Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Facebook! Fighting The Good Fight Against...Mommy Blogs?

Pin It Facebook could have spared me a monumental breakdown on the weekend.

You see, faithful readers, the Facebook gods decided that Blogger blogs can be hazardous to your internet health. They took the somewhat heavy handed measure of blocking all links that end in blogspot.ca, just in case you happen across a blog that has been reported as "abuse".

I don't know why, I don't even particularly care why. All I know is that it ruined my Saturday night.

I am a creature of habit folks. I may not go to the extreme of flipping light switches seventeen times before leaving a room, but it's close. When I write a post I do it the same way every time. Visit my Facebook fan page, check my comments, log in through the hyperlink and voila! There is my shiny new blog just waiting to be written in. Except it didn't quite work out that way on Saturday.

Oh no, instead it went a little something like this:
  • Pour cup of coffee, fire up computer. Wait interminably until ancient relic decides to cooperate.
  •  Check notifications and receive tons of great feedback on the new post. Give myself a high five on a job well done.
  • Cruise on over to my fan page. 3 new likes! Solo high five turns into smug asspats.
  • Check latest post link to see if there are any comments...Wait a sec...Where is my latest post link? Where are ALL of my post links?
  • Click on my hyperlink to see what is going on with my blog. Receive error message saying "The link you are trying to visit has been reported as abusive by Facebook users"
  • Grab chest and let out ungodly shriek.
  • Wipe away tears as I wonder who would have done this and why. My blog is inoffensive, right? Blunt sometimes and even occasionally off color but not abusive. Right? RIGHT?
  • Immediately assume that someone in one of my Facebook groups got a case of twisted panties over my latest post. Not unusual. I've seen debates about peeing in the shower turn bloody in minutes.
  • Muster my courage and go in guns blazing. Tell the coward who reported me to come forward and collect their virtual ass whupping. Realize as I say this that I do, in fact, sound a little abusive. At this point however am too pissed off to care.
  • Receive a message from a friend that it isn't just me, all Blogger blogs are kiboshed.

Faaaaaaaaaaaacccccccckkkkkk!


Needless to say I spent the better part of Saturday night apologizing to all the people I offended with my "Come forth you coward" rant. On the plus side I gained a ton of new readers who wanted to read for themselves the mommy blog that got banned. I guess it all worked out in the end but I still have a few questions. Questions that will probably go unanswered since more people have seen Charlie Sheen sober than have seen an email address for Facebook Help desk.

Facebook Help Desk: Not actually helpful...at all.

What the hell happened to make Facebook ban all Blogger Blogs?
Is this because of marketing now that Facebook has gone Public? Are they trying to squeeze a few bucks out of us poor bloggers? 
Did this have anything to do with viral blog "Buttered Toast" and it's beautifully written piece on Planned Parenthood and the Koch Brothers? Read it here, it is powerful stuff!

I'll break it down for anyone who has been out of the loop this Memorial day weekend and didn't keep up with their favorite bloggers (shame on you).

Marmalade Meg over at Buttered Toast wrote a fantastic piece about how she chooses to spend her hard earned money. It has garnered quite a bit of attention, partly because of her phenomenal writing ability and partly because it takes a stand against the Koch Brothers, Tea Party backers and multibillionaires whose prime purpose in life is to squash Obama and take control of the government. The irony of course being that Tea Party ideals call for a smaller government. I guess smaller is ok, as long as you're the guys running the show. These are the guys that bought the Republican party and are financing the War on Women that is underway in the states right now. Even as we speak I am sure some Republican lawmaker is rubbing their hands together with glee while they come up with a new plan to strip away our hard won rights.

 State Senator Judy McIntyre (D) holding a protesters sign.
That's right, I said OUR rights. It doesn't matter that I'm a Canadian. I am a woman and this is an affront to all women. We are all sisters under the skin. The government has no business telling us how to manage our reproductive health. Thats between us and our doctors ladies. Besides you just know that Stephen "Sweatervest" Harper is in love with these new ideas. He's practically a Republican as it is. Tell you what, I'll trade you guys Obama for Harper and I'll even throw in Michael Ignatieff for free, just to get rid of him.

Sorry, did I just jump up on a soapbox? I think I did. Back to the matter at hand.

Whatever happened to make Facebook put the lockdown on Blogspot.ca one thing is for sure. A little heads up would have been nice. Like a million other amateur bloggers I use Facebook to share my blog. Now that avenue is closed down and we are left scratching our heads wondering what we did wrong. Not only is it limiting access to our blogs, it is preventing us from sharing other blogs...like Megs. Wait a sec.

Maybe the two are related. I wonder how much Facebook stock the Koch Brothers own?

Update: May 29, 2012 06:10 pm - Only blogspot.ca addresses are blocked, the dotcoms are fine. What did Canada ever do to deserve this, lol. Pin It

4 comments:

Meg said...

Creepy! And mysterious. I love a good conspiracy as much as the next guy, but they're still allowing blogspot.com links as far as I know. Mine posted fine yesterday, and the PP piece is still getting lots of views via FB. What the hell's going on up there? Hang in there, Mama.

MamaZinga said...

Not up here. If I try to even go onto your blog through Facebook it redirects it to a .ca and is blocked:(
OMG the Koch brothers have already gotten to our government.
(I kid, time to put away the tinfoil hat)
I still reserve the right to blame them for everything:)

Crissy89 said...

Grr! This had me sooo frazzled.
And I completely LOL'd at the Haper/Ignat...er...however you spell it comment.

MamaZinga said...

I stand by it Crissy, I would take Obama in a heartbeat:)