Today, Friday, March 1, 2024 CARDINAL NEWS is sharing a message forwarded to the CARDINAL NEWS Complaint Department.
This is just an FYI to anyone who is concerned about spam — especially on Facebook.
SPAM DETAILS …
First of all you should know, CARDINAL NEWS doesn’t work for Facebook, and CARDINAL NEWS definitely is not interested in becoming a slave to a system that lacks adequate spam control features that are currently available from Facebook. That’s right, spam control features available to Facebook administrators are atrocious and inadequate, and Facebook’s own proactive controls (there aren’t any) available to prevent spam from even entering threads are even more atrocious.
Sharing our articles on Facebook by using our official Facebook pages is a feature that CARDINAL NEWS provides somewhat grudgingly, and is really only continued because Facebook social media is one of many popular methods that people use to get free news feeds. However, these Facebook news feeds are not the most sophisticated available to readers, and Facebook feeds are really only popular because they are simple to apply. And sorry to be blunt, Facebook as a news source is mainly used by people who are too lazy, or too unsophisticated, or maybe too busy to take the time to set up the more sophisticated RSS feed services or other feed services that are available.
One of our options at CARDINAL NEWS would be to shut down our Facebook pages completely. It’s been considered. The ongoing, constant question is: Does Facebook add to CARDINAL NEWS quality as an online newspaper, or does it detract from CARDINAL NEWS value?
CARDINAL NEWS generally eliminates and reports spam comments ranging from within 2 minutes to about 24 hours. If a spam comment is sitting in a thread for a prolonged period, it means that CARDINAL NEWS is working on more important things than fighting the dregs of society that inject spam into Facebook threads.
Readers’ safety from spam is important to CARDINAL NEWS, but by now most of you should be aware of what spam comments look like and know how to avoid spam comments.
Frankly, if there is a choice between fighting spam, and working on a news report, or even getting some rest … the spam might sit there in the thread a little longer than usual.
Having said that, you should know it is a fun sport to shut down a spam message within 2 minutes of it being posted on a Facebook thread.
On the other hand, CARDINAL NEWS enjoys providing a service to people that respect the CARDINAL NEWS service. CARDINAL NEWS recognizes that people either respect CARDINAL NEWS, and are on our side regarding spam (and are generally on our side regarding our mission), or you’re somebody who can’t wait to throw us under the bus for something that is actually the fault of Facebook.
Let’s face it, the people that are civil to CARDINAL NEWS may get some extra help when they need it. As for the uncivil people, CARDINAL NEWS reserves the right to ignore you, call you out, or even block you from participating on CARDINAL NEWS social media — the same way CARDINAL NEWS blocks spammers.
Now for the message in the COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT FILE and the CARDINAL NEWS reply …
COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT …
COMPLAINT:
Hi Cardinal AH, will you monitor your FB page please? Your posts are filled with bot replies with scam links that have malicious software threats. I will unfollow your page until you find a way to prevent this going forward. Thank you.
— Karen Serges (FB account followed by 2 people)
[Yes, her name really is Karen … didn’t notice at first.]
REPLY:
Dear Karen,
Actually CARDINAL NEWS is more likely to remove spam compared to other pages available on Facebook. CARDINAL NEWS also notifies readers in the post that spam has been eliminated, and for your safety provides a link for more information about SPAM (Arlingtoncardinal.com/spam — don’t know of any other Facebook page that provides this helpful information).
If you happen to be a true follower of CARDINAL NEWS Facebook social media, you certainly would have seen some of these spam alerts from CARDINAL NEWS.
Did it occur to you that this is an issue that is the responsibility of Facebook? … and that it is Facebook’s system that is the problem?
Have you thought about the time and energy it takes to report these spam offenses to Facebook — taking away time and energy to publish the actual news?
Have you considered whether Facebook even responds to these spam reports from Facebook page administrators adequately?
It would have been more civil of you to provide a link to the specific post that had the spam so that it could be removed and reported, instead of “schooling” CARDINAL NEWS regarding “malicious software threats” and warning that you will ‘unfollow’ the page (as if that unfollow gives you some kind of special power).
Why don’t you try complaining to Facebook? However, good luck even getting a response from Facebook (Hint: Mark Zuckerberg could not care less. Additionally, overworked Facebook employees or third party moderators could not care less about your concerns about spam or any other of your customer service concerns while using Facebook — probably because they are burnt out).
NOTE: Facebook doesn’t actually have a Customer Service Department that provides individual attention to people or businesses with concerns Facebook accounts.