My Facebook Disappearance: End of Story?

by Nancy Marmolejo on October 11, 2009

in Facebook

Guess what?

I completely vanished from Facebook all this past week. It was totally bizarre and random so I wanted to share my tale with you in case this happens to you or anyone you know.

OK, I didn’t vanish COMPLETELY. Just my profile page. It said “page not found” when anyone tried to visit my profile page or try to post on my wall.

facebook-pagenotfound2

But the odd thing is I could log in, see the main feed, post status updates, post on other people’s walls, even check my inbox.

Kind of phantom-like and spooky. Friends flooded my Twitter stream and inbox with messages of concern that I was nowhere to be found.

I reassured everyone that the problem would be resolved soon and to hang with me on Twitter until Facebook fixed things up.

Between you, me and your screen, I had absolutely no idea how this would get fixed. Should I call Facebook? Call Mari Smith and see if she can pull some strings? Or maybe I should just go take an aromatherapy bath?

Aztec Warrior Queen Moment (that’s when I muster up my most resilient higher self and have her deal with sh*t):

I recently deleted (by accident) the last 2 years worth of photos from my computer as I was doing a back up, so I’m no stranger to letting things go. Life goes on. It’s much easier to move towards acceptance than to fight what is. (I’ve been reading Byron Katie’s “Loving What Is” so in honor of her, I shouted “I have no Facebook profile. How wonderful!”)

So here is my advice if this happens to you:

1. Stay calm. If you’ve been following my advice over the past few years, you’ll know to NEVER put all your social networking eggs in one basket. Did I panic? No. I leveraged all my other sites to stay top of mind.

disappeardfacebook

2. Have fun. The story of my disappearance was actually getting kind of fun. People asked me if I was in the 4th dimension, on vacation, on an island, in the witness protection program… we had a good time with it on Twitter and elsewhere.

facebookreply2leesa

3. Contact Facebook. (Notice how I didn’t say “contact Nancy Marmolejo”). I can commiserate with you, but you need to talk to the powers that be.

4. Ask your friends to contact Facebook on your behalf. If you can access a group, send them a message with the request.

5. Thank the people who helped you!

ellen@reply

You never know if and when things will happen, but always remember to keep a cool head and stay in a forward path.

I’m glad to be back, I missed my Facebook!

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  • Marina
    Hello,
    This excat same thing has happened to my facebook profile, everything else works, just cannot see the profile page. I have emailed FB but no response. how did you resolve yours?
  • Totally random... it just came back. I also asked my contacts to send a request for Facebook to find me and restore my profile.
  • marlenelockwood
    This was good for my morning laugh! And right after reading I went to facebook to be sure everything was cool there for me as well.

    I love your wit!
  • I'm glad to know that the FB problem I'm having probably isn't just me. My ability to accept Friend requests has disappeared. Everyone thinks I'm ignoring them! Good thing there's Twitter. And glad to find out having a fan page can serve as a backup! (Good tip from Donna!)
  • The problem with living in South African and being 9 hours ahead of the Pacific coast is that you tend to miss this kind of excitement 'cos you tend to be tucked up in bed as Twitter feeds the info :-)

    Nonetheless, glad you've made it safely through the quagmire that can be Facebook administration!

    (P.S. Love Byron Katie's "Loving what is" - I'm sure it gave you strength in this difficult time! ;-) )
  • Thanks for the warm welcome back, Clare. Glad you like Byron Katie too~!
  • Nancy,

    Thanks goodness the photo that looked like you, as one of the most famous people in the witness protection program really wasn't you:). I would have missed you
  • I seen you chatting with people about this on Twitter when it happened. "How horrible" was all I could think. I know the kind of effort it takes to build a large, solid facebook presence and to think this is how easy it can be taken away. And even if you don't do anything wrong.

    I hope facebook gets this kind of stuff figured out as they have become a vital cog in our marketing machines.

    Thanks for sharing!
  • Nancy:

    I didn't disappear, but everything except my photo was missing for a day or so until I clicked on the option "Diane and friends" when it suddenly reappeared. I had to do this a couple of times as it kept going back to some kind of private retreat. Of course it took awhile to figure out how to get it to reappear. The joys of technology! It sure does keep you on your toes.
  • There's no rest for the weary on Facebook, it seems. Here's to ongoing visibility for you and everyone else!
  • Name
    Did you ever find out what the issue was and how they fixed it?
  • As of today I haven't researched it, but will let peeps know if/when I find out.
  • Hi Nancy,
    I think FB has been having a lot of technical issues for the past month, I have noticed a few of my Californian friends being unavailable for long periods of time. Also Fan pages have been disappearing or becoming inaccessible. Glad that you made it back safe and sound.
  • Our application SocialSafe lets you backup your Facebook data (profile, friends, photos & wall posts) so if this happens again you have some insurance. It also provides a great 21st century diary for you to look over with out Time Capsule feature. See http://www.socialsafe.net. Cheers, Jules
  • Thanks for the resource Julian!
  • Nancy, sorry to hear of this happening to you. From your post, it looks like it was your personal profile page? Do you have a Fan Page? Maybe now is a good time to get one. It's a nice way to have a FaceBook back up in case you need it. I have a fan page that just sits so that, if I ever need it because of some implosion or other, I can transfer people there right away. I know that if FaceBook finds it unused, they may delete it anyway, but I'm doing what I can to prepare for the possible disaster. Look forward to seeing you back!
  • Thanks Donna Maria!
    I do have a Facebook fan page so this is a great reminder to others to create one as a back up. That's a great nudge to our peeps.
  • We are glad to have you back on Facebook also. Facebook has been doing fun things all other the place, so atleast you're not alone.
  • blissconnection
    We missed you, Nancy. Way to make lemonade with the lemons! Not surprised you turned this into a fun, witty adventure. We missed you!
  • blissconnection
    Oh thank goodness you are back and Way to Make Lemonaid out of your Lemos, Nancy! We missed you, too.
  • Wow Mick, didn't know that happened, but then I saw you on twitter so I wasn't worried!
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