Lots of people have problems with Facebook. But now one of their biggest fans has realized that even being a big blogger doesn't protect you.
Robert Scoble was erased from Facebook. His profile and data are gone, and while many people in the blogosphere are enjoying a moment of schadenfreude, the issue of having all of your data and contacts erased is a big problem.
Still - my sympathy for Robert isn't very high, primarily because of his comment on Facebook Observer about Harry Joiner. Harry is a recruiter who was banned from Facebook for uploading his GMail address book to the site. He complained, but got nowhere. Eventually, he was reinstated.
Harry joined Facebook because Scoble said it was the wave of the future. And Scoble replied on Facebook Observer with this comment.
- #1 Robert Scoble on 08.03.07 at 2:58 pm
This is spam behavior. If they allow it for him they have to allow it for the spammers. I’m glad they don’t allow you to do this. I have 4,200 contacts: each added one at a time.
- Scoble didn't know Harry personally, but his reaction was negative. He called Harry a spammer, suggesting that he was better because he added his names one at a time. So what was Scoble booted for? He exported 5000 contacts from Facebook to Plaxo. He says he was checking to see who was already in Plaxo, but by his own definition, he was a spammer. There's not much difference between what Scoble did and what he accused Harry of doing.
Maybe it's for the best. Facebook has some serious privacy issues, and while it's no fun for Scoble, it's a wake-up call to the rest of the industry. You don't own your data online unless you host it yourself. And these companies that want you to sign up for social networking, aren't all in it for the freedom.
