Facebook Ban: Banned From Inviting Friends and Sending Messages

Yes you have read correctly - I have been banned from adding friends to Facebook and sending messages to Facebook friends in my network!

Today I thought I would spend some time adding some new friends in my Facebook network.

I had identified people who I know personally and people whose work I follow and respect and sent each one a customised invitation to invite them to join my network - yes every person received a note and invitation customised to how I knew of them and inviting them to join my network. I also gave a link to my blog in case they wanted to check me out first before adding me.

Well to my suprise I got a warning note from Facebook to say that I was potentially going to be banned from Facebook if I acted in this manner. It seems on checking the help notes in Facebook that I was adding people to fast and therefore was being perceived to be spamming in facebook.

Now I am in a position of not being allowed by Facebook to add any more people to my network.

The ban can last hours or days - the help notes on Facebook do not give a specific time line - just that it can be hours or days!

I'm also under warning that if I am seem to be acting in tis manner again I can be banned completely from Facvebook. I guess you could say I am in good company though as tis has happened to some of the worlds most famous social media experts!

I've sent an message to the support desk asking for guidance on how to avoid tis in the future as I clearly do not want to be banned from Facebook. I actually use it to connect with people and message them direct rather than through email.

What I don't understand is that this has never happened before event though I have taken a similar approach to builing my online network in Facebook. And in addition I has personally customised each invitation. Clearly the Facebook system is not sophisticated enought to recognise that was the case.

What is the most frustrating is that I then went to connect with a friend of mine in Facebook. But I can't! You see the ban on adding more friends to my Facebook network also means that I am also banned from sending messages to people who are already friends in Facebook. So now I have to use email to connect with them.

I therefore sent a second message to the Facebook support desk saying the following:

.... I now have a problem as I seem to be unable from sending specific messages to people who are in my Facebook network already. Can you advise why this is as adding new friends seems completely different from keeping in contact about business issues with my current network ....

So if you send me any messages or Facebook please don't expect a reply. I can't!

Anyone else had this problem before. I am hoping some friends of mine who are Facebook experts might be able to help me out and tell me how not to bet totally banned from Facebook!

I've never been banned from anything or anywhere in my life before - perhaps I have lived a sheltered life? A now I am banned from social networking on Facebook. You could say I am"virtually red" with embarrasment!

I'll certainly update you if I hear from the Facebook team so you can learn how to avoid being banned on Facebook when extending your social network.

Comments

[abouttravel]

Hi Krishna

Sorry to hear that you are banned from Facebook! Notoriety at last, eh! One good thing is that at least we can follow you over here to this site and hear all that you are getting up to with other social networking sites like Twitter and your podcasting.

It will be interesting to see how much more traffic you get via Facebook to your other sites and perhaps it can be a good thing in the long run, although it must be extremely irritating in the short term.

Wishing you all the best.

Helen Palmer

[Jesse Stay]

Krishna,

I'm so sorry to hear about your being banned from Facebook! You are not the only one I've heard this happening to - it sounds like Facebook needs to fix their automated spam detection procedures.

Some tips to avoid being banned:

-Only invite a few friends at a time (this is unfortunate!) - I am going to work to verify what that exact number is
-Don't impersonate anyone or use an Alias - use a "real" account
-Don't screen scrape or use programs that screen scrape your account on Facebook
-Avoid uploading inappropriate images or videos

Those are the few reasons I've seen others banned from Facebook. I imagine Facebook won't give out the exact triggers that cause this, as it would give Spammers an advantage, but I'd like to get just a bit more information out of them. I'll blog about it on http://www.facebookadvice.com when I have more information.

Good luck Krishna! I hope you get your account restored quickly!

[Matt]

[[FACEBOOK UNION]]

I’ve heard this idea before. Who thinks there should be some sort of Facebook Union?

Essentially, it’s just like any other type of union. If one of us gets banned unfairly, we all stop using the site. They have to listen to the masses…

Many of us here are highly influential individuals, and we should all agree on the following:
1) Convicted individuals need a way to plead for their innocence and individuals who are not in violation of any rules should have restored accounts.
2) All rules should be stated clearly on the site, and non-damaging first-time violations of rules that are not made clear should be dealt with through a warning.

I’m going to be creating a Gmail account and all who are interested in becoming part of the Facebook Union can email me at facebookunion@gmail.com

All will be valued here.

[Melody]

I've been on facebook for 3 years and have the same amount of interaction with friends as always. I add a new friend about once a week, people who know me and who are new to facebook. It's just been in the last few weeks that I started getting these warnings. Now I am completely banned from writing comments on my wall, their walls or on pictures. It SAYS a few hours or days, but it's been 13 days today since my profile got the ban. Saturday I opened up a second profile and within 24 hours it was doing the same thing and I've barely been on it at all. I've tried getting someone's attention at FB but so far nobody has written back and explained to me what I was doing different from the first 3 years. I'll be watching here for any solutions to the problem. The majority of my friends are high school alumni!

[Sabrina]

Right now I am exceedingly upset with FB. I got a "warning" that I have "excessively" used features...but they don't say which features. The email was to serve as my 'warning." Now I can't make any posts on friends walls nor respond on my own wall. I am nearly 50 years old, why is FB treating me like a naughty 5 year old getting sent to time out? Isn't COMMUNICATING what you're supposed to do on facebook? Geez!