Banned From Social Media!

 Aaaaaaaahhhh ... the old blog post, where I've ruminated, sarcastigated and blathered about many things under the big yellow sun. And then some.

And what better time than being banned from Facebook to resurrect a posting.

"Waitaminnit ... WHAT? You were BANNED from Facebook?!?"

Yep, sure was. Well ... not exactly banned but I might as well have been. The technical term was I was "restricted" from use; I couldn't post, comment or "like" anything on the site for a 24 hour period, ending around noon today. Here's the official notification received when I tried posting a comment on one of the groups I'm in:

At first, I thought I'd been cut off in that particular group. I shot a note to one of the administrator asking what the deal was and he informed me there was nothing he could determine as a reason for my restriction. That's when I did a little exploring and stumbled on the notification above.

Looking into the situation further, there are a whole slew of hoops you have to jump through to put in a request for appeal. But the kicker is Facebook doesn't tell you what, exactly, the infringing item was that got me sent on a time out. And, thinking about it, that makes sense. If they had to inform every single person they restict of what put them in the situation, that would take up gads of time and effort. I can only surmise Facebook figures if someone gets slapped with a violation the person being slapped should know what they're being disciplined for.

Except ... I don't.

So the next logical step was to retrace my steps ... and I figured my most recent steps were a good place to start.

Early yesterday morning I posted the 20th prompt of my month-long "Inktober" challenge where I draw and post a picture everyday in the month of October along with thousands of like-minded artists. The prompt was "Coral" and I decided to do something outside the obvious sea coral or color coral - I created and submitted an open-shelled scallop with its roe intact:

Now, for those not in the know, scallop roe (or "coral") is the bivalve's reproductive organs, colorful and completely edible. I choose this as part of my drawing. Was the posting of such the cause of my Facebook jail time? I mean ... flaunting female reproductive organs is pretty dicey, not exactly the thing upstanding members of the community do as a general rule. (At least none of the community that I choose to associate myself with, to be clear.)

That's what did it. That's what got me a 24-hour heave-ho. Right?

Well ... maybe not.

Later in the day I posted this picture on my friend Douglas Arthur's wall with the title "Well ... hello, Chewsday!" Maybe that's what did the trick:

I mean ... there's Godzilla, king of the monsters, casually chomping on a couple train passenger cars, most likely picked freely from some train yard and probably containing people inside. Men, women, children, grandparents, etc. By posting such an image, does this mean I advocate the destruction of private property not to mention the wanton and reckless killing of dozens of innocent lives? How callous of me! What an asshole I am! Surely THAT was the reason I was ousted for a day!

Except ... I don't think so. I've seen dozens of similar images posted out there (and not just of Godzilla) performing even more heinous acts. And you don't see THOSE people condemned for such.

And then I thought some more and wondered: What else could have caused me to be labeled such a cad, such a ne'er-do-well?  And the answer that came up as: I haven't the faintest damned clue.

I've been an upstanding member of the Facebook community for 11 years and never once previously have I been restricted from accessing my account and contributing questions and comments to my fellow socialites.

And you know what? Going through the motions to try and determine what led to that condition in the first place simply isn't worth the time and effort.

So I'll just go merrily along my way and do my best to keep my shoes tied and my nose clean.

But I'll make certain to add to my information biography on the site that I was indeed and in fact banned on October 20th / 21st for a 24-hour period.

Because really ... I am an asshole.