Facebook, Flickr: You can't beat the system.

According to WorldOMeter, the world population as of 2024 stands at 8.1 billion. According to Statistica, Facebook now has 2.9 billion active monthly users. I calculate that to be 36% of the world's population. That's big. That's really big. And I, as but one person, am truly insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Sidebar: I tried to get stats for Second Life, but this is near impossible as Linden Labs has apparently stopped releasing a lot of data. Current estimates range from tens of thousands to as high as ten million active monthly users. Whatever the case, it is probably fair to say SL is 2% the size of Facebook.

How do you monitor something so large? With automation. There's no other way of doing it. As such, we are all at the mercy of technology and how good or bad it is for properly identifying what it's trying to monitor.

Several times in the past few years, I've had postings flagged by Facebook accompanied by warnings that my account could be deleted. Twice, I've been condemned to Facebook jail, unable to post anything for 30 days. I've protested by filling out their reporting form, but fat chance any human being ever investigates my situation to fully understand what happened. An automated routine arrested me, tried me, and found me guilty, no opportunity for appeal.

“The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.”
-Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

NG is an excellent photographer. (I'm keeping her name out of this but I'm sure some who know me will know who I'm talking about.) She had a free Flickr account but had more than once come under the scrutiny of the Flickr police. At one point, they summarily deleted her account, and she had to start over from scratch.

Recently, I discovered her Flickr account devoid of photos. I contacted her; the police had done it again. Apparently, some morally outraged individual reported one of her photos as an affront to all that is sacred to God-fearing citizens, and Flickr removed all of her images. Every one of them. I thought to step in and save the day, so I gifted NG a pro account. NG, however, was so furious at Flickr, she refused my gift and deleted her account.

I contacted Flickr: "What are you going to do about this?" I'm sorry, sir, but as per the Terms of Service, there are no refunds for gifts. "Your TOS clearly states that I pay you a fee and you give me a pro account. Where is that pro account?" (silence) I'm sorry, sir... "Your Terms of Service says nothing about what happens if the person in question refuses my gift." (silence) I'm sorry, sir... "How about you apply the fee to my account; give me a pro account for one year." (silence) We're willing to give you six months. "Thanks, but no thanks. I will consider this a lesson learned."

I did read Flickr's Terms of Service. It does clearly state no refunds. Nevertheless, I have a bad taste in my mouth. They had my hundred bucks; was it such a big deal to give me a year of a pro account? I can't help feeling this isn't the best example of customer service. I'm not a photographer. I would never pay for a pro account for myself, but there are some fabulous photographers, NG for instance, for whom I would consider being their benefactor. Personally, I don't think the cost of a pro account is exorbitant. From my reading, Flickr's crackdown on free accounts in 2021 came about because the company was in financial difficulty. You can't make a profit if you're giving it away for free.

According to photutorial, Flickr has 60 million active monthly users. Who am I? just another nobody. Flickr isn't going to listen to me, one person, because they're kind of busy with 59,999,999 other users. And the fact Flickr has got a hundred bucks of my money without giving the giftee or me a pro account is part of the minutiae of everyday life that gets swept aside and forgotten in the face of the staggering numbers of the entire system as a whole. Life isn't always fair. Injustices do occur. But sometimes, we as individuals only have the choice to accept and move on. And sometimes, in a moment of reflection, we might even be grateful that things weren't worse. I've heard stories of people wrongly convicted of a crime and incarcerated for years, even decades, only to be finally exonerated by new evidence, like modern DNA analysis, and set free. There but for the grace of God go I.

More sh*t about Facebook and bucking the system
In another life, I do some writing, maintaining a website and selling books. The website is, for the most part, a blog where I write about everything and anything. One topic is sex. I don't mean erotica or porn, but more analytical: What does science say about us human beings, our psychology, and our sexuality? At some point, I posted some erotic images. Some time goes by before I write something I want to share with the world. I go to post a link to one of my articles and discover Facebook has blocked my website. What? Why? I can't get any response from Facebook but finally conclude, it must be because of those images. Facebook promotes itself as being family-friendly so anything erotic or pornographic is out of the question. I am on "their list". The joke for me is that the content of my articles has at times been quite explicit when talking about sex. (I have a 5,500-word article on oral sex.) It would seem that Facebook's ability to monitor things is more about images than text. Maybe they will eventually get to text, but for the moment, it would seem images got me into trouble.

