Thread: Warning: I got kicked off Facebook. It could happen to you :(

I left the bellydancer of the year competition yesterday and wanted to check my student's photos - we had so much fun. but i got home and couldn't log into facebook. And then one of my students emailed me and asked me why i took my facebook page down. ..
and this is what i found out:

I'VE BEEN KICKED OFF FACEBOOK!
both of my pages - my personal profile and my fan page, which together have more than 12,000 people in my community, have been removed for violating facebook's policies. No email to warn me i was in violation of any policy. No email to notify that i had been removed from facebook. I had to find out from one of my students who noticed that i had 'disappeared'. thanks, fakebook.

some of those policies include:
- Use of a fake name
- Users aren't permitted to use personal accounts to advertise or promote themselves professionally. If your profile was listed under a non-individual name, or was used primarily for professional promotion, this is probably why it was removed.

There is an entire section in facebook's policy FAQ about how band members are not permitted to promote their music or band via their personal profile.

Who knew?

I didn't think my postings were a particularly egregious violation of any of these rules... (i hardly ever get to use that word, so i'm pretty excited to throw it in here now...) but admittedly, my profile name was Sandra Sandra Sandra, which is only 1/3 real. and i am prone to talk about bellydance on my page. but only because i have almost no interest in any other subject in life... and that might be considered self-promotion. but i also have pictures of me drinking at weddings and having lunch with friends (aka.. actual people that i know personally). and i've never tried to sell anything or promote anything for sale on my personal profile. although my fan page does announce that i have DVDs. but that is kind of what a Fan page is for, and is not included in facebook's 'personal profile FAQ'. but they were both deleted since they were both connected to my email address.

In the end, i put a lot of work into building a community on facebook - not to sell things or make money, or for an overtly commercial purpose, but to communicate with people who have the same interests as me... which seems to be the purpose of facebook. and after years of putting effort into it, facebook turned it off. I know that for people who don't have the ability or $$$ to maintain personal websites, that facebook has become a de facto means of promotion, connecting, and sharing. .. But just be careful. What you've been contributing to and growing for years could be gone tomorrow morning. I'm just saying. You don't even get an email to tell you it's gone.

Word To The Wise -
Fewer glossy photos, more pictures of babies and inane comments about needing coffee. Maybe it will keep you under the facebook policy radar.

WOah, harsh!

I think the whole 'you must use your real name' rule is fairly creepy anyway! So sorry this happened to you.

but... what's the point of Fan Pages if not to promote a public figure??

Originally Posted by BreaMorgiane

I think the whole 'you must use your real name' rule is fairly creepy anyway! So sorry this happened to you.

That's how I feel. I don't use my FB to promote my dancing, but at the same time, I wouldn't want my nosy family, prospective employers or creepy stalkers to find me under my real name, because my dancing is none of their business.

And Sandra, I don't think I've ever seen you blast out a single event invite or promotional announcement the entire time I've had you on my Friends list. There are some spammy dancers on FB, but you're definitely not one of them!

I just gotta say, I'm disappointed I can't be a foo-foo fluff bunny too. Guess I'll just have to settle for badass.

facebook already creeped me out before I ever tried it...it seems like they feel like 'what? you won't give us all your private information? well then you can't have a page.' I can't for the life of me see the reason they'd care if Sandra used her real name or not. I don't think that's fair and it's a bit of a privacy invasion.

We used to fear 1984 and now we're just giving it all away for free.

some of those policies include:
- Use of a fake name
- Users aren't permitted to use personal accounts to advertise or promote themselves professionally. If your profile was listed under a non-individual name, or was used primarily for professional promotion, this is probably why it was removed.

There is an entire section in facebook's policy FAQ about how band members are not permitted to promote their music or band via their personal profile.

If that's the case, then they have lots of accounts to remove. I killed my facebook page because it just got too creepy for me, but the majority of my fb friends advertised their gigs. Facebook is just a big wet dream for the kid/owner.

Until yesterday, i loved facebook. i never accepted ANY friend request from men (unless they were dressed in a bellydance outfit) and i had a huge network of bellydancers all over the world, where i could waste my days doing nothing but looking at photos of costumes and dance poses and make-up styles and videos... i saw the videos from the latest israeli bellydance festival that someone posted on facebook - Bozenka was sooo good! and i never would have found that wandering around Youtube... I liked it because you got to see what other dancers you liked were digging-on.. that makes it easier than wading through all the fake-boob bellydance stuff that comes up on any search on youtube.

I think it's awesome, as long as you're not naive and put your personal info up there... i don't even have a photo of my boyfriend... just my dogs.

But outside of the united states, like argentina, chile, europe, and now asia really just starting... all the dancers are on there CONSTANTLY. if you want to connect with them, facebook is really the way to do it.

and i've always thought it was insane to use your full legal name online. Who needs MORE stalkers?

Originally Posted by jasani

some of those policies include:
- Use of a fake name
- Users aren't permitted to use personal accounts to advertise or promote themselves professionally. If your profile was listed under a non-individual name, or was used primarily for professional promotion, this is probably why it was removed.

There is an entire section in facebook's policy FAQ about how band members are not permitted to promote their music or band via their personal profile.

Ha! That's how MOST people use the site!
VERY weird.

I changed my legal name to my nickname on FB and it was fine with FB within seconds.
I keep us with FB only to see if my teacher has any new classes or workshops I could attend or if she has any changes to her class schedules.

Originally Posted by Jennah

I keep us with FB only to see if my teacher has any new classes or workshops I could attend or if she has any changes to her class schedules.

but according to facebook policies, your teacher shouldn't be using her profile to promote her classes or schedule. that's professional promotion.

