Disabled by Facebook

I feel as if there’s a force field that’s sucking me deeper and deeper into Facebook. (Although there was a temporary setback when my account was disabled for excessive evangelism, if-you-know-what-I-mean.)

The whole Facebook apps thing was the crowning touch. Facebook as a “platform” is the most interesting development platform since Macintosh. To wit, I want to learn how many “friends” my readers have at Facebook, so please complete this poll.

Comments

[Matt]

Why is there a surplus of people commenting on this that believe they are reading this at facebook, am i missing something??

Facebook has a history of being elitist snobs. Period. From when it was Zuckerburg struggling to replant his company in the Valley up until now with suspending accounts because you apply for too many jobs in a row... wtf is that, honestly?? Don't make up excuses for that stuff people. you own your life and time, and you should use a website that respects what you want to do with your time, and you shouldn't have to deal with the elitist bigotry that you expose yourself to at facebook. (yes, expose *yourself*... you are not being forced to go there.)

p.s. Kevin Rose could kick Mark Zuckerbergs ass. :) hehehe.

[nico alexander]

To Facebook,

I understand that my account has been disabled for "misuse" of the site. I wonder if you could be more specific about what act in question was responsible for my account's deactivation. I looked over the Terms of Use page and could not find a specific rule that I had abused to the point of warranting such suspension.

I realize that over the course of usage, some of my friend requests, etc. may be unsolicited but I imagine that is the point of many of these features as Facebook is not only a place for friends to connect online, but to make new friends as well. As there is a limit to the number of friend requests made at any one time, I'm not sure what constitutes abuse in this regard.

I don't mean to cause any hassle or trouble, but I would appreciate any further clarirication available on this issue. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Sincerely
Nico
Indonesia
___________________________________________________________
Hi Nico,

Your account has been disabled for misuse of the site. It is a
violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use to harass users on the site,
whether through unsolicited messages, friend requests, pokes or other
features. We will not be able to reactivate your account for any
reason. This decision is final.

Thanks for your understanding,

Patrick
Customer Support Representative
Facebook
___________________________________________________________

p/s:
I am sorry to be so annoyed, but really the facebook is the only way that i could communicate with my family members. I just lost my beloved daddy. He died from Heart attack. What i do is always showing to my family members, my mum, my sister & brother on what i can do with my page to make them a smile. They are all in overseas. Please give me the last chance that i can log on. I really love my family very much. :(

Sincerely,
Nico
Indonesia

can someone help me
vip_jakarta@hotmail.com

[nico alexander]

To Facebook,

I understand that my account has been disabled for "misuse" of the site. I wonder if you could be more specific about what act in question was responsible for my account's deactivation. I looked over the Terms of Use page and could not find a specific rule that I had abused to the point of warranting such suspension.

I realize that over the course of usage, some of my friend requests, etc. may be unsolicited but I imagine that is the point of many of these features as Facebook is not only a place for friends to connect online, but to make new friends as well. As there is a limit to the number of friend requests made at any one time, I'm not sure what constitutes abuse in this regard.

I don't mean to cause any hassle or trouble, but I would appreciate any further clarirication available on this issue. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Sincerely
Nico
Indonesia
___________________________________________________________
Hi Nico,

Your account has been disabled for misuse of the site. It is a
violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use to harass users on the site,
whether through unsolicited messages, friend requests, pokes or other
features. We will not be able to reactivate your account for any
reason. This decision is final.

Thanks for your understanding,

Patrick
Customer Support Representative
Facebook
___________________________________________________________

p/s:
I am sorry to be so annoyed, but really the facebook is the only way that i could communicate with my family members. I just lost my beloved daddy. He died from Heart attack. What i do is always showing to my family members, my mum, my sister & brother on what i can do with my page to make them a smile. They are all in overseas. Please give me the last chance that i can log on. I really love my family very much. :(

Sincerely,
Nico
Indonesia

can someone help me
vip_jakarta@hotmail.com

[James Kesn]

I got ban when my friend did an account for me because we add everyone the same night and we hit the maximum friends for today. I think they filter everyone that hit this maximum.

