• Facebook Brony Accounts Being Wiped... Again!

    Over on Facebook, a bunch of bronies are seeing their accounts disappear randomly.  Apparently most of them are roleplay accounts, but a few normal pony accounts have also been wiped out.

    Unfortunately, I think this is actually against the Facebook ToS, even if they hardly regulate it.   If you guys have a pony account over there,  you might want to back up anything important.

    They have also started up a petition.  You can find it here .

    94 comments:

    1. What exactly is the violation of the ToS?

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    2. They have something in their TOS about rping? that's odd. lol

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    3. The petition is at blogger.com? Really?

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    4. @Godot-17 In terms of Facebook, almost anything. False name, false pictures, bad language etc.

      As Seth said though, it's rarely enforced.

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    5. I've lost over a dozen friends to the purge and the death toll keeps rising higher.

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    6. Migrate to the next best thing?!

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    7. who the hell doesn't vote this at 1 star?

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    8. Alternately: Forget Facebook and get a Flankbook account.

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    9. Ah, well the face that facebook used to be light on their terms might mean there's just a hater within the staff. Oh the attention...

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    10. @Mr. B Don't count on Google+ being much better. They're cracking down on people who don't have their real name attached to a profile, and suspending those accounts.

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    11. Petitions are usually more effective after you check your damn spelling.

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    12. Start a flankbook account, We are one of the best communities out there for not caring about being kicked out of places. We don't get upset or scream and shout, we simply make ourselves a more friendly environment to hang out in.

      Examples being, 4chan banned us so we made ponychan. Twtitter wasnt working out so well so hello we made rainbowdash network, rainbowdash network wasnt working out for RP guys and girls so we made a second one for them.

      Now Facebook becomes stupid so instead of them getting advertising royalties we head on over to flankbook who like us and can get the money :)

      Lets do what we do best, love them and tollerate their stupid decisions but find ourselves a new home

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    13. I'm sorry, but I think facebook has every right to do this.
      If people want to roleplay, there are enough forums out there, and for pony accounts, Just create pages.

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    14. looked at flankbook, says Error connecting to database, anyone mind explaining?

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    15. >using facebook in 2011

      I sure hope nopony does this

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    16. The petition would likely go over a lot better with some proper spelling and grammar. I certainly hope they don't mean to be taken seriously if they couldn't be bothered to make a decent job of writing up that short petition.

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    17. isn't rp what flankbook is for? Personally i'm against rp on facebook but if people using their pony avatars as pictures are getting removed, then that's just wrong

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    18. Guys, get to Google Plus if you want to live. They deleted a lot of normal bronies, and they removed some brony groups.

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    19. sorry, but I'm not moving to google+ or flankbook. I have a social life outside of ponies. this petition must go through.

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    20. It's totally fine to put personal information on the internet but roleplaying fictional characters is bad? Okay, then. Big, evil corporations want to attach your name to a face so they can track you more closely. Unfortunately, that's the logic behind this.

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    21. I'd join google +, but i don't know where to get an invite.

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    22. Puzzle Plate, I started a FB account so I could contact some friends. It's very important to them that I can contact them on FB. It's very important to me that I don't plaster my full name and picture across the internet.

      I ended up roleplaying with other ponies purely by accident.

      "sorry, but I'm not moving to google+ or flankbook. I have a social life outside of ponies. this petition must go through."

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    23. I would sign it, but I am too much of a grammar nazi. Now I am sure people are going to quote me and correct my sentences.

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    24. I'm with facebook on this. RPing on FB is kinda creepy plus that's not what FB was meant for.

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    25. Furthermore, this isn't just about ponies. This is about all roleplayers. We shouldn't exclude them from our protesting just because they aren't us.

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    26. Oh good idea. Because, you know, online petitions ALWAYS work.

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    27. I'm all for facebook closing RP accounts. Ever since I liked MLP and Bronies on Facebook, my 'people you may know' has been nothing but pony roleplayers. that is annoying.

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    28. FB doesn't believe in privacy, but I think it goes further. Enforcing using your LEGAL IDENTITY goes the the point of actively destroying your privacy, and that's just one tactic you see coming to light. And I wouldn't expect them to be kind in any regard.

      I miss out on a lot of things my friends & colleagues do on Facebook, but I find I can still live without it. Find other ways to communicate, post pictures, do whatever. I wouldn't give any of these folks the narfing satisfaction of using their network.

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    29. I can see getting rid of RP accounts, but are you telling me if I have a pony avatar my account could get removed? That's ridiculous.

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    30. Is this the work of them anti-brony people? I should check my account I have Derpy as my profile pic and a fake name

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    31. Nope still there, wait with all them reports of FB going down in popularity why would the alienate more people?

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    32. "Apparently most of them are roleplay accounts, but a few normal pony accounts have also been wiped out."

      ...huh?

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    33. Haha flankbook...wait, that's an actual website?

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    34. Meh, sockpuppets aren't realyl suposed to be allowed I think, so it's hard to actually protest. *shrug* Still, a shame.

