This is just a short update. It took longer than I expected to clear enough things to finally exit Facebook. But, it did happen.
The download of my data took a few days. The author page wasn’t that long, just about a half hour. My personal page took three days before I could download.
Also, I filed with Facebook to have my late Dad’s accounts memorialized. Well, that’s a mess! I filed the requests on the two accounts and waited. And waited. See, Dad had two because sometime it got locked out of the first account because he forgot his password, entered it incorrectly too many times, or something like that. If you’ve ever tried to follow the Facebook instructions for resetting your password, you’ll understand that it can turn into a lost cause.
So, he created a new one and that was the one he primarily used until his passing. I sent the request for his accounts to be memorialized, uploaded copies of his death certificate and other information. And, waited. Here’s part of the first response:
Thanks for contacting us.
I’m very sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, we’re not able to fulfill your request because your account doesn’t represent an individual person. This goes against our Community Standards on authenticity.
What?
Okay, I sent a note back asking which account didn’t represent a person.
Thanks for contacting us.
It looks like the email address or mobile phone number you provided doesn’t match a memorialized account. The best way to help us find your memorialized account is to reply with the link (URL) to your account … . If you’re unable to provide the link to your account, please reply with the full name on your account, your date of birth, and an account email address (example: the email address you use to log in).
OK. Of course, the email I used to send the request didn’t match the memorialized account. It was Dad’s account that we needed memorialized. Not mine!
Anyway, I’m still trying to get this sorted out but I don’t hold out a lot of hope.
In the meantime, I’m still checking out other social media. MeWe still looks promising. I did try GAB a few months ago. However, they had a breach and user credentials were exposed and bad people were exploiting that. My questions to their support and tech folks were ignored. So, I left.
I’m also exploring different methods of managing the books from BugBear Books. And, potentially adding to the list.
Keep writing!
(Update: One of Dad’s old accounts was finally memorialized. The other, still waiting. I’m not holding my breath.)
