Up a network ladder and down a slippery Facebook snake

During my prolonged absence from blogging - from reading blogs, writing blogs, talking about blogs and sometimes even dreaming about blogs or bloggers - I continued to play about with my second attempt at Farcebook membership.

Sadly (boo, hiss!), my second attempt ended up in the same black hole as my first attempt, but without all the fuss.

Hey! Ho! There's still a Blog Network to join. Perhaps I should revert to my maiden name for my third and final attempt, and slip below the radar.

No more fantastic imagery from the breath of the dragon

I wasn't planning on posting today, but in typical fashion I made the mistake of browsing through the blogs and came across the sad news that The Cynical Dragon is no more. David from Newport has decided to call it a day in what he sees as inevitable.

This blog is now dead. A former blog. Due to work and personal commitments I've found it impossible to keep up and know that these commitments will consume more
of my time in the coming months. I've enjoyed the experience. Thanks to all my fellow bloggers who've helped, commented and offered support.

All I can suggest is that you keep the blog open in case you get the urge to blog again, even if your posts will be sporadic. Finding time to blog is always difficult, and I've noticed this morning that the rumour mongers didn't sleep last night on this blog. In truth, I have felt the same way as David on two occasions over the last year, and found that my work-life balance wasn't working out for me - I wasn't having much of a life.

Not that I want this post to be dominated by bad news. On a better note Dylan Jones-Evans has decided to return to blogging. Welcome back Dylan.

On this sad day there's only one person in Wales that will be pleased with this outcome, and the rest of us will notice that there's a place in the Wales Top 40 that will be noticeably empty.

Changing, not for change's sake

I've talked many times about changing the look of this blog. Sometimes family, friends, work, and even my lack of IT skills get in the way. I can't continue to pass the blame.

Some question whether bloggers are a dying breed, while others attempt to criticise the way we choose to blog (thanks to Peter Black AM and Al Iguana for their views). I obviously intend to post on this at some point. For now, I intend to stop putting off until tomorrow what I can do today, and work on the layout of this blog before I go any further.

The content, contributors (which may increase), enthusiasm, and support for blogging and bloggers will remain the same. In the meantime blogging may be light (I've said that before) while I work on the overall look of 'Miss Wagstaff Presents' over the next week.

Wiped from the Face (book) of the earth

"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you." No longer, thanks to the Facebook fascists!

It seems that due to a number of complaints from Labour party members [including a reasonably well-known UK blogger; a Labour Special Adviser; and a member of the National Assembly] and one from a member of Plaid Cymru, my Facebook account is no more.

Those that want to spread a little affection can still join the Miss Wagstaff Presents blog network.
I noticed on 17 July that my account had been disabled:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have just been informed that my account has been disabled without a warning or explanation. Would you be so kind as to explain the reason why.

Yours,

Pippa Wagstaff (Wales)

On 21 July 2008 I received this response from Facebook:

Hi,
Fake accounts are a violation of our Terms of Use. Facebook requires users to provide their real first and last names. Impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reactivate this account for any reason. This decision is final.

Thanks for your understanding,

Bella
User Operations
Facebook

Fair enough, I thought! Wrong use of "Thanks for your understanding" was another. But why not raise the question with me of the possibility of 'real and fake names' in the first instance - before deactivation.

I wrote back with the following:

Thank you for getting back to me. I can assure you that I am not impersonating anyone or anything. Pippa Wagstaff is my real name, and I have even noticed - to my surprise - that there are others with that name on Facebook.

I hope that you will reconsider.

Kind regards,
Pippa

I should have known better and atleast I'm happy with the name Pippa Wagstaff. I'm slightly disturbed that they haven't even asked me if this is my real name. As I've mentioned, there are others with this name on Facebook - I was curious and looked them up. In fact, there are plenty with some weird and wonderful names on Facebook that haven't been deleted, and I say good luck to them.

I can only imagine that this will put others off from joining Facebook, if their genuine names and account can be deleted without a hint of warning, and with such contempt for the person who joined in the first place. I just hope that like me they don't rely on the social network to keep in touch with others, or they could be in for a shock some day.

In the real world they shouldn't have done this without checking all the facts first. I expect it's too late to reinstate in my case.

Banned internally by the Welsh Assembly Government. Now erased from Facebook without them even questioning me about my identity. I don't know what the world is coming to, but admit that thankfully I will now have an extra 20-30 minutes spare each day. This got me thinking about how much time some of us dedicate to online networking, and maybe we should take note and all free up some extra time in our daily lives and do something more meaningful.

This is a non-aligned blog, but the evidence demonstrates that it must be getting under someone's skin. It's just a shame that I know who - it spoils the surprise!