Oops!
Now this is funny. It is being reported here and here that Facebook appears to be doing a mass sweep and deleting the accounts of Second Life avatars. Meanwhile, Linden Lab continues to deeply integrate Facebook into the Second Life avatar profile, thus suggesting that perhaps this was not the best strategy to employ.
Daniel Voyager has this to say:
There was mention around 6am SLT this morning on Plurk then quickly followed later on Twitter of reports saying that Facebook have been cancelling SL Facebook accounts. I saw a sudden drop in my friend count and I think many others noticed that too. Just be aware that Facebook have in the past removed many avs and will probably continue to do so.
And Sadie Pippita has this to say:
Logging into Facebook today was like logging into a virtual funeral. I watched connections drop ten at a time until I lost roughly 70. Yes, Facebook deleted 70 of my connections, but sadly thousands of accounts have actually been deleted. About three and a half years ago I heard a rumor that Facebook was going to begin sifting through accounts and start deleting Second Life avatar profiles. Well over three years later they have kept that promise leaving many of my connections baffled as to where their Second Life friends have gone.
Now I have to wonder if it is worth spending any time creating a business presence on Facebook. After all, if they can wipe out all your work on a whim, why would I take the risk?
Oh, and before you think this is just limited to Second Life avatars who play SL, and thus as a content creator/business owner I need not worry, it seems that content creators who have nothing to do with SL have also found all their work gone at the whim of someone over at the big FB:
Got enemies on Facebook? Facebook is so eager to protect copyright that the mere accusation of copyright infringement is enough to get an account locked. Ars found this out the hard way Thursday morning when our own Facebook page became inaccessible, with no warning, no explanation, and no clear appeal process.
To make matters worse, Facebook is not responsive to inquiries about account lockout, and the company provides absolutely zero useful direction on how to rectify a complaint.
ARS Technica is part of Conde Nast, which is a large publishing entity. If even they can get their work deep-sixed by Facebook, then it is deeply troubling. Anyway, I’ll not get into this rant further, and I will tepidly use Facebook in all likelihood, but I certainly won’t depend on it. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to watch how Linden Lab responds to this development.