One great feature about facebook is they allow you to post via email. Until recently, you could get your (*secret) personal publishing address at www.facebook.com/mobile.

To the dissapointment of at least one person it’s no longer possible to get this address from the previously-cited page, nor is it even possible to get this address from a normal browser on your PC anymore.

Why would you want to post by email? Actually, the fact that Google Plus or G+ or whatever they call themselves doesn’t allow you to post by email means they’re currently excluded from the content I generate. I realized a long time ago that my facebook friends and twitter followers are different people and that some people on facebook don’t have twitter and vice versa. It’s been easy for me to cross-post content to both networks, especially photos I take and caption and push out to the world using email posting addresses.

Maybe Google will figure it out one day but until then, facebook and twitter are the most important places for me to post info.

Enter the iPhone or iPad…

Thankfully, if you’re using a browser that doesn’t support photo uploads, you can still get the facebook personal publishing address – simply navigate to the touch or mobile version of the facebook site at touch.facebook.com or m.facebook.com with your iPhone or iPhone and hit the photo button. Voila! Your personal publishing address … which you should keep secret, since anyone can post to your wall/timeline with the address.

If you ever change your facebook password, you’ll have to go to this page again as the address changes every time you update your password. Happy posting!

Facebook is always full of little localization/location-sensitive tricks. I started to take notice a few years ago on a trip to Mexico when I was asked if I’d like to change my language to Spanish. At the time, it appeared that facebook used Geotargeting to figure out where in the world you were. They still do this and also have an arsenal of methodologies they test to make it easier for people to connect to you.

• What’s your Japanese name?

One of the languages I’ve put on my facebook profile is Nihongo, or Japanese. This prompted facebook to ask me if I had a Japanese name, which undoubtedly would make it easier for Japanese users to connect with me on facebook, if I were of Japanese descent.

• One-time use QR codes

On a recent trip to Japan, I noticed several things popped up in the sidebar while communicating on facebook. One of the things that stuck out was a one-time QR code that allowed me to log in on my Japanese mobile phone

• What Train Station is nearest to you?

On that same recent trip, after changing my current home location to Tokyo, Japan, facebook asked what train station was closest to me.

 

  

I recently hired a new virtual assistant who resides in Kenya. He’s sharp, he gets my directives and is efficient. The hitch? Apparently facebook doesn’t really like him.

On four (4)  separate occasions this week, facebook temporarily locked us both out of my account. This has not only repeatedly disrupted my authorizations from other applications and social media work, klout, facebook messenger (now a vital communication piece), and Microsoft Outlook  integration, but it’s sucked a bunch of my time up, too!

It seems only I can unlock my account from my office computer, so poor Sam sits idle at night and then has to wait for me to come to the office in the morning to unlock the accounts.

Can you say annoying? After jumping through facebook’s little hoop four times, all I can say is can you get the hint, facebook?!

Well, no more – I recently turned on the VPN box I have sitting in Amazon’s cloud. The same VPN in Singapore that I used to get on facebook from China. Let’s hope that Sam can use this to get online and get to work.

I’d hate turn him to the door because of a social network that won’t let me inherently trust a whole country or ISP. I can’t imagine what would happen if I traveled to Kenya and wanted to post updates on my travels. Yikes!

Apparently not, but facebook may discriminate against you if you’re too skinny. Well, if your photo is too skinny, that is.

I recently encountered an issue with posting a photo from an app on my iPhone called IncrediBooth. When I sent the message to facebook’s email to posting system, the images simply disappeared. When I tried a  manual upload I got the message as pictured above: “The photo was either too tall or too skinny.”

IncrediBooth’s own internal facebook posting tool actually adds white padding to an image to make the image a square as a workaround but if you want to have a tall, rectangular image, for now you’re out of luck.

Facebook recently implemented this change after users started hacking their profiles to include banners and other assorted stylistic changes as seen on Alexandre Oudin‘s profile. Find out more about the hack to see what I’m talking about, HERE.

It’s interesting to travel and use facebook from foreign places. In China and Vietnam, for example, in most cases you’ll be blocked by the Government’s firewall and then you’ll be subjected to use a VPN or some other access technique to get onto facebook. In other places, facebook delivers localized tools or design.

On a recent trip to Vietnam, I was forced to use a VPN that I set up in Singapore. It was interesting to see that facebook asked me (in the sidebar) straight up if I was in Singapore, if I was visiting Singapore or a permanent resident.

On my most recent trip to Japan, more neatness. Facebook makes it easy for Japanese users to log into their site with a disposable autologin QR code as seen below.

Use Facebook on your mobile phone

We’ve been working hard to make Facebook Mobile usable in Japan. There is still a long way to go but most of the basic functionality is there. Please check it out and let us know what you think.

