Hello Everyone,

I realize it has been some time since I posted an entry. But even after a year it feels like there’s so much left to do. My apartment doesn’t feel like home yet, but it is getting there. And each week that passes is more of the city I have come to know.

Today I present to everyone my recent experience with Facebook. Read on for details…

I had my Facebook account since a co-worker I considered a friend moved to Colombia. After moving to Houston my close friends I at the office created accounts to keep in touch. As they passed the word onto other co-workers most of my company had their own accounts set up.

Now, it’s no new thing for you to meet co-worker’s acquaintances outside of work and also become friends with them. This was the nature of many outings I participated in almost daily. So as more people I met joined, the more I sent a friend request to.

I had found a lot of spare time one week and was looking for something to do, so I signed into Facebook and started joining groups. Then I added a 3rd party Windows Mobile Application for my Smartphone. With-in a week my account was disabled. I appealed. Was disabled permanently the second time. So I present to you the whole discussion via Gmail conversations of the back and forth between Facebook and myself. Yes I will open another account soon with a different email address and take out time over the next few weeks rebuilding. 

I have been using your services for some time and I cannot imagine why would my account be disabled? Please look into this decision that I believe was made in err. I have lots of contacts I accumulated over the past year that I rather not lose!

Hi Nestor, Facebook has limits in place to prevent behavior that other users may find annoying or abusive. These limits restrict the rate at which you can use certain features on the site. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with the specific rates that have been deemed abusive. Your account was disabled because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions when sending friend requests, despite having been warned to slow down. However, after reviewing your situation, we have reactivated your account, and you should now be able to log in. Please be aware that if your account is disabled again, we will not be able to reactivate it. Once logged in, please slow down the rate at which you send friend requests. Please note that Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only.
This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly ‘real-world’ contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly ‘internet-only’ contacts. As stated on our home page, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you, not a ‘social networking site’. It is meant to help reinforce pre-existing social connections, not build large groups of new ones. If this is in direct contrast to what you expected as legitimate Facebook usage, I apologize for any confusion. This is simply the intention behind the site. Thanks for your understanding, Marissa User Operations Facebook

Thank you for the reactivation, but I really am clueless to any particular person I sent a friend request more than once or any particular group. I have received no warnings from facebook to slow down on requests. I just recently started networking with local groups to start getting to know people in Houston, a town that I moved into and know only a handful of people. I joined groups of similar interests hoping to start participating in local activities. Please review my account usage, and understand that this may have been a misinterpretation that would give people an unfavorable opinion of Facebook. Personally I enjoy the feel of the facebook culture and this was the only negative experience I had. Thank you.

Hi Nestor, You’re welcome. Let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks, Marissa User Operations Facebook

Marrisa! Please help!
I went to log into facebook again this morning and my account was disabled; again? Why does this keep happening? I read that offensive content is reviewed by an administrator and I have no idea why it would be removed. I am using Skybook (snap2face) does this have anything to do with it? I set the refresh times at 5 minutes when I’m logged into it on my phone. Marrisa, please let me know what’s going on it feels like when your call gets impounded and you don’t know why they did it or where they took it. 🙁

Hi Nestor, Facebook has limits in place to prevent behavior that other users may find annoying or abusive. These limits restrict the rate at which you can use certain features on the site. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with the specific rates that have been deemed abusive. Your account has been disabled because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions when sending friend requests, despite having been warned to slow down. After further review of your account, we have determined that you violated our Terms of Use by misusing our site features to harass other users. We will not be able to reactivate your account for any reason. This decision is final. Thanks for your understanding, User Operations Facebook <p markdown="1" style="padding-left:30px;color:red;">I saddens me that you have come to this conclusion. I hope this message reaches you with an understanding mind.

Your account has been disabled because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions when sending friend requests, despite having been warned to slow down.

There is no one I sent a friend invite more than once, and everyone I sent a friend request accepted. These are people that are either co-workers, clients, or family. I keep the site open on my personal computer and work laptop on the same network ( I switch between the two via KVM switch). I also have begun to use a facebook application named Skybook, formerly named Snap2Face. I have recently moved (almost a year now) to Houston, TX from Miami, FL. We all decided to use Facebook to keep in touch. I know you have to deal with a lot of people that find sport in causing mischief. I am a 30 year old man that uses Facebook to network for both personal and business reasons. I assure you that you have judged me incorrectly. You said your decision is final, and I say it is unfair. You assume that this is my wrong doing when I am telling you what factors play in my Facebook usage. I am logged in all day. I update and respond to my newsfeed. I send and reply to messages. I add (and only request once!) users that we invited to join our network. Why must I automatically be blamed here? I understand it is more time consuming to properly investigate the possibility of Facebook not working as expected or that there is a rogue application (did you even look to see if Skybook application had anything to do with this?) that may have been coded incorrectly. Don’t just write me off. Look at my Facebook usage. Notice the problem started AFTER I installed Skybook app on my Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Smartphone. And for god’s sake if no one has yet put in a request to make an official WinMo Facebook app. I shouldn’t have to just navigate to a webpage to use the site. Blackberry users and iPhone users have an native app. Look at the mess caused by using a poorly written third party app. As I mentioned, I hope for your understanding. Please look into my case. Get support involved. There’s a problem here and I don’t want to be sold short. It’s so unfair.

Hi Nestor, Please allow me to further explain your removal from the Site - your account was originally disabled because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions, despite having been warned to slow down. However, upon further review of your account activities, we determined that you were in violation of our Terms of Use. Facebook accounts are meant for personal, authentic usage only. As such, unsolicited contact, whether it be through adding friends or otherwise, with a large amount of users is strictly prohibited. It is especially prohibited when certain groups of users on the Site, who share similar physical characteristics, are targeted for this type of behavior. One of Facebook’s main priorities is the comfort and safety of our users, and this type of abuse will not be tolerated on the Site. Your account was disabled as a result of your persistent misuse of the Site features. However, the large amount of unsolicited contacts made through your account, and the nature in which they were made, have lead to the permanent removal of your account. Please be aware that this decision is absolutely final. Thanks, Marissa User Operations Facebook

Facebook is a private company that provides a public service. Because of this I am leaving this alone. The true party responsible for this is probably already doing the same to other users as what was done with my account. And your toss the baby out with the washwater, short-sighted, response will screw them over as you have done me. I hope you enjoy your work and your lack of responsibility in the way you handle it. Good day.

Hi Nestor, Once again we apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding of our security policy. Thanks, Marissa User Operations Facebook

Recent message I sent to Facebook staff after creating an alias account I disabled after use…

I had to get developer information that wrote an application that caused my actual account to be disabled. Since it was easier to permanently deactivate my account than to actually look into the cause of the problem I no longer have my facebook account. This is the attitude I got from generic responses from the appeals department. I have found out that the application refresh time is too frequent and counted as spam. Mind you, the automated Your account has been disabled email states that I received warnings that never happened and that I was the one generating this spam as if I was some malicious user. Your appeals department really has poor customer service since they just disregarded my legitimate request for investigation. Email me at nestor.spam@gmail.com (this is my spam filter and forwards to my actual email) if you wish to discuss further with actual intentions to look into the issue and not some generic blow-off such as the ones I received from your appeals department.

So we’ll see where this goes.

April 2008

No luck at all, I’ve been using a new account for the past several months. So a bit of advice to everyone out there; make sure that anything you have in FB you keep a copy of. Please feel free to share your experiences if anything like this happened to you. As you can see I lost my account. So please don’t bother asking how can you get yours back. Everything I tried is listed here!