Facebook page decimation

[M R M]

Anybody else's author page on facebook fall affoul of the strange definition of "news" and get blocked?

[TimothyEllis]

Mine seems fine.

[Simon Haynes]

Mine's still up. I never categorised it as News, which might make a difference.

BTW it's not Facebook's definition of 'news'.  They're abiding by the definition in the legislation.

[M R M]

of this I am aware.  I actually consider facebook the good guys in this,  even if it cost me my content.

[Simon Haynes]

Yep, I noticed you'd put 'news' in quotes too. And I agree FB is doing what they have to, because the penalties for getting it wrong are pretty bad.

[TimothyEllis]

Yep, I noticed you'd put 'news' in quotes too. And I agree FB is doing what they have to, because the penalties for getting it wrong are pretty bad.

My surprise was Google not doing the same. All they needed to do was cut out Aus news completely, and they wouldn't have noticed the loss at all. But aus news would have.

Anybody else's author page on facebook fall affoul of the strange definition of "news" and get blocked?

I don't quite get how that would happen? Was there something about the setup or activity on the page which made it look like news?

Presumably you can appeal the decision?

[M R M]

So last night I noticed the mobile version of the facebook site still had the "write something" box so I used it to say the page is not news, and now the page has been restored in full.

[R. C.]

Looks like FB and Z'Berg hit the big time: The story is the main banner on Drudge.

Alongside the headline: "Australian law could make internet ‘unworkable’, says World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee."

Cheers,
R.C.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I think there's only one properly Australian way to settle this.

[Simon Haynes]

I did a post on my FB author page last night (2000+ subscribers) and 12 hours later it's had 30 views, or down 96% according to Facebook. So I'm guessing it counts as a news page elsewhere in the world, and isn't being shown.

Fortunately I've spent the last couple of years building up the mailing list/newsletter list. I was there for the big Myspace collapse, and I saw Yahoo, Hotbot and other household names crumble into obscurity. Email is still going strong, despite the naysayers, possibly because it's decentralised and not really owned by anyone. I still have people on my mailing list who joined it 20 years ago, and you can't say that about many social media sites.

[TimothyEllis]

I did a post on my FB author page last night (2000+ subscribers) and 12 hours later it's had 30 views,

I call that good viewing stats for FB.

Facebook never shows more than 5% of the people who like your page anything posted on it.

Facebook for me is spread across 4 things. People who friended me, people who friended my father's old account, my Group, and my Page. I post the same thing in all of them, and people see one of them at some point.

I don't rely on it, but my FB fans are the ones who buy pre-orders as soon as they go up.

There's a lot of total crap being posted around about FB at the moment, and my expectation is in the long run, there won't be any change to FB at all.

FB stopped showing people Page posts at the same time they put the boost button on. That's old news. I have no doubt they play around with the algorithm still, and now it's being tweaked more than usual because of the current insanity going on.

[Simon Haynes]

Reach for my last five non-boosted facebook posts:

Yesterday: Was 30, since climbed to 87

Dec 19: 207 (10%)
Nov 29: 221 (11%)
Nov 19: 322 (15%)
Nov 2: 248 (13%)

I felt it was worth pointing out the difference.

[notthatamanda]

I did a post on my FB author page last night (2000+ subscribers) and 12 hours later it's had 30 views, or down 96% according to Facebook. So I'm guessing it counts as a news page elsewhere in the world, and isn't being shown.

Fortunately I've spent the last couple of years building up the mailing list/newsletter list. I was there for the big Myspace collapse, and I saw Yahoo, Hotbot and other household names crumble into obscurity. Email is still going strong, despite the naysayers, possibly because it's decentralised and not really owned by anyone. I still have people on my mailing list who joined it 20 years ago, and you can't say that about many social media sites.

I'm glad to hear you think personal author newsletters are still effective. I think those are different from the paid promo ones. Do you mind if I sign up for your newsletter to see what works? I sent my first one a couple of weeks ago and lost 2 of my 15 subscribers immediately.

