The great queer Facebook exodus of 2014

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/24/14 at 5:46pm

It has begun and all because of the tricky issue of identity.


Hallo ello

[NYadgal]

Posted: 9/24/14 at 9:29pm

I've seen a couple of Ello 'announcements' on my FB feed recently.

Interesting...

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/24/14 at 9:33pm

The site should take advantage and rush to fix how buggy it currently is...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/24/14 at 10:00pm

I believe that's the whole point of it being in Beta. Rushing seems counter-intuitive.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/25/14 at 12:13am

But they have been in beta mode since April or so?

I would be happy with a less commercial Facebook alternative. I think it will be harder to really take over than it was between Facebook and MySpace/Friendstar--none of those ever had the wide range of people FB has gotten (I mean my grandmother is on FB.) But maybe that would be a good thing on hindsight...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/25/14 at 12:15am

The great queer Facebook exodus of 2014

I've seen several people using this phrase today. Anyone know who came up with it? Was it the Ello founder?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/25/14 at 12:31am

I just used a variation on the headline of the article I linked. Maybe others were linking to it as well.


there's a manifesto

Updated On: 9/25/14 at 12:31 AM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 11:14am

Thou shalt NOT criticize Facebook!

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:23pm

I've had it with FB. I'm in the process of deactivating my account and just keeping my work page.

Updated On: 9/30/14 at 01:23 PM

[The Glenbuck Laird]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 4:30pm

'I've had it with FB. I'm in the process of deactivating my account and just keeping my work page.'

He he, had it, enough. No more finito... but can I keep my work page please


Updated On: 9/30/14 at 04:30 PM

[DAME]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 4:46pm

I got a invitation for this. But haven't done anything about it yet. I am sick of Facebook myself... but I can't quit. I am just not there yet. However I hope I can before the presidential election goes into full force. Who the heck needs that.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 5:09pm

I don't think it has to be an either/or proposition.

If the October 8 deactivation day in support of people who don't want to use their real names happens, then I will definitely join that protest.

[DAME]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 5:12pm

There is a deactivation date for people that don't want to use their real name?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 5:21pm

There are two different processes: You can "deactivate" your profile on a temporary basis. No one sees it but they "memorialize" it and you can re-activate it at any time.

You can also "delete" your account, which erases it.

The goal of the October 8 protest is to have a large number of people deactivate for one day, and not delete.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 5:27pm

Posting about that on Facebook seems to be what got Justin Vivan Bond in trouble, featured in the post above.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 6:16pm

She should try joining BWW and post something about the mods.

What? Whadid I say? It was a JOKE!

Updated On: 9/30/14 at 06:16 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/1/14 at 2:23pm

Facebook may be reversing its position...



VALLEYWAG: Sources: Facebook to Apologize For Discriminatory

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/1/14 at 2:54pm

It's interesting. I think the contretemps has given a lot of people a chance to stop and think about the Facebook experience. And hitting the mental Don't Like button.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 10/1/14 at 3:19pm

I hadn't heard about the deactivation protest day. Interesting.

I'm not ready to quit Facebook, although I did sign up for Ello.
Although haven't yet been active.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/1/14 at 4:28pm

The official apologia:

===


Chris Cox
Menlo Park, CA ·

I want to apologize to the affected community of drag queens, drag kings, transgender, and extensive community of our friends, neighbors, and members of the LGBT community for the hardship that we've put you through in dealing with your Facebook accounts over the past few weeks.
In the two weeks since the real-name policy issues surfaced, we've had the chance to hear from many of you in these communities and understand the policy more clearly as you experience it. We've also come to understand how painful this has been. We owe you a better service and a better experience using Facebook, and we're going to fix the way this policy gets handled so everyone affected here can go back to using Facebook as you were.
The way this happened took us off guard. An individual on Facebook decided to report several hundred of these accounts as fake. These reports were among the several hundred thousand fake name reports we process every single week, 99 percent of which are bad actors doing bad things: impersonation, bullying, trolling, domestic violence, scams, hate speech, and more — so we didn't notice the pattern. The process we follow has been to ask the flagged accounts to verify they are using real names by submitting some form of ID — gym membership, library card, or piece of mail. We've had this policy for over 10 years, and until recently it's done a good job of creating a safe community without inadvertently harming groups like what happened here.
Our policy has never been to require everyone on Facebook to use their legal name. The spirit of our policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life. For Sister Roma, that's Sister Roma. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that's Lil Miss Hot Mess. Part of what's been so difficult about this conversation is that we support both of these individuals, and so many others affected by this, completely and utterly in how they use Facebook.
We believe this is the right policy for Facebook for two reasons. First, it's part of what made Facebook special in the first place, by differentiating the service from the rest of the internet where pseudonymity, anonymity, or often random names were the social norm. Second, it's the primary mechanism we have to protect millions of people every day, all around the world, from real harm. The stories of mass impersonation, trolling, domestic abuse, and higher rates of bullying and intolerance are oftentimes the result of people hiding behind fake names, and it's both terrifying and sad. Our ability to successfully protect against them with this policy has borne out the reality that this policy, on balance, and when applied carefully, is a very powerful force for good.
All that said, we see through this event that there's lots of room for improvement in the reporting and enforcement mechanisms, tools for understanding who's real and who's not, and the customer service for anyone who's affected. These have not worked flawlessly and we need to fix that. With this input, we're already underway building better tools for authenticating the Sister Romas of the world while not opening up Facebook to bad actors. And we're taking measures to provide much more deliberate customer service to those accounts that get flagged so that we can manage these in a less abrupt and more thoughtful way. To everyone affected by this, thank you for working through this with us and helping us to improve the safety and authenticity of the Facebook experience for everyone.