[darren]

i got disabled from facebook for sending to many messages, how long will it be disabled

[erkek arkadaş]

they make disable accounts without any information.
if you give some blog address in forum topics,
your account will be cancelled.

[Facebookster]

Facebookster - We can provide a full range of facebook application strategy, design, development and marketing for your business. Our service offerings will allow you to maximize and leverage the facebook social graph of 32+ Million users.

We have been providing new media strategy, consulting and development for Fortune 100 Clients & Start-ups for several years. Our team of consultants, project managers and programmers are intimately familiar with the DNA of facebook and how to build an application that meets your business requirements.
www.facebookster.com or www.facebookster.net

[a]

Have more than 250 contacts in FB and have recently wondered about privacy aspects of the service. Whole thing looks more and more strange when more information about problems with system are told at many places in web. Just to hope that things don't get to bad side...

[Alain]

I got my account suspended for sending too many messages to people. I guess they don't want to be used in lieu of MSN...

It was back up within 48 hours.

[jason]

I responded to 6 job postings and Facebook disabled my account because they said I responded to to many jobs in to short of a time

FACE BOOK IS A JOKE and this really angers me because not only does it effect me but my whole family and all my friends I think face book is is run by arrogance or stupidity or both.

I have emailed the every day since its been 5 days now and they haven't responded other than an automated message saying that they were looking into it.

NOT HAPPY WITH FACEBOOK!!

[lili]

my facebook has been disabled for 2 days now
for joining my hs network..
can someone plz help me out on how to get it back
plzzz

[Tara Fitz]

I was disabled last night for trying to join my highschool's network, i'm not exactly sure why i was diasbled though, Is there anyway to get your facebook back?

Please let me Know..

[alyssa]

Hi

I dont know why I got disabled but its really starting to bother me I really enjoy how i can just send a message and if someone sends one back you can get it when your on, but ya I have no idea how my facebook got disabled but I would really like to get it back if not il be very disapointed

thanx

[Chris Brinkworth]

Your disable page is different to mine! My screengrab has spelling mistakes and the frustration of a 'help' link that doesnt work.

http://chrisbrinkworth.com/digital/media/?p=17 for the screengrab (halfway down the post).

Have you got a correct link in your history anywhere for me? :-/

[Chris Stone]

hey i got disabled from facebook for adding too many friends, am i able to ever get my account back?

[Anna]

You've got 1477 friends at Facebook, Guy. :)

[Johnson]

I find no use in social networks. They are just a big waste of time. I also don't want everyone on the net to know who I am, what I like, what I dislike, what my politics are, etc.

[jess]

My account got disabled for not connecting to a network quick enough.. Does anyone know how i can return my page? cheers

[Dwayne Melancon]

Guy, I *had* an account out there but turned it off myself. When I first got on FB, it let me search for friends from my high school and everyone it connected me to was *currently* going to my high school (I left there over 20 years ago - no thanks)

I get along much better with LinkedIn.

[tamar]

suggest you consider disabling facebook. excellent reasons at Time Goes By --

Facebook = Elder Hatebook
http://www.timegoesby.net/2007/07/facebook-elde-1.html

Facebook/Hatebook Responses
http://www.timegoesby.net/2007/07/facebookhateboo.html

[Binh Zientek]

I did laugh at Facebook at first, but 1 month into my membership, I am hooked. All of my 'friends' are people who I knew prior to joining Facebook anyway, but it is a convenient way to keep in contact with everyone and keep them updated. Also as a business person, Facebook allows me to create adverts for my business on my profile for free.
I also like all the different applications like a free gift, writing on walls, virtual hugging. It is mad but fun.

Binh Zientek
http://www.qualitylondonapartments.co.uk
http://www.qualitycityapartments.com

[Alex Dodge]

If you want to be able to interpret the results, the range for each answer should be the same. As it is, the first two have a range of 10 and 15, but the third one has a range of 25. Assuming a perfectly random distribution, the first two results will each be about half as big as the third.

