Posts
June 24th, 2014
08:29 am
Had a pretty disappointing day yesterday. I was hanging out in the afternoon, when Ozz told me he couldn't reach my facebook. He was going to message me an article and kept getting various weird error messages, and couldn't find my profile.
So naturally I went to go log in and see what was what.
I got this message that said my account had been suspended because they didn't think I was a real person. Apparently someone reported one of my posts as spam. Who? No idea. Sometimes if people see your game posts they flag them as spam because they don't play. Or maybe somebody in one of the forums I used to post in didn't like one of my posts and decided to be a heel. Either way, without warning, and for pretty much no reason whatsoever I haven't got facebook anymore.
Now, to be fair, 'Rael OneCloud' isn't a real name. and I've been ignoring the insistent little facebook suggestions that I give them my mobile phone number since they started making said invasive request. But, to reinstate my account, the page said, I would need to load a jpg of my ID.
Nope. Not going to be doing that anytime soon.
For one? Yeah, I have no mobile phone AND I have no ID marked 'Rael OneCloud'. I could, and maybe even will at some point make an account under Leslie.... but to be honest I wouldn't want to post from it much, because I really don't like the idea of having to have a 'real name' account if I don't want one. Scads of people know me as Rael! it's been my stage name/writing name for ages now. Most of my friends from the tail end of living in NY, and all my time in VT, WA and GA only know me as Rael. Some of them wouldn't know a Leslie if it hit them with a brick, and therefore wouldn't accept a friend request from such an odd name.
I tried scrolling through all of their not-very-helpful Help links, and looking in the search engines and forums for some solution, but facebook are nigh impossible to contact. The emails on their pages? Dead. I wrote them an email and it bounced right back. The phone number they have listed is also a zillion years old and leads to a hub with no choices that seemed useful, and there's no place to leave a message.
The page of links how to get help either via computer or by mail have inactive URLs. They don't link to anything.
So pretty much, it's a done deal. One person, out of spite or negligence clicks the spam button, and an account I've had since 2006 is just gone. All my friend contacts, all my picture albums, all my silly little journal entries. Gone.
To be sure, we've all lost stuff. Had things stolen. Broken out of relationships, jobs or projects that were the pivot of our life and leave you wondering 'what the hell do I do now??' But it's always so sudden, and it's always just such a hollow feeling when a thing is over.
Even if I could get the account back, what then? Obviously the trust is gone. If this is the new policy with facebook, I don't really want a new account, and all I'd want from the old is to grab back everything I entrusted there, my pictures and writings, and then I'd probably get all of my friends' contact info and tell them why I was leaving in search of a new social network. Who can trust their stuff in there after that?
But...yeah. Sad because this sucks. It sucks, but I also know I tried my best, and in the end it's not something I have any power over. It's not the first website I had stuff vested in that came down either, which is why I tend to remember the thing I learned first in computer class many moons ago, which is 'Save work often!'
If I'd only made backups to a different site, there'd be a lot less heartbreak and loss involved.
But I didn't.
Anyway, how's your day?