I'm Canadian. If you don't know, Facebook is pissed with the Canadian government over a bill requiring Facebook to pay Canadian media outlets for their news. (Wikipedia: Online News Act) In retaliation, Facebook has blocked all news for Canadians. I can neither post news links nor read news links posted by other people.

Here's how I deal with the above two situations with Facebook: I post to Twitter, then I post a Twitter link to Facebook. If I want to post an article from my website, I first post it to Twitter. Then I take the URL for the tweet and post that to Facebook, adding a warning that if people clink on the link, they will go to my Twitter and have to click again to get my article. The same for news. Unfortunately, I still can't see any news articles on Facebook, but many times, people post an excerpt, naming the news source so I can Google it myself. It's a pain but this workaround does work.

I have a curious observation about Elon Musk and Twitter. He has called himself a free speech absolutist, refusing no one on Twitter and letting everyone say pretty much what they want. Some have been horrified by the proliferation of misinformation and hate speech, but I have to make note of this: Twitter has never censored me. My joke is that while neo-Nazis have freedom of speech, I have freedom of listen. I don't give a sh*t about the idiots saying two plus two equals five and the Earth is flat because I'm not listening. My critical thinking skills permit me to weed out the noise and focus on the facts. Admittedly, not everyone has my skill set which certainly goes a long way of explaining the continuing extremism in politics. Ha!


Final Word
Over the years, I've heard mention of "the system", or "the man", referring to some nebulous power, like the government or big business, overseeing us and controlling our lives. We are all at the mercy of the bureaucracy. One size does not necessarily fit all, and for those of us who are the exception to the rule (We are all unique!), we face the uphill battle of dealing with some tired, bored, underpaid, and overworked clerk if, and only if, we have the sheer, unmitigated luck of speaking with an actual human being. At the end of the day, we may not get a solution; we may have to deal with the issue ourselves. Deal with it sometimes means walking away and forgetting about it. Deal with it sometimes means coming up with your own clever DIY for evading any restrictions. Whatever the case, we're not going to beat the system. The best we can hope for is getting around it.

Good luck. Bonne chance. Nous sommes tous foutus! Ha, ha, ha!


References

my blog: Primfeed, Social Media Platforms, and Censorship (1,700 words, 7-minute read) - Jul 23/2024
On June 7, 2023, without prior warning, newTumbl shut down, and I lost my blog comprising not just pictures, but my time and effort in curating all that material.

my blog: To Blog Or Not To Blog (1,000 words, 4-minute read) - Jun 21/2023
On June 7, 2023, without prior warning, newTumbl shut down, and I lost my blog comprising not just pictures, but my time and effort in curating all that material.

my blog: Flickr: What is the risk of having my account terminated? (1,400 words, 6-minute read) - Oct 26/2021
On Monday, October 25, 2021, I clicked on the bookmarked URL for D’s Flickr and was met with a Page Not Found error. My friend is the admin of a Flickr group, and I discovered her name had disappeared. I contacted D, and she was surprised and shocked by the news. Was this a computer glitch? What else could have gone wrong? She said she was contacting Flickr.

Business Insider: 'BAD, BAD PANDA!': Here’s the story behind the most famous photo on Flickr - Mar 14/2016
Japanese photographer Nagano Toyokazu unknowingly captured a perfect shot for Flickr's server error page while practicing his newfound photography skills.

Daniel Voyager: Second Life Statistics - Jul 16/2024
Second Life User Daily Concurrency Levels – Updated: 16th July
* Maximum: 44, 000 – 47, 000
* Median: 34, 000 – 36, 000
* Minimum: 26, 000 – 28, 000

Web Tribunal: 18 Second Life Facts in 2023: What It Means to Live in a Virtual World - Mar 6/2023
70 million registered accounts, daily average of 200,000 users from 200 countries

2024-07-27