Another Example of Why Facebook is the Abusive Trailer Park Husband of the Internet

This has just gotten silly.

Check the date. That comment was from a month and a half ago.  Basically if you ever attract the attention of an unscrupulous jackass, they can simply go through all your old posts and report everything as hate speech. Then Facebook, being a bunch of morons, will automatically, unthinkingly, reflexively block you.

I’ve been banned from Facebook a bunch of times now.  I believe that comment was me complaining about their dippy censorship (and was when I started investigating MeWe, because I really was tired of FB’s Junior Orwellian bullhsit) where anything a conservative or libertarian says Violates Community Standards and needs Snopes to fact check it, but anything a progressive or a socialist says is just great, even when they are literally threatening to murder you.

A month after I posted that comment above, I caught my first Facebook ban for hate speech, My crime? Pretending to be from one imaginary country of proud (but genocidal) sandwich makers, and insulting another imaginary country.  https://monsterhunternation.com/2019/08/13/another-example-why-facebook-is-super-dumb/

It was obviously the stupid Facebook bots, but my fans had a lot of fun with it.

But then, I caught another 3 day ban immediately after, and this is where our story starts to get nefarious:  https://monsterhunternation.com/2019/08/16/banned-again-facebook-gets-even-dumber-part-iii-the-saga-continues/

Because that one wasn’t bots with dumb code, that was a bunch of prog scumbags realizing that if they report my posts to Facebook, I just get auto blocked. We’ve even got screen shots of them bragging about it.

So I’ve been catching FB bans ever since, always for goofy crap. I got a 3 day ban last week. Why?  For talking about a scumbag  (Mike Glyer) who was pirating another author (said scumbag happens to own the same scumbag website where we got the last screen cap of them bragging about reporting me).

And the ban wasn’t even for the mean post where I actually insulted the pirate scumbag a bunch:

https://monsterhunternation.com/2019/09/16/another-example-why-i-think-mike-glyer-is-a-simpering-feculent-and-his-shitty-gossip-column-website-file-770-is-the-prolapsed-anus-of-fandom/

Oh no. That would make at least a little bit of sense. The ban was for a brief post the day before, where I tagged the author who was getting pirated to ask him for more info.  Pirating authors? Not a problem. Standing up to the scumbag doing the pirating? Violation of community standards.

And then today. Because apparently saying Facebook is Orwellian, will cause them to act Orwellian. Because hate speech? Or something. Hell if I know.

Basically what it comes down to is that if you ever come to the attention of scumbags, they can silence you on Facebook just by reporting all your posts. It doesn’t matter how innocuous the posts are, Facebook is stupid. I highly doubt any thinking humans ever actually look at any of this stuff.  Meanwhile, you can recruit child brides for ISIS terrorists while chanting death to the Jews, and Facebook says that’s totally cool. So it’s a teensy bit lopsided in its application.

It’s the Heckler’s Veto, only even more anonymous.  If you give a powerless chickenshit the ability to silence people they don’t like, without risk or repercussions, they’re  gonna use that power. It’s also a really good example of how Red Flag laws will inevitably be abused.

Like I said when I first started catching all these bans, I figure my days on Facebook are numbered. When mini painting posts are now Hate Speech, and pictures of my dog are Bullying. It is only a matter of time until I catch a perma-ban.

Now, I could do that silly thing where people make up fake EH accounts, but screw that. Facebook makes money off of me and my fans. I’m not going to reward them by working around their obnoxious bullshit, so that they can continue to mine our data.

The sad thing is that I spent years building up a fan base there. I’ve got one of the biggest and best (and actually functioning!) author fan pages on the internet.  And during most of that time, Facebook wasn’t too stupid.  It was bearably obnoxious.

But the stupid is becoming increasingly aggressive.  Now people want to leave, but they feel stuck. I’m not alone in this. Most content creators are in the same boat. We congregated our people there because it was convenient and then we became complacent. Now they think they own us, and can do whatever they want with impunity, because content creators don’t want to move away from where their fans are. So the abusive trailer park husband makes leaving hard, because he doesn’t hit you all the time, and he used to love you, and somebody needs to think of the kids.

