Facebook has some big problems

I wouldn't normally talk about something like this, but other than our 5km (3 mile) power walk we didn't do much due to the weather yesterday. And I think this is important.

We've been using Facebook for more than 10 years. We keep in touch with our kids and friends through their messaging system. We join various discussion groups that we might be interested in. We operate an RV'ing in Mexico group that has over 5,000 members. We operate a Travel with Kevin and Ruth page that directs people to this blog. And lastly, we make money from an Amazon group that has over 24,000 members.

But, there is a lot of crap on Facebook. A lot of stuff that I think is a total waste of time. I think the whole program causes a lot of overall dissention in society. (Yes, I know of the documentary "The Social Dilemma, but we haven't watched it yet). Ruth likes Facebook, but I feel that if I wasn't making money from it, I would lose interest pretty quick.

Well, on October 7th I went to log into my account, and instead of logging in, a page came up that looked like this...

Review Recent Posts and Likes

So they want to me to review my stuff to make sure that things were actually posted by me. But when I click the "Get Started" button, the following page comes up...

Sorry, something went wrong.

And that's it. There is no way to access anything more.

I figured it was just a glitch, So I waited for a day or two, but nothing changed. 

Then I went through the process of learning how difficult it is to actually contact a human being at Facebook. I have reported the problem and complained through all possible channels. It's been over three weeks now and I have yet to receive any communication back from Facebook.

I've also found out that I'm not the only one with this exact problem. There are quite a few references online with people not being able to log into their account and coming up with the same pages that I get. And of course because you can't log in to your account, you can't complain or report errors the way you would be able to if you were logged in.

If not for the money making aspect, I wouldn't really care. But Facebook just made a 3 month profit of $7.8 billion dollars (for better perspective, that's $87 million per day), and they did it because of people like me. For them to make that kind of profit, and not have a system in place to fix problems like mine is just not right.

Then the other day Ruth received a notification that her account is under a one week restriction from posting or commenting to any groups, or starting a new group. No explanation given. Otherwise, her account is working fine. She filled out the form to appeal the restriction, but hasn't heard back.

In the meantime, the other day we each received the following email...

Really?

We have done nothing different that we haven't done in the past. 

The thing is, it isn't someone at Facebook who personally makes these decisions. It's their algorithmic computer program that decides whether or not we've done something wrong. And it's gone whacky, in our opinion.

The fact that you can't contact an actual person is very frustrating.

Facebook also announced in their most recent earnings report that their U.S. and Canada user base has dropped. No wonder! They have become too big and they don't care.

Because I no longer have access to my Amazon Deals group on Facebook, I have started another website that will do the same thing without relying on Facebook. I know that some of you use it so now you can access the deals here...

Camping and RV Gear Deals and more

The actual website URL is www.campingandrvgeardeals.com if you want to bookmark it so you can check back there regularly. I try to post new deals at least twice a day. I put it together quickly and it's a work in progress, but if you want to get some great deals and help us out at the same time, that's where you go.