Facebook Mobile is helpful for keeping up with your friends when you’re on the go.

Read the “auto .ogin QR code” with your mobile phone.

http://m.facebook.com

Do not share this QR code with anyone else – it is personalized to log you in automatically. For your protection, the QR code can be used only once and expires after 24 hours.

Click the image (above) for the fullsize screenshot.

It looks like Facebook uses geo targeting based on IP address to find out what country you’re in. They base their ads and various other ‘features’ on this and sometimes you get odd quirks.

During my last trip to Mexico, I dragged along my laptop and connected it to the hotel’s Wifi. Upon logging into Facebook, I got the following message:

¡Bienvenidos a Facebook en Español!
Ahora hispanohablantes en todo el mundo pueden unirse a Facebook. Conéctate co todos tus amigos, en cualquier idioma.

Puedes cambiar tu preferencia de idioma ahora: English

Usa el buscador de amigos para ver si mas de tus amigos se han unido e invita a todos tus amigos hispanohablantes a que se registren.

According to the Facebook Blog, the Spanish language feature was released in January. No word on when geo targeting made its way to Facebook but likely this happened before the whole language thing.

On another trip, I took my laptop to Calgary and again logged into Facebook. From that point on, I started to see Calgary centric ads on Facebook. Now, even though I’m back in Vancouver, it seems that Facebook still thinks I’m somewhere in Alberta. It might be that the IP address I’m currently using isn’t listed in their geo ip database so the last definite location they have me set at is Calgary.

In February, 2008, I received a disturbing message from Facebook:

Warning! your account could be disabled.
You are using this feature to spam other users. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features will result in your account being disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.

Well, this was after being kicked off from Facebook in January, so I was a bit on guard. The error must have been inadvertent – how the heck could i be spamming by writing on a wall of an event that I was unable to attend? I asked the people at Facebook and received a response. More on this after the jump.

My original message to Facebook:

From: Facebook (raj@***)
To: info@facebook.com
Subject: Events Help: WTF: Warning! Your account could be disabled.

Dear Facebook,

Strange, got the ‘Warning! Your account could be disabled.’ message when looking at the wall for an event… specifically

http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=8525087191

I haven’t written anything and find the placement of this warning to be VERY ODD.

Is this an error or, am I in error?

Please let me know.

Regards,

RT

The folks at FB were slow to respond – about two days transpired before I got this tidbit:

From: appeals+d726l6t@facebook.com [mailto:appeals+d726l6t@facebook.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 4:33 PM
To: Urban Mixer
Subject: Re: Events Help: WTF: Warning! Your account could be disabled.

Hi Raj,

We are aware of the problem that you described and hope to resolve it as soon as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Emma
User Operations
Facebook

Bottom line, if Facebook freaks out on you and you haven’t been doing anything wrong, don’t fret – just let ‘em know and hopefully you won’t get the firing line.

UPDATE – September 8th, 2008:

Looks to be a pretty important topic out there. It appears that one out of a thousand visitors that view this blog post thinks that either I’m facebook or that I’m affiliated with facebook. Let me be clear:

I am neither facebook, nor am I affiliated with facebook.

I repeat,

I AM NOT FACEBOOK.

Leaving a comment on this blog asking to be reinstated will only lead you to being publically ridiculed.

Now, back to regular programming…

Earlier this year, in January, my facebook account got suspended. I’ve always seen it as an opportunity to talk about the various implications (and opportunities) presented by this suspension but it’s taken me forever to finally get to it.

Read past the jump to find out more about it.

The setup – after rising from my slumber on January 15th, I noticed that I was no longer able to log into my Facebook account. No biggie, a growing social network always has problems, fine. After reviewing my email, I noted two messages in succession:

From: Facebook [mailto:info+oplfdpiz@facebookmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:25 AM
To: Urban Mixer
Subject: Warning: Your Facebook Account

Hi,

Your account has been disabled for persistent misuse of the site. Please contact disabled@facebook.com for more information.

The Facebook Team

From: Facebook [mailto:warning+oplfdpiz@facebookmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:29 AM
To: Urban Mixer
Subject: Facebook Warning

Hello,

You uploaded a photo that violates our Terms of Use, and this photo has been removed. Among other things, photos containing nudity, drug use, or other obscene content are not allowed, nor are photos that attack an individual or group. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page at http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=33.

The Facebook Team

Okay, so maybe something I’ve uploaded to Facebook was considered to be inappropriate. I initially considered the Hotbox photos since they contain painted girls…

The only photos that I have uploaded appear to still be intact in my profile – so to date, the phantom photo or photos in question have never been identified.

The back-and-forth – after sending my initial response, I received a canned message from Facebook regarding posting photos of ‘this kind.’

