No Thanks to Facebook

Can you believe it? My second account from FB (after my first one which was disabled due to too many friend's request", thanks to Zynga games) had just been disabled. And this time the reason given (according to their FAQ anyway) is that ... I don't exist. Yes, I have been accused of using a fake name despite having my actual name and photos there with family members, friends, work colleagues and even my scale modeling circle interacting daily. And I even have my mobile number connected to my account.

I'm not sure how this happened as I have not received any warnings of any wrong doing. It just happened, and I am growing tired of going through all this nonsense again with Facebook. Of all those violations stated above, I am actually guilty of ... none of them. I had only one account and 3 FB pages (Bruce's Scale Modeling Domain, Bruce's Scale Modeling WIP and My Image Depository) as well as serving as a Moderator for Ultraman Lives and Piscean Works FB pages. And since FB, as in accordance to their "policy", do not divulge any information pertaining to any so called "wrong doings". I literally have no idea what they are accusing me of other than I am not suppose to exist.

I may yet create another account much later if there is no response to my appeal, but that one will just be to connect with family and close ones and perhaps a few shops. I will still accept friends from my modeling circle but any exciting events and highlights will now be highlighted here instead. Yeah, like it or not, FB is still the biggest social media platform around and I still need it to connect with many family and friends.

Hence while I am not boycotting FB totally nor am I calling for one, I now understand how dangerous FB can be if you were to rely on it for business purposes. They do not have a proper customer service centre (well, FB is free after all) and they are not obligated to answer to you. Even if you did pay to advertise (and do check on those "profiles" that likes your products), the analytics do not match back to those located from a proper website. FB in my book is strictly to access information and have fun - and that is her original purpose.

Which brings me to my FB page called "Bruce Scale Modeling Domain". As I now no longer have an account, I can't update my pages (and she was growing quite well too). I am giving FB one week to resolve this issue for me (yes, the word here is "I am giving .. ") since their customer service or admin is near non-existent, and I am not willing to wait any longer.

So what happens if my FB issue gets resolve? Well, the one important thing I have learnt from my 2 accounts is that FB is not a very stable platform to base your business on. You will definitely need a proper website. And why do I keep harping about business and FB? That's due to the fact that I do have plans to open a shop upon my retirement 10 years down the line and l am looking for something I can use. I was hoping for a FB page where it is much easier to interact with customers but after this incident, FB has definitely left a very scary scenario on how they can go about disabling accounts with impunity and without evidence or hard facts. It's already stated in their "social statement" that they have that right to do so and it's not to be questioned. So imagine the time spent working on your site and generating a social circle only to have that pulled from under you. Suddenly out of the blue you lose all of your contacts and sales leads. Very risky. 

Henceforth I am now mulling about de-activating my FB scale modeling page later (if that is even possible) and sharing all newer highlights here instead. I can't use back my old "Bruce Scale Modeling domain" blog page as any images I post there are automatically placed inside my android phone's gallery, and they do eat up memory space. That one I can thank the Android Blogger Apps which I will not be doing again for this one. I hope I can re-build everything here all over again and I have to admit, though it is exciting to have something new, it's also kind of sad seeing those other successful pages go down the drain.

I guess I can look at this as an opportunity to re-work my hobby pages all over again and using what I have learned to improve on the materials. I will of course be sharing them with the same circle of people who appreciates what I do, and welcome new ones. Do bear with me for a while on this site as I will need some time to re-learn everything on blogger again. Seems there had been quite a few updates and new features since the last time I used it and I need to figure what they are for and see how they can better serve the pages. As for the materials, I plan to go beyond what FB had done and provide some interesting feedbacks and source materials. This way, I am hoping the articles could be entertaining as well as be helpful for you.

Wish me luck folks. And I am grateful to everyone for the tremendous support I have received, from my first blog to my FB page, and hopefully here as well.

UPDATE!!
I told my boss at my workplace what happened and he just smiled and said, just go ahead create another. No biggie. It's good to have a supportive boss. But I will still give FB one week for a response first. It'd be a shame to lose all my contacts and like pages.