using the top applications list, I found the names of six or seven of the top Facebook developers, people responsible for the pokes, the zombies, the trip maps and other online apps, and set about emailing them some basic questions for my article.
Big mistake.
After about five or six emails both my research and my Facebook world came to a shuddering halt as a message appeared telling me that I had violated Facebook's terms of use, and since I was clearly a nasty spammer my account would now summarily be suspended.
As none of the people that I was sending the emails to were on my friend list and since I was sending a fairly similar email to each developer it would appear that I triggered off Facebook's anti-spam mechanisms.
While I'm more than happy for Facebook to protect its system from real spammers, I was more than a little surprised that the first action taken by the system was immediate suspension from Facebook. Facebook appears to only take one metric into account when detecting spammers, without looking at other details of a person's account (friends, applications, login patterns) and immediately and automatically suspends their account, rather than perhaps taking an action like suspending the users email.
So now I'm in Facebook limbo, my account, my friends, photo albums all inaccessible. I can only wonder if I'll ever get to finish that Scrabble game with Benj, whether I'll ever see my travel map again, and I certainly now doubt that I'll ever get answers for that post I was going to write.
And what do my Facebook friends think of my sudden absence, have they even noticed? Were they notified that: 'Gordon is suspended because he is an evil spammer' or perhaps I just ceased to exist on their friend lists at all? Did they notice at all? Are my friends offended that I've disappeared, thinking that I had de-friended them for some unknown slight, online offense or quirk of my (clearly suspect) character? Perhaps they think that I've moved on,
to a new social networking site like Quetchup or perhaps a retro move back to Friendster or MySpace.
I wrote to Facebook on Saturday politely requesting that they return my online existence, but as of Monday there's yet to be a response. So, like the Fugitive I remain on the run, my name yet to be cleared, out of sight and out of mind to my Facebook friends. Things are getting desperate and I'm wondering where to turn for my social networking fix? Am I desperate enough to look to go back to Friendster? Boring enough for LinkedIn or Plaxo? Or desperate
enough to jump into the Second Life abyss?
Dear Facebook: can I have my life back, nicely?
Comments
27
Subscribe to commentsJohn Romero IVSep 26th 2007 12:16AM
Please. Should have expected this sort of thing. It is typical of Facebook to lock users out for little to no reason at all. I've been kicked off Facebook 18 times now, losing over 4000 notes and countless pictures in the process. The site is worse now than it has ever been. Do yourself a favor and quit forever.
Leon KollSep 26th 2007 7:32AM
I've joined the "Free Gordon F.!" group :
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7281446347
kunleSep 30th 2007 3:59AM
this is marks pg http://www.facebook.com/s.php?k=100000080&id=4
send Mark Zuckerberg a message right away and lets see what happens
musa haddadOct 9th 2007 6:38PM
Dear Facebook Admin,
I had a problem with sending messages to my friends, as a message was always poping out saying that I have reached my limits in sending messages and my messages will be blocked, so I stopped and slowed down sending messages, but it continued, so I sent an email to info@facebook.com concerning this issue, and after couple of days I get an email which was today from a lady named Kely saying that I have violated the terms and conditions of Facebook and my account is disabled and the decision is final, I have no idea what has coused this issue, but I haven't done anything that harms anyone other than send messages to the people that are on my friends list, which you can check and see, I have only one account that I use, and you can check this also, under my email address ID that iam sending you this email from which is m_jor75@yahoo.com.
My full name is Musa Haddad and I live in UAE but my nationality is Jordanian.
I have sent several emails concerning this issue and I have also attached in my other email today my passport copy to prove my ID and where I live and my nationality and date of birth, which you can compare with the information I have placed on my profile on facebook that you have disabled.
If for any reason I have caused or violated Facebook terms & conditions not on purpose or I didn't mean to, or didnt know that it is not permited by Facebook, I really apologies for that, and I promise whatever it was if you can please tell me what caused my account to be disabled so i would know so it wouldn't be repeated again at any circumstances what so ever.
I kindly ask you to reactivate my account as I have all my connection with all my firends that I found after 15 yrs of not seeing them and not knowing where they are and we are in contact on daily basis, which you can check and see my friends list to prove to you, and I want to stay in contact because Facebook is the only application that is used and that is friendly and fun and very useful in information and connection betwen people all around the world, that made the world a very small place to us. I kindly and beg you to reactivate my account, please reconsider your decision, as my whole good side of my life is in facebook.
I pray to God to make my wish come true and put more kindness in your hearts to reactivate my account.
Regards,
Musa Haddad
musa haddadOct 9th 2007 6:45PM
Dear Facebook Admin,
I had a problem with sending messages to my friends, as a message was always poping out saying that I have reached my limits in sending messages and my messages will be blocked, so I stopped and slowed down sending messages, but it continued, so I sent an email to info@facebook.com concerning this issue, and after couple of days I get an email which was today from a lady named Kely saying that I have violated the terms and conditions of Facebook and my account is disabled and the decision is final, I have no idea what has coused this issue, but I haven't done anything that harms anyone other than send messages to the people that are on my friends list, which you can check and see, I have only one account that I use, and you can check this also, under my email address ID that iam sending you this email from which is m_jor75@yahoo.com.
My full name is Musa Haddad and I live in UAE but my nationality is Jordanian.
I have sent several emails concerning this issue and I have also attached in my other email today my passport copy to prove my ID and where I live and my nationality and date of birth, which you can compare with the information I have placed on my profile on facebook that you have disabled.
If for any reason I have caused or violated Facebook terms & conditions not on purpose or I didn't mean to, or didnt know that it is not permited by Facebook, I really apologies for that, and I promise whatever it was if you can please tell me what caused my account to be disabled so i would know so it wouldn't be repeated again at any circumstances what so ever.
I kindly ask you to reactivate my account as I have all my connection with all my firends that I found after 15 yrs of not seeing them and not knowing where they are and we are in contact on daily basis, which you can check and see my friends list to prove to you, and I want to stay in contact because Facebook is the only application that is used and that is friendly and fun and very useful in information and connection betwen people all around the world, that made the world a very small place to us. I kindly and beg you to reactivate my account, please reconsider your decision, as my whole good side of my life is in facebook.
I pray to God to make my wish come true and put more kindness in your hearts to reactivate my account.
Regards,
Musa Haddad
JasonOct 14th 2007 3:12PM
I responded to 6 job postings and Facebook disabled my accound because they said I responded to to many jobs in to short of a time
FACE BOOK IS A JOKE and this really angers me because not only does it effect me but my whole family and all my friends I think face book is is run by arrogance or stupidity or both.
I have emailed the every day since its been 4 days now and they haven't responded other than an automated message saying that they were looking into it.
NOT HAPPY WITH FACEBOOK!!
JasonOct 14th 2007 3:13PM
I responded to 6 job postings and Facebook disabled my accound because they said I responded to to many jobs in to short of a time
FACE BOOK IS A JOKE and this really angers me because not only does it effect me but my whole family and all my friends I think face book is is run by arrogance or stupidity or both.
I have emailed the every day since its been 4 days now and they haven't responded other than an automated message saying that they were looking into it.
NOT HAPPY WITH FACEBOOK!!