Has Facebook Outlived It's Usefulness?

Let me just say at the outset that I have never really been a big fan of Facebook. I have been a subscriber since the early days of the service but really don't post much of a personal nature. In the past year, I have posted 5 times about my personal life. The bulk of my postings are to promote this blog or to re-post articles I find interesting. About five years ago, I started a Facebook page to promote the online radio station I started in 2014. The Mad Music Asylum page posts items of rock and roll history and rock and roll trivia virtually every day. I use a service called hootsuite to automate daily or specific timed postings and another service called social jukebox that automatically posts evergreen items like promos and specialty weekly programs. I like these services for which I pay a small monthly fee because I can set it and forget it. I also have a twitter account for the radio station and, as a matter of fact, a distinct twitter account for all four of the streaming stations I have created. The aforementioned services also work with twitter postings. I have not had problem one with twitter. Facebook is another ball of wax.

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Let me now tell you about my experiences with Facebook over the past month or so. As I said, I like to schedule my posts and then let them run. I don't check my facebook page on an hourly, daily or sometimes even a weekly basis. I try to interact with facebook as little as possible, mainly because recently I cannot log on without Facebook prompting me to spend money boosting a post. I admit I have done this in the past but I doubt I will spend another nickel with Facebook. On March 28, two weeks ago, I posted an item about the release of Led Zeppelin's album "Houses of the Holy" which was released on that date in 1973. As is my custom, I always post a photo along with what ever item of trivia I am mentioning so I posted this photo along with the item.

This album cover photo has been in the public consciousness for over 45 years and I have posted the same item many times in the past (every March 28th for the past few years). This year, however, Facebook, in it's wisdom, flagged me and cited me for violating their community standards. My 22 year-old son just got a laugh out of it saying "I can see an ISIS beheading video on Facebook but can't look at the butt of a three year old kid. That is why I have deleted my Facebook account". Sad to say but I hear that a lot from younger people and especially millennials. Facebook has become passe for many of them. They think of facebook as a place where their parents hang out and, really, did you want to hang out with your parents? Anyway, back to community standards, I looked back and saw that none of my daily posts had uploaded to facebook in about a week. I thought it had to be a stupid oversight and asked that the review team reevaluate their decision. They did and came back with the same answer.

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At this point, its no use arguing with Facebook so I have let it go. My page is posting again so I guess that is that; or is it? In looking back through my facebook postings none of my evergreen posts have been showing up since February 22. I first thought it was something on my end through the socialjukebox site. After checking, there is nothing wrong with socialjukebox but there is something bad wrong with Facebook.

As we have come to know, Facebook's motto is "move fast and break things" and I do indeed believe that they have now moved too fast and are well on their way to breaking themselves.

Reference:
The Mad Music Asylum
Mad Music Radio
Hootsuite
Social Jukebox