[Simon Haynes]

Sure, go for it.  Be warned that I'm slack about sending. I wouldn't use myself as a model for efficient, regular newsletters, that's for sure.

There are always multiple unsubscribes after every send.  I used to take it personally, but people sign up for things and change their minds all the time.

I try and keep the ratio of newsy chat stuff to book sales at about 80/20.  Most of the chat stuff is about my books and the writing of, because I figure that's why they signed up for an author's newsletter in the first place.

I currently have a smidge over 3000 subscribers, and that's after a huge cleanout 2 months back where I ditched everyone who'd never opened or clicked anything I sent out.

[R. C.]

This is not going to end well for someone...

https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-australia-publishing-scott-morrison-18e807cf804828752e9ed287ba3ec1d6

https://apnews.com/article/90e5e81f501346f8779cb2f8b8880d9c

Cheers,
R.C.

[TimothyEllis]

This is not going to end well for someone...

https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-australia-publishing-scott-morrison-18e807cf804828752e9ed287ba3ec1d6

https://apnews.com/article/90e5e81f501346f8779cb2f8b8880d9c

Typical double down tactics.

Instead of admitting they didn't see that coming, they get outraged about it.

Anyone with half an understanding of the internet saw that as Facebook's default response.

[R. C.]

... Facebook's default response.

Google and the rest are going to let FB lead the fight and then side with the victor.

Cheers,
R.C.

[notthatamanda]

Sure, go for it.  Be warned that I'm slack about sending. I wouldn't use myself as a model for efficient, regular newsletters, that's for sure.

There are always multiple unsubscribes after every send.  I used to take it personally, but people sign up for things and change their minds all the time.

I try and keep the ratio of newsy chat stuff to book sales at about 80/20.  Most of the chat stuff is about my books and the writing of, because I figure that's why they signed up for an author's newsletter in the first place.

I currently have a smidge over 3000 subscribers, and that's after a huge cleanout 2 months back where I ditched everyone who'd never opened or clicked anything I sent out.

Thanks. I didn't take it too personally. I was also relieved that mailchimp took care of it automatically. I got one replacement subscriber already.

[TimothyEllis]

... Facebook's default response.

Google and the rest are going to let FB lead the fight and then side with the victor.

Quite probably. But Facebook doesn't need to do anything now at all.

The site is not a news service, and they don't 'take' anything from other sites themselves. Just distribute what is posted there. So technically, turning off news is no big deal for Facebook itself, and they won't even notice it's all gone in the general scheme of things.

Lots of rabid posting on Quora at the moment, with Rupert's usual BS being parroted. Lots of claims of FB 'taking' from news sites. In fact, it's just news sites posting on FB themselves, and other people posting links. They removed the pages, and are not allowing the links. Problem solved for them.

The problem is not on Facebook's end, but Rupert's and the Fed govt's.

[Anarchist]

I think there's only one properly Australian way to settle this.

I'm ignorant about what's happening with Facebook and Australian news.

But when there is a dispute of any kind in Australia, this is definitely the way to handle it.

[Anarchist]

I did a post on my FB author page last night (2000+ subscribers) and 12 hours later it's had 30 views, or down 96% according to Facebook. So I'm guessing it counts as a news page elsewhere in the world, and isn't being shown.

Fortunately I've spent the last couple of years building up the mailing list/newsletter list. I was there for the big Myspace collapse, and I saw Yahoo, Hotbot and other household names crumble into obscurity. Email is still going strong, despite the naysayers, possibly because it's decentralised and not really owned by anyone. I still have people on my mailing list who joined it 20 years ago, and you can't say that about many social media sites.

This has been one of the main arguments for maintaining mailing lists: control.

And yeah, email still works. The people who say is doesn't work are speaking from ignorance.

[notthatamanda]

I think sometimes it's confusing whether people are talking about paid newsletters promos (eg-free booksy) or personal author newsletters.

[Simon Haynes]

I try to distinguish by calling them either promos or mailing lists. I sometimes refer to my mailing list as a newsletter list, but I don't consider the freebooksy/bookbub/etc promos 'news' exactly.