[Britlee Williams]

My page was disabled by facebook and I dont even know why.Facebook was the only way for my to communicating with my friend who was in a terrible car accident and if you would so ever be so kind to turn my page back on please and thank you!

[Peter Urban]

Guy, did you see the facebook developer keynote?

I was ready to sign up and create my account but here is how I felt after seeing the video of the key note.

I usually don't criticize people publicly like that but come on, enough is enough...

Having worked for Steve you should probably give the kid some lessons how to get the spoof right ;-)

[David Mullings]

Facebook won't replace blogging, it well make it even more popular. I import my blog into Facebook automatically as 'Notes' and that has increased my readership and more importantly, raised my profile in terms of business understanding.

Facebook can be many things to many people, to me it is simply a way for me to achieve my dream of being a role model to other people, especially young people.

I did not join FB to reconnect with friends I already knew, I went there to find new friends with common interests - namely business and investing.

I have much more in common with many of my new 'friends' than I do with my old friends.

I have even you, Guy Kawasaki, as a friend and currently my profile picture is the cover of your book with the following comment: "Planning on starting a venture? Read this first, trust me."

I have connected with VCs, Angel investors, fellow start-ups, and so forth from the US, UK, Australia and India - that is why FB is great for me.

BTW, I was born in 1981 and grew up in Jamaica.

[Gen X On Facebook]

Kay: There is a group on Facebook which is made up of people who know that definitely is not spelt with an A. I am not making this up!

I think there should be one that stands for acquaintance being spelt with a 'c' before 'q', and one which tells people that 'its' is a possessive pronoun and it is not the same as 'it is', which when shortened is 'it's' (see positioning of apostrophe?). So get on board 'with' not 'about' with grammar and who knows you may make some really smart friends?

[Kay]

I initially thought some of my PRESENT friends were insane with 20 minute drunken rambles about how wonderful facebook was. I then signed up and for us Gen X or Gen Y people (whatever you want to call the 20-something generation). It is a wonderful way to get in touch with long lost friends/aquaintances. And while some argue that the people you facebook with are not your "real" friends. Some of them most definately are real friends just seperated by distance and time. Through facebook I was coerced (convinced/nagged etc ;) ) to attend my 10 year high school reunion and I am so incredibly glad that I did. It was a coming home. Likewise meeting up with my college friends that unbeknownced to me happen to moved to a city that I travel through regularily. It hasn't changed my daily life that much but for anyone who values nostalgia, and or likes to have trippy coffee/dinner/movie/hiking dates with old friends and relive memories and catch up... that is what it plays on, and is its worth.

Is it rather a glorified addressbook and e-mail listing? I feel that way sometimes but I'm just glad to have some of those addresses I wouldn't have had otherwise.

Although I am on board about too many facebook applications, I refuse for example to load the "top friends", "zombies", or "mood" application no matter how many times I am invited.

I value the get-in-touch it has given me for the time being. I have even started old-fashioned e-mailing with afew people who are willing. That way if they get bored of facebook we will still be able to keep in touch. I'm not banking on it being an everlasting trend but for now. Its rocking my socks off!

[Jeff Scurry]

This post continually crashed a friend's machine. I think it just goes along with what we were thinking - LinkedIn = serious business minded networking site; Facebook = computer crasher.

[Chris Wilson]

Did everyone hear the news that Facebook acquired Parakey, which is a start-up from the founders of Firefox? They are developing an internet based operating system. Hmm... does that put the recent platform developments at Facebook in a different light? It does for me.

I recently posted about this press release. http://freshpeel.com/2007/07/facebook-adds-the-firefox-boys-to-the-team/

[Richard Hong]

I don't know what you mean neither!

I'm surprised the result from the poll. I just graduated from uni and about 90% (I guess) ppl in my uni are using facebook. I prefer the old version which don't have much fancy stuff but only messages and walls. Now it's getting more and more complicated and kind of moving towards Myspace (I will never use that in my life).

[Dale Flannery]

No-I-don't-know-what-you-mean.

