gentle honeybee
dancing upon the petals
moments of summer
Saw this flower with the honey bee on my way out to my car. One of the great joys of summer.
Chaos Tamer
gentle honeybee
dancing upon the petals
moments of summer
Saw this flower with the honey bee on my way out to my car. One of the great joys of summer.
A few days ago I heard Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca on the radio.
My brain, being what it is, wondered if Weird Al had created a Livin’ La Vida Polka version of the song. A few minutes with Google showed me that, no, Al hadn’t. And isn’t likely to. (Check out the Reddit post for the details).
But, fortunately for us, a group called The Brats (as in Brautwurst, I believe), stepped into the void.
That’s the weird way my brain works. I hope this brightens your Sunday (Monday-eve).
gazing to the west
sunlight stretching through the rose
I'm cooled by the breeze
with the sun setting
light moves from the western peaks
across these petals
within the rainfall
gentleness calming my soul
waiting for my tea
Over the years, I’ve helped a few people regain access to their Facebook accounts. Most all of those times were relatively easy since they were simply forgotten passwords. One was more complicated where a former social media consultant basically vanished and ghosted the business owners. The main challenge for me entailed getting copies of the business license and then a letter from the business owner. The hardest part (for me) was the waiting. It took me a fair bit of googling to track down a way to make the request, and then I had to wait for Facebook to respond. A few minutes of work that took weeks to complete due to slow communications.
So, now, I am working with someone whose account was compromised/taken over by someone else. Facebook’s knowledge base was a series of loops that accomplished nada. Frustrating. I then reached out to a friend who worked at Meta, who let me know that they’d risk termination if they tried to route me outside of the “normal channels”. So, as I value my friend, I opted to not push it. But, man, it’s frustrating. All of this to state that my experience with troubleshooting Meta issues has gone from clunky to infuriating.
So, when I read this article on Engadget, “How small claims court became Meta’s customer service hotline“, I groaned in recognition. I can see why people are using law suits to push Meta to act. I expect that they hope that this level of agrevation will deter people from seeking help and they just give up. However, I doubt that’s really going to be the case. Besides, I would expect that Customer Service Reps are much cheaper than attorneys. This seems to be the most expensive way to navigate this situation.
Since this article is posted on a major blog, I wonder if more people will seek Meta customer service via small claims court. Perhaps it will become painful enough for Meta to finally staff their customer service department adequately. Perhaps…
This strikes me as an element of Cory Doctrow’s “Enshittification”. In particular, the notion of “too big to care“. For so many folks, Facebook is an 800 pound gorilla. And they know it and are hard pressed to care.
within the sunlight
sustained by the gentle earth
a late springtime breeze
So, one of the accounts I manage got this message today:
A quick search of the message language confirmed to me that it’s a scam. The biggest clue was the “bio.site” link. Very phishy. The clunky sentence “Your Facebook page is scheduled for permanent deletion due to a post that has infringed upon our trademark rights” was another clue.
This article was pretty high up on the Google SERP and is pretty solid on it’s analysis and advice.
If you get one of these, first and foremost: don’t click the link! If you’re at all concerned, reach out to Facebook directly.
So, I filed it as spam and reported this account. My contempt for scammers is rich and deep, so I hope for some consequences. However, I recognize these folks will simply open another account when/if their accounts get locked. It is a rather annoying game of whack-a-mole. One that will probably continue to be a focus of mine for the foreseeable future.
As I’m fond of bicycles and libraries, this image spoke to me well.
I hope you are well, and that your new week is filled with joy and vibrance.
amidst these rain squalls
and the claps of thunder
calmness with my tea
I created this image with Canva. The image is a stock image that’s included in the app.