You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Rant’ category.
So a while ago (over a month, actually: the beginning of July), Facebook disabled my account for some reason. I’m not sure why, although I do have some ideas – such as one of my statuses being judged offensive or dangerous (it wasn’t, but oh well), a bug in one of my third-party programs or scripts, or just some random vandal coming along and flagging me for no reason. I do wish Facebook would tell me why they disabled me, or at least respond to my emails: I’ve emailed them at least half a dozen times, and I think various friends have also sent in a few, but I haven’t heard peep one from them. Facebook’s customer service – well, it would shame the bureaucracy of the United Soviet Socialist Republics, in my humble opinion.
Probably the most annoying thing about the whole affair is how helpless Facebook makes me feel. They won’t talk to me at all, much less tell me what I did wrong, much less give me another chance. I can see that I could have done all kinds of things that would technically be against the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and in point of fact I know of at least one technical violation, some months ago, despite my best efforts to keep my nose clean. (If you want to know, I logged on to someone else’s account, with their strong encouragement and in ignorance of the provisions against that, and played around for a few hours total.) Also, there’s a post on Get Satisfaction that lays out the sorts of things that usually get people banned or temporarily disabled, and the last item on the list was essentially “No Reason” – that’s right, Facebook can and does sometimes disable people for no reason at all. Technically, as in my case and likely in the case of 95+% of their users, they might have a reason, but just not know about it yet. Is that really just, or is it some kind of Inquisition-like “well, we don’t yet know what you’ve done wrong, but we’re sure we’ll be able to find something” system?
And finally, I’m especially helpless because Facebook has a monopoly in its niche – there is no other service (at least, that I know of) that has so many of my friends using it and so many useful features. Xanga, for example, has some of my friends, perhaps half a dozen, perhaps more. But it’s hard for me to find them, and it’s not really set up for the sorts of things Facebook excels at. No one on Xanga updates their pulses with anything like the sorts of stuff you see on Facebook. And Xanga photo albums just aren’t the same as Facebook’s, even though they’re technically almost as good. It’s just the way things have worked out.
“Dear Lazyweb,
Do you know of a way I can tell Facebook to go jump in a lake, without losing track of all my friends?
Sincerely,
Nathan Tuggy, ID#645503444, aka nathantuggy”
OK, I know I’m backward, reactionary, and prejudiced. Plus, my parents sheltered me too much when young, so my mind is not properly developed. But still! Somebody tell me this idea makes sense. I mean really. Not just "makes sense if everyone uses it and has grown up with it and everything is adapted to it" but "makes sense intrinsically".
Just all the purposes the site talks about (and there are plenty) seem really, really strange and unnecessary. Now I know, from history, that many exceedingly useful devices seemed strange and unnecessary at first. But this one? What does it actually do? At least, what does it do that something else couldn’t do just as well or better? So far, nothing. And I went through pretty nearly the whole site looking for it.
Does anybody have any ideas on why this might actually be useful, now or someday?
Postscript: Of course, I am just thrilled to pieces that the site uses Flash so much. That pretty much makes my day.
