Facebook is incomprehensible

[AgentPete]

I thought our first pilot Pop-Up last Sunday went pretty well (next one is Sunday 24th, I’m away from tomorrow for a few days and won’t be back in time for this coming Sunday) but apparently Facebook didn’t. They say it contravenes their guidelines, i.e. it contains some of the following:

“Profanity, or refer to the viewer's attributes (e.g. race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, name) or harass viewers”

I’m honestly not aware that it does, but in any case… wtf? Facebook is hardly a beacon of moral probity!

It might be that we referred to the authors’ full names… in which case, we could just use their first names. But honestly, trying to figure out what it is that Facebook doesn’t like about Pop-Ups feels very Kafkaesque.

Nevertheless, I’m beginning to sense that this could be the thin end of the wedge. What happens if Facebook doesn’t like a particular author’s submission? Writers deal with controversial subjects, perforce. They express themselves directly, sometimes quite brutally. Should we instruct writers to only deport themselves in the manner of Emily Post?

I’m getting a little carried away here, but it feels as if we might be moving into a new era of conformity. Creative expression be damned, above all don’t upset anyone’s sensibilities.

Anyway, two other things.

First, would some kind Litopian offer to play the role of publishing person on Pop-Ups on Sunday 24th? You’ll need a decent webcam and preferably a headset microphone.

And just concluded another live broadcast (FB + YouTube) for Michelle Paver, you might find it interesting (no complaints from Facebook… yet!)

Oh yes… Submission Surgery is next on my agenda, when I get back.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Eh? Que? Are they kidding? They are slandering Pop-Ups.

I just wonder. Twice I've seen that people who subbed anonymously, did not like the feedback, and left abusive remarks afterwards. Some aggrieved person might have reported Pop- Ups on some such grounds.

Il Matrimonio found himself banned on FB, no reason provided. He had been reported for something or other that made no sense to him. He's a ship historian in his retirement, uses FB to talk all things passenger ship maritime so this was a loss. Could he get to the bottom of it? I suggested he clear his cache in the end and that sorted it but FB were as much help as a chocolate casserole pot.

 

[AgentPete]

Il Matrimonio found himself banned on FB, no reason provided.

Well, my views are hardening on this issue. I used to believe that the market would sort all this out, i.e. if a website was acting in an unfair or overbearing manner towards its users, then said users would simply migrate elsewhere.

However, we are moving into an era of oligopoly, I think…

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I think so and it's not good. Like over-engineered cars. Like dealing with BT or the bank. No real individual control, no low- tech options. I don't use FB nearly so much anymore. Object to being disempowered. Twitter's getting up to some funny tricks too, flexing weird muscles. So Ian Huntley is not a man is he not? YES HE IS.

 

[Inga Vesper]

I used to believe that the market would sort all this out, i.e. if a website was acting in an unfair or overbearing manner towards its users, then said users would simply migrate elsewher

As one of those smug people who do not use Facebook, I always hoped this would be the case. However, I've been hoping for a decade, and meanwhile keep missing out on lots of stuff because of my smugness...

Anyway, at least there's Youtube streaming as an alternative!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

It's not being smug, Inga. My parents won't go on it, frightened of it, mightily distrust the privacy settings. But a lot of people they know, also in their seventies do use it a lot...the parents will ask me to look up this or look up that for them. They lost two friends this winter, both in shocking circumstances, and the collective mourning and the 'wakes' were to an extent, hosted via FB.

 

[Carol Rose]

Utterly ridiculous. But I'm guessing, as @Katie-Ellen Hazeldine has suggested, that someone reported Pop-Ups. This is solely based on my experience using Facebook for a long time now, and watching how easily they come down on people for no apparent reason.

 

[Inga Vesper]

@Katie-Ellen Hazeldine Indeed. I keep thinking I should get on it. I was a Facebook user during my student days, but then stopped. Now I often see great stuff on there that I can't access. And yes, it's so much easier to stay in touch and share moments with friends.

I wonder if a disgruntled submitter reported it. Sorry for not knowing any better (have only found out about Pop-Ups yesterday and still getting the hang of them). Are these all people you know? Was there a particularly bad review? Maybe someone didn't like what you said and reported the video.

 

[Amber]

Yes. Katie might be right. It's so easy to report people and no trouble for Facebook to respond to the complaint. They aren't losing anything by losing the attention of almost anyone.

I don't use Facebook much but I keep an account open for a few things. What we do with our attention and how we split our attention is impacting almost everything. I used to be worried these things would change the world and I would be an old person who didn't understand how they worked. Well, I understand how they work, and they changed the world, and now I think it would be nice if we discovered a way to curtail the negatives about how it changed the world and maximize the positives.

I've been meaning to mention ... somewhere ... that my son uses Discord for video calls. I told him, "You can't do a video call with Discord. I've used it before....[blah blah blah]...."

...and it seems I was wrong.

Maybe you could use Discord.

Although YouTube worked very well.

 

[AgentPete]

I’m looking for a way to broadcast live video to a private group of people, i.e. SUBMISSIONS SURGERY just for Litopians. Not for public consumption.

Any brainwaves welcome...

 

[ChrisLewando]

Farcebook is the epitome of non-communication.

When I asked my son, recently, why he never communicates, he said, Mum, all you have to do is look on Facebook! H'm. Yep, there he is again, doing some kind of dodgy gymnastic contortions called Acroyoga. Where, when, who, why - whatever! My pet hate is pictures of dinners. Thank god people don't show us the dinner they had yesterday. But I have set up a farcebook writer's page as instructed by my peers, as it's supposed to help sell my books.... I haven't yet worked out how.

It's fairly Big Brother of Farcebook to suggest that there is anything obscene in the submissions when the only people watching are, one assumes, writers who wish to progress. Sour grapes, probably, as suggested. (Not me, I assure you. Lessons gratefully received). In all the submissions I have seen there hasn't been porn or explicit sex, and only minimal profanity as required by the genre. If people don't want to watch, or don't like what they see, they are not being forced to, and can surely turn it off? I've seen some stand up comedians (another pet hate) whose language is so obscene I'm amazed they were allowed on TV.

It's sad that Farcebook (probably some spotty teenage graduate geek in a first Very Important Job) could intervene without checking the facts and offering valid explanation. It's like being put on trial and not knowing what crime you were supposed to have committed. Snide telling-of-tales by people too cowardly to speak openly of their objections are far nastier than the odd bad word.

I have no suggestions, though I have installed Discord, so that would be useful. But if a different platform needs to be found, I will follow.

Inconsequentially, I've just discovered an early fem dom novel of mine on Amazon being published and sold by someone else... I'm willing to bet that the (Dutch) company doesn't respond to my quite mild email suggesting they contact me.

 

[David Weller]

A few years ago Facebook suspended my account for an unspecified reason. To get it reinstated they demanded that I provide them with sensitive personal information, including passport details. I took the matter up with my local MP who contacted Facebook with a few demands of his own. Guess what? I had access to my account again within 24 hours.