Such a painful topic.

Ouch.

Whilst I was NOT at fault, there is something to learn from my story. 

So, why, since early July, I no longer have Facebook?

Because of a Meta vulnerability that is discussed here, in this SiliconANGLE article - https://siliconangle.com/2023/05/28/facebook-users-lose-accounts-due-unknown-linked-spam-instagram-accounts/

Basically, if you have ever run advertising on Instagram or Facebook, you would also have a Meta account that connects the two. You can have the strongest passwords, two-step authentication on Facebook (LIKE I DID!!!) and STILL... there is a vulnerability that allows the criminals to attach spam Instagram accounts to your accounts centre and.... BAM! your Facebook account is suspended. 

And to my horror, I indeed discovered a weird spammer account attached to my Instagram, which I promptly removed, but THAT... did NOTHING to help me. If you do a search, the fake account no longer exists, and thus cannot be further deleted, but I am still suspended. And unable to manage my Facebook page. How is that fair?

I won't bore you with ALL the details, but I have spent hours and hours over the last month trying everything. Reading every thread out there. Filled in every form out there. Even paid to get the blue tick (and with that chat and email support) for Instagram. I have opened four support tickets, with over a dozen threads to and fro each. Refused a blasé "sorry we can't help you answer", but every time the end result is.....after a series of "we care for you soooooo very much and are so sorry for the trouble you are going through, please click here or read this article...." statements that Meta Support copy pasted from their manuals, they simply state there is nothing they can do to help.  

In the last support thread I received, I was given an email address to reach out to "higher levels", as they deemed that it was the right thing to do.

This got my hopes up. However... the email address given rejected my email:

Delivery incomplete
There was a temporary problem delivering your message to...

The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect. For more information...

I did not give up, thinking perhaps it was the link in my email that they did not like, and I tried again... 

Delivery incomplete
There was a temporary problem delivering your message to...

The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect. For more information...

I did not give up, thinking perhaps it was the email heading, and I tried again....

Delivery incomplete
There was a temporary problem delivering your message to...

The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect. For more information...

After speaking to a number of other people that have faced the similar, and in many cases worse situation (ending up thousands spent through their Meta ads account), I am about to face the facts and NOT DO FACEBOOK, or anything that needs a Meta account, like advertising... sad as it is. 

Enough of whinging. This was supposed to be a short post explaining the WHY. 

This takes me to the REAL POINT of my blog post. Staying in touch with your community. 

I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you who are following along my art journey.

Having an encouraging and interactive community of people who get you and whose thinking aligns with yours, who contribute to your life, and whose life you enrich in turn -  IS SUPER IMPORTANT.

And to rely solely on a third party provider, such as Facebook (or Meta) is fickle, when things go wrong. And things CAN go wrong, even if you do everything right - like in my case. 

So, if you would like to be part of my community, and my art journey, please check that you are subscribed to my newsletter, and you have done so with your current email address. 

Also, feel free to email me directly info@heladonela.com - 

A lot has happened recently in my life, and I apologise if I have missed your email, and you are still waiting for a reply. Resend.