I’m sure I’ve made a lot of sales off of Facebook.  Heck, my Book Bombs, most of the traffic for those comes from Facebook shares. And those are usually (by orders of magnitude) the biggest sales days of those authors’ careers.

So we stay in the abusive relationship with the incoherent alcoholic who occasionally beats us,  because of inertia.  And that’s just sad.

I’ve been transitioning more of my stuff over to MeWe. We’ve got a couple thousand people in the fan page over there now. But again, the sucky part of that is abandoning  a decade of community building and content. People don’t want to leave.

Here’s the thing though, the way things are going, you aren’t going to have a choice.  People like me are getting hit right now because the nail that sticks up has to be nailed down. I’m only a minor notable. (seriously, writer is like the lowest form of celebrity, right below Instagram gun bunny). But if random scumbags can control our ability to speak, it’s only a matter of time before they do it to everybody else.

So Facebook can either get its crap together, or let the Heckler’s Veto become their defacto working model. However, since Facebook is a giant evil megacorporation that only cares about prying into your life to sell your info to advertisers and to influence elections, good luck with that.

It’s a free market, Facebook is free to suck all they want, and we are free to leave once they become unbearable.

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74 thoughts on “Another Example of Why Facebook is the Abusive Trailer Park Husband of the Internet”

  1. Facebook will not get its act together. It will go the way of Twitter (“Isn’t that something my DAD does?”) or MySpace.

    1. “It will go the way of Twitter.”

      You mean President Donald J. Trump’s usage will be the only thing keeping it going? 😛

      1. MeWe is a bit of a pain in the rear sometimes, but at least it’s not actively trying to screw people over.

      2. Nah, all the SJZ proto-nazis are all there, Trump for some bizarre reason gets a kick out of stirring the pot. Of course, I get most of my impressions of Twitter from the mainstream press, and what I see on another creators webpage. For some reason, he foolishly posts stuff from Twitter on his content page. Some of it is from him, some stuff just seems like random embarrassing posts. But the posts from him that have enough info to sort-of understand have been getting progressively more “progressive” and brainless. Which only reinforces my long held opinion that if you aren’t already a Twit when you JOIN Twitter, staying there apparently turns you INTO one. NOT doing it.

  2. That darned Facebook interface works so smoothly it’s hard to accept MeWe’s clunky UI…
    OTOH, it is nice to know that the trolls aren’t going to be able to call mommy on us and spoil our fun.
    I’ve been in both places for three years and realize that Suckerberg really doesn’t have a place for our team.. but it was SOOO easy to navigate there.

    1. MeWe’s UI isn’t that clunky once you get used to it. The problem is that it looks enough like Facebook that the tendency is to try to navigate it the same way.

  3. Been slowly working towards migrating all my stuff off of Facebook: writing snippets, my Aurora Borealis photos (along with photos of family, hunting photos, etc). I haven’t yet caught a Facebook ban (and am quite surprised I haven’t), but you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind’s blowing. Especially when you’re standing downwind from the manure plant.

  4. ‘Now people want to leave, but they feel stuck. I’m not alone in this. Most content creators are in the same boat. ”

    Yep. Small businesses too — my FB page is the main way my business communicates with the community of customers.

  5. I’m still trying to get used to MeWe.

    Does MeWe have any way of reaching additional people if a person manages to do something clever? I noticed it defaulted to “contacts” so I changed that to public. Beyond that, does anyone know how to grow a network there? Advice?

    1. MeWe will always default to more privacy over less, which is part of their clunkiness. You have to make yourself public and have to make sure your posts are shareable and public. Beyond that, unfortunately you grow the network the old-fashioned way. Connect with new people, join groups, participate, make posts on your wall and in groups (also a pain, but not without reason, because they don’t want you to spam so you can’t share something to 5 places at once.)
      For as long as you’re on Facebook, the best way to help yourself grow on MeWe and to help grow the platform at the same time is to post a teaser on FB and link to MeWe in first comment.
      On the bright side, even though MeWe is much smaller, it has many people who have either never been to Facebook or quit Facebook years ago, so you get new eyeballs for your content as well, and probably from people who are more in tune with your values to begin with.