Just family barbeque pictures, people.

Originally Posted by sandrat

but according to facebook policies, your teacher shouldn't be using her profile to promote her classes or schedule. that's professional promotion.

Just family barbeque pictures, people.

Hmm.

What about people who use Facebook for professional promotion of the corporate variety? Surely, if you've been on the job market within the last year or so, every article on CareerBuilder or Monster.com tells you to utilize Facebook as a job seeking tool. So I wonder if Facebook is tracking down people who are using FB to find freelance graphic design or marketing consulting gigs, or schmooze with recruiters who might be able to get them a job? Or do they just go after artists?

On the topic of "professional" networking, that strategy is so not for me. I don't think I'd WANT a prospective employer to see that I enjoy belly dancing and dressing my pug in drag......c::

Originally Posted by BreaMorgiane

I just gotta say, I'm disappointed I can't be a foo-foo fluff bunny too. Guess I'll just have to settle for badass.

[snip]

We used to fear 1984 and now we're just giving it all away for free.

It takes a very special type to get promoted to Foo-Foo Fluff Bunny. Now, I can write my name "Carrara Nour, BDFffB." Looks a hell of a lot better than PhD!

And did you hear that the Library of Congress is storing all of our tweets from Twitter? That's scary...

Oh wow, that is bad news and pretty surprising. I really enjoyed being your fan, Sandra. Sorry you were treated that way by facebook.
I agree with you all that they really have a big mission now if they are going to delete everyone who uses facebook in this way.

This has happened to a couple of people that I know. Same thing, no warning that their profiles were "in violation", nothing :(

That is terrible! I am going to miss seeing your updates :(
Is there anything you can do to contest it?

I bet someone flagged you for some reason, probably a troll or something. I am so sorry this happened to you. I can't even imagine what you are going through!

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

I bet someone flagged you for some reason, probably a troll or something. I am so sorry this happened to you. I can't even imagine what you are going through!

This is what I was just thinking. Never underestimate the power of psycho trolls with too much time on their hands ,m::

Wow. that's crazy! I have my dance name on there for the specific reason I don't want a possible employer to deny me a job because of bellydance. I do have photos of family, friends, and my animals.
Such a shame they did that to you.

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

This is what I was just thinking. Never underestimate the power of psycho trolls with too much time on their hands ,m::

My thoughts too!!!

What about the costumer that keeps asking for dancers to check out his costumes?

I didn't check out their facebook, but I thought it would be full of costumes FOR SALE!!!! .w.:

Isn't that promoting? ,m::

I thought facebook was also meant for promoting yourself exactly as you did!!!

I'm so sorry!!! ,f::

That's just awful, how frustrating...

I lived a similar situation with Yahoo. I made and hosted my first website with Yahoo small business / site builder and from one day to the next they closed down my account, no modification - no explanation.
When I called Yahoo they told me that my website was against there terms and conditions and I was probably promoting illegal activities...

Bummer....there are a LOT of other people that should come off then...what about all the Bellydance costumers who advertise their products on FB???

So let me get this straight. A fan page is presumably still OK? I do have an old profile as Dance Self but I don't use it.
It's getting more difficult now to separate Zumarrad from Actual Me, due to the thesis etc, which is why I keep FB quite generic. I do like having FB under my real name purely because old friends overseas etc can find me (and have!) but there are no really personal details up there.

I am also very unhappy with facebook. I changed my password, and now they don't accept it anymore. What's more, I tried to get a new one and after three weeks still waiting for my "code" they are supposed to send. Tried several times and not reaction from Facebookl. WT*???? It is like talking to a stone wall. So I can't get to anything on FB!

Originally Posted by monsoondancer

Bummer....there are a LOT of other people that should come off then...what about all the Bellydance costumers who advertise their products on FB???

and the bands, and the corporate event promoters, and the club promoters, and the teachers, and the computer fix-its, and the photographers, and the any-kind-of-event-possible promoters, and and and

I'm so sorry, Sandra! Maybe they're preparing us to charge those $24, or something like that, to use their services...

They do actually HAVE to give us something for our data. We're not a bunch of statistics passively sitting there for them to mine and sell to advertisers; we're functional people and guess what, we have businesses and hobbies and those are as much part of our lives as our names, ages and demographic groups.

They give us a free service. We don't have to give them anything, we don't have to be on Facebook at all.

I'm so sorry this happened to you! Getting dumped rather than warned seems really abrupt, and losing all those connections that you've made must have felt devastating.

I've been confused about how to use my Facebook. I set it up under my real name to stay in touch with my IRL friends, but so many dancers have friended me that I haven't known whether to continue using it for personal expression or try to behave 'professionally' there. It's the only place (besides the WHO IS database) where my last name is linked to me as a dancer, and I haven't been particularly comfortable with that.

I guess given this new info, I'll scale back my friends to mostly IRL friends and just be myself on there. LOL. I have a fan page for the studio, I'll keep that for my students as long as they'll let me.

There are plenty of sites for networking with other dancers -- Bhuz and OD, for instance.

There are so many people using names that are not their real names, how on earth can they target just one person. It sounds like someone has flagged you to be spiteful ( jealousy for whatever reason) and I bet when they get complaints instead of looking into them they just delete.

I would complain like heck to FB, even if you never use it again. I am so sorry to hear this has happened. It is very unfair.

I got this message from FB last June: "Our systems indicate that you've been misusing certain features on the site. This email serves as a warning. Misuse of Facebook's features or violating Facebook's terms of use may result in your account being disabled. Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation."

I was unable to post anything for a while, but after a bit they let me back on. Not sure why I was restricted, either. FB can be a big mystery...