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    35. Okay, so... I don't RP - hate it, actually - but my FB profile has a Pony avatar (I don't photograph well). Does this mean I'm in danger of my account getting wiped?

      Seems kinda bullshit, really, if true. The majority of my friends don't use pix of themselves as avatars; a couple use Pony pictures too.

      Maybe I should try to set up a Google+ account after all.

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    36. Both RP pony accounts AND brony accounts are getting deleted.

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    37. This is Bullshit

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    38. Well, facebook is a terrible website anyways. I only go there to see what my friends are complaining about now.

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    39. 40 of my 100 bronies are gone

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    40. I don't mean to sound rude, but why couldn't someone with a proper, full understanding of the English language and the laws of grammar write out that petition? I can almost see Mark Zuckerberg chuckling at its quality before deleting it from his inbox.

      On an unrelated note, whenever I hear the word petition, I immediately think of Postal Dude.
      "Sign this petition or I'll follow you home and kill your dog!"

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    41. To play devil's advocate (well, someone has to do it): the whole "creating accounts for fictional characters" thing is a pretty blatant step away from what the site was meant for. And it's not like they aren't fourteen bazillion other places to RP on the Internet.

      Now, deleting accounts based on false profile pictures is bullshit. I can count the length of time it's been since I actually had a picture of myself as my profile pic in years, and that's such a minor issue in the grand scheme of things that I don't see the logic in bothering to enforce rules about it. Changes to your profile name (i.e. calling yourself "John TwilightSparkle Smith") is a little more nebulous, but if you tried to enforce rules against that, you'd have to define what would be considered as an "acceptable" nickname, and that isn't something you could ever do with any semblance of order or equality. When it comes to the accounts meant purely for roleplaying, though, I have to side with the Facebook admins.

      And I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but that petition quite frankly comes off as very whiny and immature. I mean, they use "ur" instead of "your" at one point, and the whole thing beyond that is literally two deplorably fragmented run-on sentences packed with far too much complaining and far too few reasonable arguments against the crackdown on RP accounts and their associated ilk. Actually, none at all of the latter. I don't really care about this one way or the other since I don't have an RP account and I haven't personally heard of anyone's account being terminated for just a profile pic (one of my friends had a pornographic picture a while back, and they just banned her from posting photos for a week after that), but if any of you want this to be taken seriously, it needs a serious rewrite by someone with a good head for grammar and about 120% more rationality.

      Just sayin'.

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    42. flankbook anyone?

      this is why, i don't have a facebook page >_>

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    43. @Aquaman52
      but everyone has a right to rp. even on facebook but the petition problem i agree.

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    44. >2011
      >not using Google+
      i seriously hope you guys don't do this

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    45. 'Agents' instead of 'against'? Ow, ow, ow.

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    46. Time to get on Google+ !!!

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    47. @Anonymous

      My apologies, then. I must've missed the part of the Facebook Terms of Service where they said it was okay to roleplay using Facebook accounts.

      Wasn't the whole reason they started deleting these accounts presumably because that sort of behavior was specifically outlined in the ToS as not being okay? Did I miss something here?

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    48. That can't possibly be the right petition. That thing was posted back in DECEMBER '10.

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    49. So anyone who has a picture that isn't them is in danger here? Time to change my pic back from Ezio Auditore.

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    50. I'm on G+, and don't really see much advantage to it yet, to be honest. Jumping over to something just because it's new strikes me as being a bit dim... but yeah, I am getting pretty fed up with FB. Flankbook doesn't seem to like Safari users. Meh...

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    51. @Anonymous

      No, nobody has the "right" to do anything on Facebook.
      Facebook could delete accounts just for the hell of it if they wanted.


      You don't have the right to role-play on FB, especially when the terms you agreed to when you signed up state that it's against the rules.

      I don't see a huge problem with RPing, but Facebook has rules, and they can enforce them however and whenever they want to(within the confines of the law, of course).

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    52. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    53. Sigh. I understand the fact that my troll account (Applebloom Pony) was baleeted, but did they really have to hit the group I used as well?

      Group called "The Official Bronies Group" had over 250 members, and was very active. Half the admins were banned, and almost all the accounts with pony names.

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    54. What the *#@$ is Flankbook?!? Links, or it doesn't exist.

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    55. It's the same harassing thing that furries suffered back this past spring on FB.

      Zuckerberg wants our real life data for some reason, just so that when they have a security leak we get all royally screwed. :/

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    56. I just checked flankbook because of these comments, and after seeing the awful website design and having to wait way too long for it to load a non-flash page, its understandable why people are using facebook instead.

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    57. Also, it sounds that Facebook have heavy haters on the admin group...

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    58. I lost my account for nothing
      All I have was a picture of Spike from that owl episode that said I Lied
      I'm just a regular person associated with bronies

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    59. @starcat5 http://flankbook.com/

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    60. Some Facebook users have taken the RP to the next level. Honestly, If they kept it within groups and haven't spread that much around Facebook things might have been a little different.

