Why you might not be seeing me on Facebook

Banned by bots.

As you probably know, Facebook is not my favorite place. I use it because I have to, and because the connections made on Facebook have saved the lives of cats and dogs. My business and my nonprofit get most of their connections from Facebook. If I am banned from Facebook, it will probably mean the end of my business and my nonprofit, unless I work very hard at establishing alternate connections.

Today, Facebook froze my account because I asked the question below.

They said that comment violates community standards. Obviously, it doesn’t. Asking if anyone has an intact female dog does not imply that I want to, I don’t know what they are thinking, start a backyard breeding business or something. Anyway, they allow backyard breeders to post all over the place. They actually push videos on me from “teacup” breeders, which is pure animal abuse in my opinion. I quite often have to ban backyard breeders from my lost pet group. The reason I asked if anyone had an intact female dog was obvious from the context of the thread. I was trying to rescue an intact male dog, and I wanted to use a friendly intact female to lure him close enough so that I could put a leash on him. I was trying to save a dog’s life, not do anything illegal or immoral. I formally objected to their characterization of my comment as being inappropriate. They may reverse their decision to block me. The trouble is, they now have a “content bot.” I don’t know what they call it. They have turned some sort of bot loose in my group, Lost Dogs of King County. They are going through 8 years of my comments, and every once in a while they dig up some old comment, which they have not complained about for years, and say it violates community standards. Of course, the comment is perfectly appropriate and inoffensive, but the bot found some keyword and flagged it. Even if they reverse their current decision to block me, they will undoubtedly will keep finding new old comments that the bot deems offensive. It seems that it’s only a matter of time before the content bot bans me from Facebook.

It is especially ironic because Facebook keeps asking me to be more involved and post more. They invited me to a special group of “Power Moderators” for people who founded large community groups. Recently they wanted me to sign up for Pro Facebook, which apparently is for influencers, I guess. I didn’t sign up for it because I assumed, like everything on Facebook, it wouldn’t actually do anything they said it would do. Facebook wants me to make instagram accounts and post ads and basically do everything on Facebook all the time. And, they say my benign comments are offensive and they may need to ban me.

I really enjoy writing on SubStack. I started this last October because I thought it was a great way of presenting ideas. I could gather my thoughts into cogent (I hope) articles and post my best pictures in a quality, simple format without all of the annoying ads and distractions. Now, I may need SubStack because it will be an important way to get my message out if Facebook bans me for imaginary offenses. I hope you will continue to follow me here on SubStack, and if possible encourage others to sign up for a free subscription. Facebook has been a lifesaver for so many lost dogs and cats. It is a shame that it has gone so wrong recently. There need to be alternatives to Facebook so that people who want to help lost pets can still do so in the most effective ways. If you know of other social media that could fulfill the same functions as Facebook, please let me know. I hope you don’t recommend TikTok, because I found it revolting and idiotic. If TikTok is the future, I suppose I may have to break down and join it, again. I have already canceled my TikTok account three times because the content they push at me is so blatantly stupid, and completely contrary to any of my stated interests. I know SubStack doesn’t really work the same as other social media, but anyway, if some day you don’t see me on Facebook any more, you can always reach me here, or at my web page.