  6. Oh, I’d been thinking of putting more content (read: cranky commentary about politics) on my blog and linking that from MeWe, sort of try a hybrid approach. Does this seem like a workable thing? To maybe even get back a bit to blog based stuff after having so much trouble with Facebook seeming to fail to show posts to links to outside websites.

      1. And from me. I’m also a fan of your stuff.

        (I’ve been on MeWe for a while, but keep forgetting to post there.

        1. Hey, this is a great opportunity to repeat…

          Folks, when you go to MeWe and send contact requests to people, make sure that there is something on your own page that lets everyone know that you’re not a spam/scam account. Linking to one of Larry’s posts, that sort of thing.

          Thank you!

          😀

          1. Be aware that some of the Usual Suspects joined MeWe after Larry mentioned it on his blog. Update your block lists accordingly.

  7. This is surprising. Surprisingly polite, that is. I don’t even recall reading even one of Carlin’s Maginficent Seven in the entire article.

    Are you feeling well, Larry?

      1. Perhaps you’re moderating your language for fear of corrupting that adorable puppy of yours. Those oh so cute and delicate ears!

  8. I’ve hated facebook since I first saw it some ten years ago. Honestly, I hope it gets a thousand times worse. The only reason I use it is to keep track of my friends. Hell, I’ve never even visited your facebook page, because you post everything I really care about here. So, the sooner everyone abandons that POS the sooner I can stop torturing my eyeballs with it.

  9. Facebook is free to use . . . and sometimes stuff is free ‘cos it’s nice to share . . . and sometimes free stuff works because if you give a little you can a little (or even a lot) back . . . but . . . sometimes free stuff is worth what you pay for it . . . and sometimes it comes with a very high price tag.

  10. There is an Internet Cartel right now. The major Tech giants who run Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Paypal, among others, all work with each other and communicate over what voices are authorized.

    Like him or not, but the best example of this is when Alex Jones got banned. Within 24 hours he was banned from nearly every public platform. While that isn’t absolute actionable, legal proof of an unlawful monopoly, it is a big smoking gun.

    1. Yeah, as Gab has already found out, MeWe is going to discover that unless it can build its’ own internet and banking system, it’s going to have to do at least some censorship.

      At this point, I’m hoping for either some serious anti-trust action or just having someone rule that they are in fact publishers who can be sued unless they give up on censorship.

  11. vk.com (russian clone of facebook) is much less restrictive than facebook. Interface is very facebook-like, and one can set the menus to English.

    I expect saying bad things about VVP would cause problems, but that’s not a problem for someone from Texas.

  12. They mine your personal chat logs too. Soon as the boyfriend and I started using words like “marriage” and “wedding” in our conversations, guess what 95% of my ad recommendations ended up being? I guess they didn’t read the part where I said “I don’t like diamonds,” though. Seriously creeping me out. It sucks though, because Messenger is my favorite chat interface.

      1. If you had read Ghost you would know that a ring gag is safer than a ball gag.

        All together, now: “Oh John Ringo Nooo!!

  13. Gab also works, and allows free speech (at least, better than Freakbook, Twitbrain or any similar Technocracy site). If MeWe goes socialist in the future, please consider giving Gab a try.

  14. The only reason I’ve not killed off my Facebook account is author feeds like yours, Ringo, Williamson etc. And since I barely even check those anymore… Once again, less reason to use their site.

    Last time I checked it still takes 90 days to terminate your account on Facebook as it is. Just did a search on that, as of March 2018 not even sure it’s still there.

    You can also download your account if you want, That may have changed as well.

  15. I started using discord last few weeks. Really like how it works.

    Sadly though only thing keeping me on fb is my friends and i make a lot of sales. I also.am a fb advertiser and i still get bans.

  16. Since Sugarmountain (translation of the founder’s name) announced that FB is a publisher and not a social media or whatever else thing it was, he says that they can censor and “not publish” anything they want.

