Advice - Facebook

[route17fan]

Tons of frustrations aside, Facebook has suspended my account. {gasp} In all sincere honesty, I do not know why.

They cited the reason was that a instagram account *that is not even mine - I am not on Instagram* was not behaving properly and thus suspended my account for 165 days. As if that wasn't bad enough, I have been on 1 day left (of 165 days) for about a week now. Even worse yet, the instagram account cited is a relative of mine (relief; at least not some weird kid in a basement of their parents' house.) I don't even know why I got associated with this account because all I did was "like" the photo. No comment left at all.

So, suspended 165+ days with seemingly no end in sight.

At least it's free.

If I had to pay for that crap...oh man!

[JayhawkCO]

Tons of frustrations aside, Facebook has suspended my account. {gasp} In all sincere honesty, I do not know why.

They cited the reason was that a instagram account *that is not even mine - I am not on Instagram* was not behaving properly and thus suspended my account for 165 days. As if that wasn't bad enough, I have been on 1 day left (of 165 days) for about a week now. Even worse yet, the instagram account cited is a relative of mine (relief; at least not some weird kid in a basement of their parents' house.) I don't even know why I got associated with this account because all I did was "like" the photo. No comment left at all.

So, suspended 165+ days with seemingly no end in sight.

At least it's free.

If I had to pay for that crap...oh man!

I'd say you were given a gift.

[vdeane]

The thing I find frustrating is that the roadgeek community seems to only exist there and here.  I would have dropped it years ago, but for the fact that roadmeet RSVPs are done that way, and the roadgeek groups have stuff that isn't posted here.  This is especially true of Canadian roadgeek content, as the Ontario and Québec Roads groups are both active while the Canada board here is very much not.

There's also the fact that I do like having a place to broadcast updates for my site that's not here or the RSS feed, and have the photo preview and a way for people not on here to contact me.  I'm not sure if Bluesky is suitable for that or not.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm mostly on Facebook these days due to the Gribblenation Facebook page having a decent following on the platform.  I hardly post anything on my personal account. 

[Scott5114]

Facebook is without value.

[Rothman]

Facebook is without value.

Nah.  Kept in touch with some very old friends of mine through the years because of Facebook.  I think of my parents before the advent of social media and the friends that they just lost touch with over the years due to the lack of a convenient mechanism to do so.  So, I've found it to have quite a lot of value.

Going looking for just entertainment on Facebook is a fool's errand, though.

[formulanone]

The thing I find frustrating is that the roadgeek community seems to only exist there and here.

I suppose many of the original roadgeeks trend older in age, and being one of the lasting social platforms, that's where the discussion went. I presume as many built those personal relationships, it serves a dual purpose. The one thing Facebook offers that many others do not is that it's a "private group" and some level of moderation. While far from total anonymity, that does tend to keep out spammers and everything you say isn't easily searched from the outside.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan of the forum method overall; sure, it's more public, but with the massive advantage that our personal data, microhabit usage trends, and every bit of our collectively-quirky location/statement/IP/word choice meta-massive-blob aren't being harvested (at this time). Social media tends to "reward" the original poster more than the contributors, which creates a lopsided discussion format. Forums create more of a natural discussion chain and doesn't place a algorithmic value on one post over another.

I still scratch my head that some forgo this forum for that place, if for anything other that simplistic convenience. Otherwise, nothing is organized, if anything major occurs, there's suddenly 20 similar items in your feed. For two weeks after the Bay Bridge collapsed, nobody bothered to check that there were already a dozen of the exact article posted about the same event.

[Rothman]

The thing I find frustrating is that the roadgeek community seems to only exist there and here.

I suppose many of the original roadgeeks trend older in age, and being one of the lasting social platforms, that's where the discussion went. I presume as many built those personal relationships, a dual purpose was fulfilled with FB. The one thing Facebook offers that many others do not is that it's a "private group" and some level of moderation. While it's far not total anonymity, that does tend to keep out spammers.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan of the forum method overall; sure, its more public, but with the massive advantage that our personal data, microhabit usage trends, and every bit of our collectively-quirky location/statement/IP/word choice meta-massive-blob aren't being harvested (at this time).

I still scratch my head that some forgo this forum for thatplace, if for anything other that simplistic convenience. Otherwise, nothing is organized, if anything major occurs, there's suddenly 20 similar items in your feed.

I wouldn't be surprised if something was crawling around here harvesting data.

[Max Rockatansky]

Facebook is without value.

Nah.  Kept in touch with some very old friends of mine through the years because of Facebook.  I think of my parents before the advent of social media and the friends that they just lost touch with over the years due to the lack of a convenient mechanism to do so.  So, I've found it to have quite a lot of value.

Going looking for just entertainment on Facebook is a fool's errand, though.

Honestly road page and group highs on Facebook these days are way higher than the forum has been lately (especially out west).  Sadly much of that gets offset by shit like AI Road pages and things like the Cult of Buc-ee's. 

One Facebook group I'd recommend to any road fan is Freeways of Los Angeles.  That's a specialized group, but they are pretty consistently delivering high end stuff.

[Max Rockatansky]

The thing I find frustrating is that the roadgeek community seems to only exist there and here.

