Facebook Futility — Observations and Suggestions

"I know he has been subjected to utterly ridiculous bans and deletions on that obviously biased social interaction site. If Facebook keeps up the liberal censorship and arbitrary punishment of conservatives and creationists, it could lose the market share. It is only a matter of time before another site would step up to take their place. Remember, it didn't take long for FB to make Myspace obsolete."

— Radar, in reference to this writer

I have two aspects that I want to discuss here. First, overall Internet safety guidelines and Facebook. Second, Facebook's blatant discrimination and bullying against political Conservatives, conservative Christians, and biblical creationists.

Facebook has changed over the years. Along with other social media, they grab the rights to use your photos. But the rules change frequently, so that could be outdated and modified already. One problem is that Facebook requires people to use their real names and information. The reason that is a problem is that it is a privacy concern, and haven of identity thieves.

An article on safety for young people makes sense for everyone. More than that, Facebook is not your friend. They want too much information. Do not give it to them. Although the powers at Facebook don't like it, people use fake names (many obviously fake, even obscene) on Facebook all the time, and have multiple accounts. For some, the only possible reason for them to exist is to be offensive.

Seems like a good idea to me.

The drawbacks are that your friends cannot find you unless you tell them ahead of time. "Yes, my name is John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Look for me under Jim Smith, here's the e-mail address that I used when I signed up, search for that..." Another drawback is if Facebook catches on and says, "We think this is a fake account. Verify your name".

Then you activate your auxiliary account. Which can be a hassle if you have 500 "friends" and need to make contact all over again, convincing them that yes, it's really you under this other name. Hopefully, you used the link under "Account Settings" and backed up your information so you can keep your photos, friends list and so on.

Ironically, this was posted on Facebook. Parody of both Facebook and the old Microsoft slogan, "What do you want to do today?"

 You have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages for yourself.

No matter what, I strongly recommend that you "lock down" your settings to at least "friends only". This includes your friends list. I don't think anybody needs to know who your friends are. Even other "friends". Some people will "friend up" almost anybody, and I think that's not such a good idea. You can get spies or pretenders.

Play it safe, people! Identity theft, fake friends, stalkers and so on. Think about it.

And now, the discrimination of Facebook.

More than a few of us are becoming increasingly exasperated with the increasing bigotry, discrimination and hypocrisy of Facebook. It is without legitimate cause. As Radar said in the quote at the top of the page, this can backfire and Facebook can lose market share.

One Admin on "The Question Evolution Project", under his own name, quoted an atheist and said something to the effect of, "Nice bit of prejudicial conjecture". The poor persecuted victim complained, and the Admin was given a 12-hour ban on posting, even though his comment violated none of their "standards". The next day, in an unrelated incident, another Admin was given the same penalty for disputing with an atheopath and showing the errors of his logic. We agree that if we foul up and deserve punishment, we'll "man up" and take it. But not this injustice.

This caused me to call for a no-nonsense ban policy: Instead of trying to show where the logic failed, or the lack of civility, or whatever, people are most likely going to be banned outright. We do not need to have all of the Admins put in the "time out" corner because Facebook took the side of a diaper-filler (it's happened to other Pages I could name).  Besides, what we're about and our rules are in the "About" section. We had this reply:

This kind of nonsense happens to individuals as well as Pages.

Of course, if atheist-run Facebook wasn't so blatantly discriminatory and hypocritical, such things would not be needed. Naturally, the secularists will say, "No, it's not true", even though Christophobes and leftists are getting away with filthy content, and some names are too shameful to even write down. Edit: Hatetheists attacked me for this post, ignoring the pertinent material and instead ridiculing things that were never said. These are the kinds of people to keep out of your stuff.

I believe that quite a few people are going to jump ship when a new social media service comes along with decent features, is consistent in applying its rules and won't steal your stuff.