    I know. You are as surprised about that as I am. 😐 I’m at MeWe, since they let me use my author name and not my Day Job/ Non-fiction name.

    Bummer about the mess, and about losing a really good FB presence, Larry.

  17. That creepy wanker Zuck owns Instagram as well. And with him declaring Faceplant a Publisher in order to avoid consequences for biased censoring of a platform, he loses all the protection from lawsuits. Any post or comment that they “published” they can now be held accountable for. Any comments that hurt your business, caused you anxiety, etc… I hope a million people and entities file lawsuits immediately! Watch their stock plummet and their users mass-migrate!

  18. While I appreciate the opportunity to sign up for the email notifications, I must respectfully decline. Since spam mail became such an issue, and any and all organizations constantly want to update me of their content, I basically only check my email when someone calls my phone and tells me that their message is there and I should check it. Luckily, I like this content and enjoy Larry’s writing ( I am the guy you consulted for a potential elevator scene in MHI back in the day. ) so
    I just check this site about once a day for new content. No reminder needed. If Jack needs me for a stat-counter to judge the effectiveness of the email campaign, just count me as +1.

  19. FB? Never use it. Let the account run idle several years ago and use blockers to limit its loading without explicit permission.

    BTW: I didn’t mind the pop-up asking me to sign up for mailings, but I did mind it leaving me in “Please Wait” mode interminably. O even disabled all of the ad blockers and script blockers in both my primary browsers (a process rather like a late-70s sitcom scene of a New York apartment dweller undoing the door locks) and still couldn’t get enrolled! I Want My E-mail Notifications!!!

      1. BTW: That person above is NOT RES; I don’t know how he stole my screen icon. Never met the person, don’t want to meet the person, that person is probably a telemarketer.

  20. That pop-up subscription request is still active on my other browser, so if this doesn’t fix it I will simply tolerate the extra click required to close it. My regrets for all whose time reading this has been wasted like a Facebook user’s privacy.

  21. I run my own blog on a shared-server webhost. Even this wasn’t enough control for me, when, recently, they screwed it all up when “upgrading” their server. Now I’m migrating to Linode, and will finish when I’ve got my own mailservers set up and tuned in on the Linode instance. (I expect they won’t screw with the contents of a virtual-private server.) The only reason it’s not all running off my raspberry pi cluster is connection uptime during thunderstorms and the like.

    I stopped using facebook years ago. Why put your creative work on a platform that you don’t trust run by people who hate you? Why put it on something where you can’t pull backups?

    I need to start posting tutorials on how to do all the “web-stuff”. It’s really not that hard. (Though my frame of reference for computer difficulty is a little strange.) The 90s era libertarian internet was made of people running their own amateur sites on their own amateur servers. There wasn’t anything “profesisonal” out there.

  22. PS – I never encountered mention of your books on Facebook. I forget how I found your first novel – probably a mention on Baen or something. Once the first one sold, you were on my list of authors whose stuff I like – after that I went actively looking.

    Dunno how typical that is for customers, but facebook has had absoltuely zero influence over my reading choices. An occasional amazon (you might also like…) banner ad has been about the only thing to move my needle on an advertising effectiveness scale. Other than that, it is entirely “did I like the first book? Is there more?”

  23. PPS – given the tendency of monopoly platforms to be taken over by book burning fanatics, I’m not thrilled about amazon either. I only still buy stuff from them because I have a way to remove their DRM, but they’ve been closing that loophole.

  24. It really drives home how much the Left has weaponized everything against their opponents. They essentially own the media platforms and they know it. They can do and say any vile thing they want and they rarely face the consequences. You complain about it and fight back and they de-platform you. It’s like a bully provoking you to rage and then saying “U mad, bro, lol.”

  25. They don’t permaban. They just increasingly 30 day ban you, eventually without any actual notice, and you find it later it was for a COMMENT 5 years ago.

    Meanwhile, the subhuman demorrhoid shit insist there isn’t any prejudice.