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    61. @MintBerryCrunch

      THIS.

      Roleplayers need to stop being ass hurt.

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    62. Deleting roleplayers is 120% understandable. They make that clear that it isn't what the site is for.

      But JUST having a lone picture is flat out retarded if that is what they are also doing.

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    63. If anyone would actually like to move to Google+ (if you don't then I have no problem with that), post an email here and I'll send an invite. I don't know how many I have left but I'll refresh throughout the night until you have one or I run out. I'm working overnight so I have plenty of free time. :x

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    64. ALWAYS said that Facebook was only trouble... and full of weird people too, some REALLY creppy from what I heard...

      Yeaaaaah... Never gonna have an account there. Emails and MSN do just fine for me.

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    65. Over half my friends list gone it was horrible

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    66. @starcat5

      http://flankbook.com/sys/

      Seth. you should REALLY post a link with the other sites.

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    67. @Aquaman52

      i don't use facebook but never the less, rp user should have a right. as long as they keep it within a group or whatever how that places works. they're not hurting anyone. i also like everyone here is more on facebook side and acting if all rp user were dicks or something and are happy those ppl were ban. XD

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    68. Jump ship to Google+ like every other intelligent person. I really hope Google market it well and Facebook falls off the face of the internet

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    69. Them nazis can have their ways...for now

      soon we will rule the internet, then the whole world

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    70. Well it´s not that they have anything against role playing, but in their TOS it says accounts that get created must be about yourself and not a fictional character. Even if it represents you through your oc.
      Pages however, are okay.

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    71. Quickly, to Google+!

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    72. Facebook has a tendency to do this every now and then. Its probably best to just not use Facebook for RPing. There is a lot of other places on the internet to use for it without random bans. I don't even see why people would use Facebook for RPing anyway.

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    73. -_- that sucks. I'm friends with an RPer/cosplayer from a different fandom, and also a brony, and it would suck to see them go because of facebook's ToS.

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    74. @Anonymous

      Nah, it's not that we're against roleplaying (in fact, I do it myself in another fandom), but Facebook is a really big risk who deletes accounts, and who suddenly sets up security programs to make sure your account is a real person and not a character.

      We just don't bother with facebook anymore, and it's best if rpers do their fun stuff somewhere... safer (and yes, FlankBook is real).

      Anyway, if it's true that FB is deleting accounts with userpics of ponies in it- that's another story.

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    75. Mine was a normal account but I got wiped because I had "too many friends"... I'm on G+ now @.@ Facebook can fuck off!

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    76. you got wiped because you had too may friends?.. Facebook sure sucks big time

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    77. One thing to remember people: There are MILLIONS of accounts on Facebook. It may seem like it's pointless and/or just unfair to remove those accounts, but removing "false accounts" saves them lots of server space.

      Any who were removed due to just having a pony profile pic were probably friends with RC accounts, and were just assumed to be one. Keep in mind a BIG majority of this stuff is automated and done with image-recognition software and the like. It's the natural conclusion the computer would make, that you were also an RP account. Solution? Just put a real picture as your profile. =/ If you REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want one of you, then just do something like take a really bad/blurred picture, or something in the dark, or a picture of your hand giving a thumbs up, or of a stuffed animal, or something like that.

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    78. How about creating a Diaspora server for Bronies? I know it's still in alpha stages but it's like Facebook, but open source!
      The Brony server could even help debugging Diaspora.
      https://joindiaspora.com/

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    79. They've even been deleting users real life accounts as well as the pony ones. Even if they use their real name.

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    80. If real-named users were deleted after being caught "out-of-character" somehow, that was a bad move, Facebook.

      I haven't felt the sting of the rest of y'all probably because the majority of my friends list is NOT bronies or role-players, but I feel for everypony of you. As for your mass migration to Google+, let's see how that goes. Infiltrate and saturate Google so that when it takes over the internet market, we follow right on its flank. Then it's another step towards CGS. Let's go, bronies, get creative; I know you can do this!

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    81. Lunar Stride on fb.. :c nobody knows me really but it was my one and only account- main.. and it's banned D; just like that T_T

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    82. GUYS!

      We must make Mark Zuckerburg himself join the herd. Then we can stop this madness.

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    83. my friends facebook account got wiped out so she had to make a new one

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    84. Idea: Post FiM episodes on your wall so we can get more bronies to join the herd and then see how they react. Zuckerberg knows all our accounts, believe me.

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    85. A friend of mine had no pony pictures of himself on his profile. His name is the same as a celebrity, but the last name has a small spelling difference. Facebook banned his account for "impersonating a celebrity" when he wasn't. He filed a complaint with them and they told him that he had to provide them with a photo ID proving that his name and DOB were what he had on his profile. So they aren't just deleting brony accounts. They're deleting normal users as well.

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    86. I like to go under apple fritter instead of my real name :/ id rather not put my real name out there. I dont RP at all, just go under a pony name :/

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