Perhaps a gratuitous explanation for GK newbies might me me feel less excluded by my ignorance of the unspoken.

tanks

[Dan Buell]

I have played with Facebook a couple of times and although I appreciate the various applications but I still struggle to understand the value. The pages look sloppy and it's difficult to really organize anything...

[Queen of Suburbia T-Shirts]

In my own limited experience facebook is more about connecting old friends than making new ones. It's a walled garden in the most personal sense.

[Amusis]

If they are on Facebook, they are not your friends. they are strangers like you, living artificial lives, hiding their reality behind aliases and avatars. Real friends speak to you from across the room or over the phone.

[Charles Martineau]

I subscribed early at facebook when it was first launched... but never really used until the past few months. For me it's only good to keep in touch with old buddies that normally I would not care much..hehe..

[Alex]

Oops! The URL is not completely visible. Here it is again Facebook Poll

[Alex]

With so many polls about facebook, why not run one inside facebook itself:

http://apps.facebook.com/pollection/poll.php?guid=139774d46c17a9bb6b1a403c1bd99960

[Judson]

Hmm, thats odd. This post exclusively is crashing NewsFire whenever I try to bring it into safari.
Yes, facebook is very addictive.

[Andrew Wooldridge]

you might want to bump up the numbers on the poll. it doesn't seem to take the average college student into account. facebook was started for college kids, and while it is expanding to other demographics most of the users are still in college.

based on my circle of friends i'd estimate that at least 80% of college students in the US have facebook. and the majority of these students will have 200+ friends, minimum. i have 386 friends, and that's on the low side of average.

to get a better idea of how many friends people really have i'd change the numbers to:

<50
50-100
100-150
150-500
500-1000
1000+

it'd give a better overview of college students, at least.

[Abhishek]

Guy,

I really hope you are building the Truemors app for FaceBook.

I seriously believe that there could be strong potential for your service in that space. Especially in the news feeds section.

Abhishek

[Soso Sazesh]

It seems like a lot of your readers do not use Facebook.

[greg]

Terry > Facebook is a nice tool but I don't believe it will replace blogging

[william]

I was building a site that is invitation only. It was launched on 4th or July and only my friends and family are using it right now, but it gets 1000 hits per day after 4 days (I have about 20 people there. Most of these people never heard of MySpace or FaceBook, not to mention having created an account. Please don't try to hit site right now since it can barely handle the limited few members, plus it is invitation only for now. You can leave your email and I will see if I can move the site to better handle the traffic. Well, the idea is simple:

1. No one need to sign up an account.
2. Most communication are based on good old email system.
3. You can create different circles of friends that you interact with. Just like the real world, you have many circles of friends and they might or might not know each others and you would keep it that way.
4. You interact with your friends by exchanging any kinds of digital media. (Photos, videos, mp3, text, embedded html snippets like YouTube or anything that you can describe using HTML).

I feel kinda excited that all my non-websavvy friends and family are enjoying interacting with each other without even knowing MySpace or FaceBook. And they don't even need to create account and remembering password.

[Tyler]

As a college student working on campus, my daily schedule when I arrive at my office is:

1) Say hi to desk people
2) Check Facebook
3) Check work email
4) Actually work

I wonder if facebook somehow programs your computer to spray LSD on you everything you login in... I really need my fix now...

[Megan]

Being a college student, I have seen that majority of people (at my university) are FB friends with people they have meet in class, parties, etc. I've found that it is a site where students can connect, communicate and build/maintain relationships. It isn't about the number of friends you have, but rather keeping in contact with the friends you have and the friends you make.

The whole original push for FB was that it was for college students. Myspace seemed immature at the time because anyone could have a site, and your friends were mostly people you didn't even know. I'm worried that FB is turning into a second myspace with all the new applications. It has gotten creepy!

[liquid06]

@ Marilyn - I use Live Journal and I really like it. I stayed away from MySpace after trying it for awhile then becoming frustrated with the bad design, people's annoying profiles and threatening comments from my ex.