    And the contract moderators insist they spend all day stopping child molesters, failing to mention that the evidence of my bans is that they have 3 people assigned to my account around the clock.

    Which is why in every interaction I encourage them to drink Drano.

    I’m over 100 bans, btw, on 4 accounts, which violates their TOS. Well, eat shit, Cuckerbitch.

  26. I thought you had to pay extra to be positioned below an Instagram gun-bunny?

    Not that there is anything… oh, wait. Well… it’s a hypothetical, amirite?

  27. I stopped using facebook out of boredom with minion memes and food pictures years ago. Disabked it last year. Havent missed a thing.

    But I’m probably my only fan and not in marketing, so it doesnt hurt me like it does people who are creators

  28. Amen, Larry! The illiberal left can’t handle arguments or opposing views. They will reflexively try to silence anything that challenges their world view. They will use any tactic including personal destruction. Zuccbook knowingly enables them.

    1. I’ve probably said it before, but it bears saying again: Ever since the elections, the left has gone full Lovecraft in their denial, grasping at conspiracy theories and trying to silence anyone who dares speak that simple truth – that people don’t like them. Not everyone, of course, but enough to dispel that image they had of themselves – the world-wise sages and idealistic artists who will lead society to the Great Things to come… from the back of their mom’s Prius.

      It’s a classic psychological defense mechanism – deflection. During the unemployment issues of the “oh, bummer” years, they realized they wouldn’t be able to live up to their media-inflated fantasies, and their self-image crashed. Only instead of spending at least a moment of introspection on how to improve themselves, they started seeing a myriad “faults” in everyone else, blaming them for their own failures. It’s like the fable of the grasshopper and the ant, only the grasshoppers are now calling the ants racist for not giving up half their income.

      And for a while, it worked – conservatives and baby-boomers were blamed for everything wrong with the world, but it was alright, because then the great Saint Hillary would come and lead the nation into a bright future… well, as bright as a solar-powered energy-saving lightbulb can make it anyway. Only… that didn’t happen. And now they’re looking for a million convenient lies as to why, instead of accepting their own Inconvenient Truth.

  29. I mainly use FB to keep track of my families (bio and chosen), wishing people congratulations on attaining another level and the occasional comment…figured out pretty quickly that if you state that you wish that people would follow “The Rules” concerning immigration (as Mad Mike did) you get called a racist, National Socialist scumbag who cares nothing about human life (but those same people go ‘meh’ about young children dieing from Measles, Rubella and other diseases that are easily immunised against, unless you’re like my wife who has a wonky immune system) or if you believe in the 2nd you have the blood of children killed in the latest mass shooting on your hands (even if you and your firearms are on the opposite side of the country)…and even pointing out that the process to elect POTUS is not one election but 54 elections (PR, USVI, Pacific Holdings and overseas Armed Forces) the screeching and wailing make you start to believe that people who you’ve known since both of you were in diapers were either dropped repeatedly on their heads, or spent a few years eating lead paint…this is why whenever I come across one of those surveys for Democrats I use the email address “nunya@business.gov” and a fake zip code (I like using 90210) along with a fake name (so far I’ve used: James Madison, John Jay, Patrick Henry and a few other signers of the Declaration of Independence) and if they have a space for additional comments my usual response is “Free access of NFA weapons to Veteran’s…since the oath to “Defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic” has no expiration date and quite a few of us don’t really care for Socialism because it doesn’t work in the real world”…all from behind a couple of firewalls and VPN’s…

  30. “Instagram Gun Bunny?”

    They still have those, and they haven’t been banned for violating community standards with hate speech, internalized misogyny, and fat shaming?

  31. Bloggers in general screwed the pooch by giving up independence and providing their content to the socials rather than keep up their blogs. The casino always rigs the game. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze for a couple of years now.

  32. I just joined MeWe to follow you guys but I’m a bit confused. Do I need to add LC as a contact to follow his post and reply to other commenters? Or will joining the MHI group do that?

  33. You probably have the documentation that the lawyers need to make a tortious interference case.
    Us stupid people didn’t think to document our Facebook data until it was too late.

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