I suppose many of the original roadgeeks trend older in age, and being one of the lasting social platforms, that's where the discussion went. I presume as many built those personal relationships, it serves a dual purpose. The one thing Facebook offers that many others do not is that it's a "private group" and some level of moderation. While far from total anonymity, that does tend to keep out spammers and everything you say isn't easily searched from the outside.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan of the forum method overall; sure, it's more public, but with the massive advantage that our personal data, microhabit usage trends, and every bit of our collectively-quirky location/statement/IP/word choice meta-massive-blob aren't being harvested (at this time). Social media tends to "reward" the original poster more than the contributors, which creates a lopsided discussion format. Forums create more of a natural discussion chain and doesn't place a algorithmic value on one post over another.

I still scratch my head that some forgo this forum for that place, if for anything other that simplistic convenience. Otherwise, nothing is organized, if anything major occurs, there's suddenly 20 similar items in your feed. For two weeks after the Bay Bridge collapsed, nobody bothered to check that there were already a dozen of the exact article posted about the same event.

I can actually tell you the age demographics for followers of the Facebook Gribblenation page:

18-24:  2.4%
25-34:  12.9%
35-44:  19.9%
45-54:  21.2%
55-64:  21.8%
65+:  21.8%

Over 99% of our page reactions come from non-followers.  Essentially we get our biggest engagement from non-road fans and have a lot of market opportunities outside the hobby.  Speaking for myself (there are still three other admins) I try to sprinkle in vintage photos from California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida to keep the page actively moving every day.  I've been using a lot of State Highway Department Biennial Reports lately which have a lot of previously unseen road photos on social media.

For those don't know, our hobby page (formerly Gribblenation.com) was at a pretty low point around 2016 and was shifted to Blogger.  We caught traction on Facebook given there is a market for not only roadgeek style photos but rather history items in general.  Our primary page traffic on Blogger has increased about ten fold since our Facebook page took off.

So essentially I'm saying that Facebook can be used as a conduit for road hobby pages to thrive in this modern age.  The thing is that you have to be willing to play the engagement game the platform pushes.

[Scott5114]

Kept in touch with some very old friends of mine through the years because of Facebook.

Most of my old friends are either in the category of "not keeping in touch with them on purpose" or "they're not keeping in touch with me on purpose" (or, well, "they forgot I exist and reminding them only temporarily remedies this" which might as well be the latter).

[Rothman]

Kept in touch with some very old friends of mine through the years because of Facebook.

Most of my old friends are either in the category of "not keeping in touch with them on purpose" or "they're not keeping in touch with me on purpose" (or, well, "they forgot I exist and reminding them only temporarily remedies this" which might as well be the latter).

That's rather sad.

[route17fan]

I definitely do not miss the drama on the ol' Facebook - but I do have family and friends on there. Thankfully, family knows I am still around (despite my stroke) but the fact they have suspended my account without me provoking anyone is (to me) just plain wrong.

Ha! I did get in to it with someone about a photo which was clearly the Blizzard of '78 but author claimed it was in Cleveland, Ohio but was clearly Massachusetts - turned out to be Boston.

That was the extent of my skirmishes but (again, to me) it was not severe enough to have my account suspended.

Again, very frustrating but I am just glad to get it off my chest so to speak

[bandit957]

Facebook notifications have been broken for 5 years, and they refuse to fix it.

I've reported it over and over, and nothing gets done.

[route17fan]

Just resetting.


My facebook account is suspended.
I did nothing wrong.
I got associated with an Instagram account
      I am not on Instagram
I've been "sentenced" to 165 days (5 1/2 months)
My only way of contesting this is to log on to my Instagram - which I do not have

Does Facebook have a phone number?

[Max Rockatansky]

You could just create a new account in theory with another email?

[wanderer2575]

Does Facebook have a phone number?

What, talk to somebody?  The whole point of social media is to avoid that.

[Max Rockatansky]

Does Facebook have a phone number?

What, talk to somebody?  The whole point of social media is to avoid that.

I suspect talking to an actual person in administration at Facebook is pretty much nigh impossible.

[route17fan]

Thank you for the info.

It's just really frustrating.

I will try opening a new account. 

[kphoger]

From looking through a few Reddit threads, the path that seems to have the best success is... small claims court.

[vdeane]

Your relative can't tell Facebook that their Instagram and your Facebook aren't the same account?

[route17fan]

She tried. Nothing so far.

I tried to open a new fb account and an "error" ocurred. 

[Scott5114]

From looking through a few Reddit threads, the path that seems to have the best success is... small claims court.

With all of these big tech companies I've always wondered what they would do if you drove to their HQ and knocked on the door.

A former coworker and I had informal plans to egg ebay HQ if we ever happened to be in the Bay Area at the same time.

[Scott5114]

That's rather sad.

Too many people view "mere" friendships as expendable when they get involved in a new relationship or have a kid.

Anyway, if you want sad, I've taken up writing and illustrating fiction, because fictional characters don't have the means to desert their creator.

[Rothman]

That's rather sad.

Too many people view "mere" friendships as expendable when they get involved in a new relationship or have a kid.

Anyway, if you want sad, I've taken up writing and illustrating fiction, because fictional characters don't have the means to desert their creator.

So, so sad.