I would personally rather put my hours into a writing-style site than a profile-meet-people type site because I tend to be a not-so-social person in real life. Therefore I've been on Virb - with no friends that I actually know - blogger, wordpress, livejournal, flickr and deviantart.

In the case of Virb and LiveJournal, friends almost don't become so much "friends" as they are "content providers." YouTube lets you "subscribe" and they call it subscribing to video channels - adding friends on a social network seems like the same thing to me. Not adding them because you like them or because you are friends in real life but because they provide and create content that's interesting to you.

I think that online, we're not making friends, we're making extensions of ourselves (what whe think and what we like) in a selfish network of content syndication.

My 2 cents.

[Tiffany]

I am sure you'll find your college and newly graduated crowd are those with the most Facebook friends. We're who they started out marketing to. Advertising genius.

I agree that what they've been doing lately is pretty revolutionary, but I wonder if all the bells and whistles will tire with people. I'm already a little Facebooked out. In my observation, I saw many people add and then delete applications in the first few weeks they were offered. Time will tell.

[Brian]

I've been sucked in as well. Kind of took the wind out of my LinkedIn interest, though that is still a useful app. My 300 friends are all legit, and have generated their share of biz leads as well. I almost got busted for pirating friends from business related sites... I thought it was all fair game, since they were obviously using FB to phish for business leads.

[roy]

Hi!

if this blog is about changing the world - also check this site:
www.solicko.com/TheMillionDollarProject

[James]

Facebook is addictive! I have around 200 friends!

[Weefz]

Yep, the poll is definitely on the low side. Between college friends, school friends, previous work friends and current work friends, my flatmate managed to rack up 74 friends that she knows IRL in just 2 days.

[djsurge]

Seems it's the time to talk about facebook in the blogosphere. Readwrite web ran a poll on users as well:

Poll
Sweet spot seems to be 100-500.

Cheers,
Sergei

[Steven C.]

In regards to the number of Facebook friends, the sweet spot that I've observed among my undergrad and recent grad buddies is about 75 - 250 friends. What I find interesting (and very annoying) is the "friend-whoring" behavior that I saw on MySpace is starting to make its way onto Facebook. (By "friend-whoring", I mean people who add complete strangers as friends for the sole purpose of padding their friends list)
What happens when all the "social networking connections" end up being hollow?

[Simon]

Damned, I read your post. stoped by at facebook. lost 2hours. incredible

[Robert Scoble]

I have more than 3,400 friends on Facebook. I'll add anyone who wants to be my friend.

What did you do to get kicked off?

[Nickolas Greising]

So Good-Guy ticked off the Zuckermeister. I too am becoming enthralled with the Facebook concept. Maybe because I boycotted Newscorp's neglected step child due to excessive questionable video advertisements.

[DT]

Hmm, Guy, it could be you might have breached their T&C of which I cant figure out why. Personally I got my account disabled cos I did not use my real name but they were very quick to rectify it.

Have you tried contacting facebook?

[Marilyn Scott-Waters]

Well Jeepers, I have 115 friends on LiveJournal and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Then again, no one uses Live Journal do they?

Best thoughts,

Marilyn

[Kraft]

I agree that the poll options seem low. I'm not an excessive user--checking it as needed or about twice a week otherwise-- and I have 515 friends.

I've been using it, though, since 2004 and spent a couple years of college on Facebook. Now, I'm working in campus ministry so my real-life network all uses Facebook as their primary online network.

What we have seen is organizational websites and mailing listserves are now not nearly as important as Facebook. One particular group's listserve became a little over-senstive to spam (blocking or creating very long delays before delivery), so now Facebook is the official time-sensitive message delivery system to organization members. E-mail is still used, but if they want to ensure delivery, the organization uses Facebook.

While the analogy to AOL may be true, the major difference in Facebook is that it is not a lone shark in primarly a fee-based system. Facebook, while huge, still has MySpace to fight with and in the social networking industry, a new "Friendster" could pop up and knock it out if they don't stay ahead of the curve. Money exchanges occur on Facebook, but I think the majority of users haven't used those features.

