Short story long, my access to this hosting service, which I will keep unnamed for now, has been restored. I was able to access WordPress sites, like this one, but that is about all. My email accounts were also still working, but I was unable to add/remove or change any of them.
This all started last fall when I requested that an organization that I had been running a web site for over many years, take over the management of the site themselves. We had all agreed that this would be a good thing to provide for the long term operation of the site in case I was no longer able to do so.
Of course, that meant something would happen so that I was unable to do so…
In December, I had back surgery and ended up in physical rehab for over a month afterwards. When I finally returned home, I was not in any mood to work on it. Sitting in front of a computer for more than a few minutes was difficult.
We had begun the steps to move the website to a new host account and I had assumed that the hosting company would assist in the migration. But because I couldn’t check on it very well, the job got totally botched up, they ended up giving ownership of my account with several domains and at least six sites, to the new account and I was locked out of it all.
Worst of all, I couldn’t seem to get anyone to understand what was wrong and what had happened instead of the simple task we requested. I’m sure the time that elapsed before I could dig into it didn’t help.
I must have called 25 times only to explain to a customer representative from scratch what I wanted, only to be told that they could not give me ownership of my own account back, even though it was their screw up that took it away.
I was at the point where if I didn’t have so much family history established in this site and some others that I did not want to loose and which would be very difficult to replace, I would have given up and closed the account. I was debating if it was worth spending the money to hire a lawyer, or contact my attorney-general’s office, or what else I could do to get through their bureaucracy.
Both I and the two fellows with the organization we wanted to move the site for, were trying to get through to them. Finally, it became necessary to treat it as if they were transferring my account back to me. Forms with identification and verified e-signatures were required and took time to accomplish, even though that apparently wasn’t necessary to take it from me.
But it eventually got done after more than six months.
What broke the log jam? I started searching for complaints online about the hosting company. I found plenty, Facebook, Reddit, etc. I finally stumbled upon TrustPilot and noticed they had responded there. I wrote up an account of my troubles and withing 24 hours had an email from the hosting company.
Apparently, you need to hit them where it hurts, their reputation.
F Facebook
Well, I haven’t been posting much here lately and most of my thoughts and rants have been going on Facebook.
They make it so easy, so seductive, to just put a short couple paragraphs or just a comment on someone else’s thoughts. It becomes too easy to spend time there.
But, once again, I’m in Facebook jail.
I don’t know why. They say I posted something that violated “community standards.” They gave me no details and I don’t remember what it may have been. Just suddenly, I can’t post anything. I can’t leave a comment. I can’t even like a photo of a furry cat.
I dug around and found – with some difficulty – a reference to their deleting a post.
I can’t tell from the little thumbnails what it was, or what about it they didn’t like. I have a “Page” where I post things. Things about Trump, our government, and politics. I started the page so I could keep those things off my personal timeline and let only those who want to read them see them. I was being considerate to those who might be offended by anything critical of our illegitimate president.
And, ordinarily, I avoid anything offensive. I lean towards the ironic, humorous, or satirical commentary.
95% of what I post is graphics – cartoons, memes, photos, and articles from major news sources. I mostly “share” not “create.”
And, yes, it’s mostly anti-Trump, anti-conservative, anti-GOP, etc. because, well, how can any moral, thinking person not be?
So, I am in the corner, getting a three-day time out from Facebook. Like that is supposed to teach me a lesson, whereas not telling me what the offense is does…
My experience with these things (I have known others who have also suffered the same fate) is that you usually get these things as a response to someone’s complaint. They are either processed by some algorithm or some person who reviews hundreds per hour. No deep thought is put into it. And there is no way to get a meaningful review. You can click a box that asks them to look into it, but I have not received a response.
From the thumbnails, I can tell it was a cartoon. That’s about all. I routinely download and keep the images I post, rather than just hit share. I do that because I want to break the chain of “So and so shared so and so’s post where they shared so and so’s…” I also sometimes copy and paste commentary along with it that I think the person may not want to have attributed to them. Public figures, I quote with full attribution, I spare the average friend.
So I checked through my collected images and did not find that one. It doesn’t mean it didn’t come from me, but it’s odd that I did not keep a copy. It might be left on a different computer that I don’t normally use. I only checked my laptop and phone. You can bet, if I do find it, I will post it here!
And, I did. I could not find it on any of my computers, but a couple of them have been reworked recently and may have been erased. But with a little Google-Fu and some help from Tineye, I found it.
That’s it. That’s the “offensive” post. I vaguely remember it. It was quite a while ago, so either they dug deep, or someone is going around looking for that particular picture.
This photo was found many times on Twitter. It was on Reddit. It was on Instagram and Pinterest, so it clearly doesn’t cross any lines for most places. It was totally used to target my account. There was also a version of it with a ghostly figure, possibly Jesus, leaning over 45.
So, I supposedly “violated community standards” by posting a graphic that came from the community. Hmmm…
Looking at the timing of it, where we are in the middle of the peak of the Trump impeachment Senate hearings, one has to wonder if it isn’t part of an organized strategy to use Facebook’s’ policies against anyone openly critical of him? Right now, silencing a bunch of his critics for three days without any hearing or recourse, would be huge. You almost wonder if it’s not a new wave of Russian hackers turning to suppressing criticism instead of posting pro-Trump propaganda?
I don’t flatter myself to think that I am that important, or widely influential to garner special attention. So, the explanation of a widespread organized process makes more sense. I just got caught up in it.
So, Facebook put me and possibly many others in Facebook Jail. I’ll live. Actually a three day break will do me good. After all, it got me back to my long neglected blog…