From: appeals+d7x20fu@facebook.com [mailto:appeals+d7x20fu@facebook.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 1:56 PM
To: Urban Mixer
Subject: Re: RE: RE: Facebook Warning raj@urbanmixer.com

Hi Raj,

Facebook has limits in place to prevent behavior that other users may find annoying or abusive. These limits restrict the rate at which you can use certain features on the site. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with the specific rates that have been deemed abusive.

Your account was disabled because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions when requesting friends, despite having been warned to slow down.

However, after reviewing your situation, we have reactivated your account, and you should now be able to log in. Please be aware that if your account is disabled again, we will not be able to reactivate it. Once logged in, please slow down the rate at which you request friends. We appreciate your cooperation going forward.

Also, some photos that you uploaded have been removed for violating Facebook’s Terms of Use. Photos containing nudity, drug use, or other graphic content are not allowed, nor are photos that depict violence or that attack an individual or group. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, we are unable to provide further information about the removed photos.

In order to prevent this from happening in the future, please refrain from posting photos of this kind and remove any that still exist on the site. For more information on conduct prohibited by Facebook, please read our Terms of Use, which can be accessed by clicking on the “terms” link at the bottom of any Facebook page.

Thanks for your understanding,

Bella

Customer Support Representative

Facebook

I’m happy to say that I still don’t know what ‘kind’ of photos they’re referring to. Now they’re accusing me of something different – adding friends too quickly. They’re probably right, but I never received a warning in doing so, but yes, I did ad alot of friends on FB in spurts to grow my profile. Being in the media business means you know ALOT of people. And the vast majority seem to be on facebook, how serendipitous, I say.

It’s interesting to note that about 4 hours into the situation, friends and family started sending emails asking me if I had removed and blocked them from being friends with me in Facebook. According to those still in Facebook land, it appears that I completely disappeared from the network including all my content – videos and photos tagged with friends in them.

If one could fast forward a few decades, imagine the implications of how the world will change and how easy it may be to just flick a switch to literally shut down a person’s communications with the outside world. Can you say Miniority Report?

Anyways, they reinstated my account … or at least partially so. Upon reinstatement, friends still had problems seeing content related to my profile. It took a few days and subsequent emails to facebook to get this up and running. Check out the image gallery below to see how it all looked (you might have to zoom all the way).

Here’s the original dialog:

From: Facebook (raj@urbanmixer.com)

To: info@facebook.com

Subject: Groups Help: account in weirdness mode

Dear Facebook,

Since being reinstated back on Facebook,

1 – friends and family complain that they’re no longer on my friends list

2 – the groups that I administer think I’m no longer a member of the respective groups?

Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11

—–End Original Message to Facebook—–

From: appeals+d7x20fu@facebook.com [mailto:appeals+d7x20fu@facebook.com]

Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:23 AM

To: Urban Mixer

Subject: Re: RE: RE: Facebook Warning raj@urbanmixer.com

Hi Raj,

We are aware of the problem that you described and hope to resolve it as soon as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Bella

Customer Support Representative

Facebook

From: appeals+ngl5yt1@facebook.com [mailto:appeals+ngl5yt1@facebook.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:19 PM
To: Urban Mixer
Subject: Re: Re: RE: RE: Facebook Warning raj@urbanmixer.com

Hi Raj,

This problem should now be resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience, and enjoy the site! Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Clark

User Operations

Facebook

From: Rajesh Taneja On Behalf Of Urban Mixer
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 11:27 AM
To: ‘Facebook Support’
Cc: Urban Mixer
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Facebook Warning raj@urbanmixer.com

Yes,

Considering that my profile is 100% intact even though in two cases now I’ve been banned for inappropriate content (photos?), I am concerned that I’ll be banned again for the same offending item since nothing has been removed.

Can you comment on this? Alleviate my concern, perhaps – let me know that as at current my profile is fine, not offensive and not at risk of being deleted?

Regards,

Today’s quote of the day:

“To reach (our goal), we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail and not drift, not lie at anchor.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., physician

Rajesh Taneja,

President

SSID Inc., A Venture Technology Firm

+1 800 688-1868 x 911

Visit our website at http://www.ssid.net

From: appeals+d7x20fu@facebook.com [mailto:appeals+d7x20fu@facebook.com]
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 1:55 PM
To: Urban Mixer
Subject: Re: RE: RE: Facebook Warning raj@urbanmixer.com

Hi Raj,

For technical reasons, we are unable to provide you with the removed photos. We recommend that you refrain from posting any photos on the site that may violate our Terms of Use in order to prevent future complications with your account. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Thanks,

Bella

Customer Support Representative

Facebook

In the end, I’ve seen a few more blips on Facebook. Writing on a wall, for example almost got me booted – it was confirmed as a system error by customer support. One wonders if the original issue, above, was also a Facebook error.