That being said, I don't think the Apps platform is that incredibly exciting. A fine addition to Facebook, but the next Mac? Eh.

[Charlie]

The ranges for your survey seem a bit low. Almost everyone I know on Facebook has at least 100 'friends'. I have around 90 now. Obviously most of those people aren't friends, more like acquaintances, some of them not even that.

I find it a very handy alternative to emailing now

I personally find the applications slightly annoying. Most of them are just gimmicks. Hopefully people will quickly lose interest with the applications and it will go back to being a very simple, intuitive networking site.

[Facebook Marketing]

Facebook is insanely addicting guy. I've added so many facebook friends that facebook has banned my account numerous times. I often email them telling them that without it I might revert to MySpace or collecting Star Wars figurines. They usually re-instate my account within a few hours - honestly. My website TreasureFriendships.com seeks to help people monetize their profiles. Just like how payperpost or reviewme pay bloggers to post content, we connect advertisers and people to post on their profiles! Check it out and let me know what you think.

[Alex]

I think your poll stops a bit short... since I have ~60, most of my friends have around the same or more, and I can think of at least two with over 400 friends.

I'm also curious to see the poll results, but I can only see the ajax loading gif after having voted.

[Steve Herder]

Guy,

You've piqued my curiosity! Could you explain "excessive evangelism" if even by a quickie little addendum to your next post.

Suffering in Osaka, Japan,

Steve

[andrew h]

more facebook shenanigans...
yet you never responded to my linkedin friend request, sheesh. will you be my facebook friend?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592572078

[patricia]

Help me understand Facebook. I seem to be missing something. I mean, it just doesn't do anything, that I can see, but yet people talk about it like it's the ultimate... whatever, whatever. I just don't get that...it just seems one dimensional and lifeless to me. My 19 year old niece loves it, is that the problem? Do you have to be really young? I've found MySpace to be much better for networking on a specific topic. So again, what am I missing. BTW, Twitter too, don't get it.

[Bill Batten]

Hey, am an almost 55 year old guy who joined Facebook two days ago because Guy responded to my email and asked that I visit his truemors.com Facebook app. Never dreamed I'd join Facebook, but like Dr. Cialdini's book says (Influence), the urge to reciprocate is a powerful force.

So now I'm in Facebook along with my two sons and in a Group! The truemors Facebook app links in nicely to Facebook. Yo, shout out to Guy - how about establishing a Guy Kawasaki's Gang group on Facebook?

[justin]

This facebook hype is .. er .. hype. Think about the implications of suggesting everyone who matters should move their affairs to their little walled garden. One company, one API (and a very limited one), one point of failure. No way! It is AOL all over again and it is strange that it has fooled smart people who did not fall for the AOL walled safe garden philosophy.
Facebook is clean and works right now because it is at maximum development velocity just now, the API is new, no legacy stuff, they are on top of their hardware needs. But this won't last forever, it is a "facehoneymoon".
I for one am going to wait until you guys come back from the all-you-can-eat cruise to face the small apartment with the washing, the screaming baby, and have to hold down a real job to pay the rent.
Even the mighty google is having some difficulty with reality, judging from todays results.

[teknokracy]

I'm actually disappointed with the apps part of Facebook. Originally, it was just a great place to network with friends, exchange pictures, find people's contact info (I use it often as an address book of sorts, if I can't remember someone's address or phone number), and just generally communicate with people. Once the apps were introduced, the focus became the apps. Now, we are steering towards having another Myspace, where annoying songs begin playing as you visit someone's page, and it takes 30 minutes to load. Really, the simplicity of Facebook was it's crowning touch, and that doesn't seem to be a priority for the developers anymore.

[Terry]

Hi

Facebook will replace blogging as the ultimate tool to properly connect with people. It’s not like you have to be an A-list blogger to be popular. Facebook is so much more than a blog. It is the ultimate relationship tool. But the trick is to decide who your real friends are.

Will you be my facebook friend?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=672606517

Ciao!!