One person made the comment: "FB made her page into a glorified funeral sign it sheet." I agreed with that. What I had told people privately was that her page was now like a gravestone at a cemetary. Someplace people would symbolically go to talk to her, but not someplace where she really was or ever had been".
My first line of attack is to try to spread through Facebook (seems ironic, I know). I know a lot of people read the blog yesterday (about 2500 according to the stats). If half of the people who read it, reposted the link, we would be well on the way to change. But I doubt that happened. I'm sure most people think like I do. Sure, I care about this issue, but I don't know anyone else who has been affected by it. But think about it...you don't know who is on your friend's friend lists. So, I ask everyone, if they see this, to please repost the link to the original blog. At the minimum it could help someone not make the mistake I made.
http://katylynnsays.blogspot.com/2010/10/facebook-stole-my-daughters-words.html
Some of the comments that I received were heart-breaking. A family who just memorialized a page last week. A woman who accidentally memorialized her husband's page. A family who asked for access to their child's page only to be told that since they had said the child was deceased, the page would be memorialized automatically. And worst of all, pages that were memorialized WITHOUT the knowledge of the immediate family!
The biggest problem with Facebook proliferation is that things move so quickly through everyone's wall. I know a lot of people who reposted the link, but even I, who was watching, didn't see the notification on my wall. So feel free to repost the link in a few days.
My second line of attack is to try to get the attention of the media. I am not going to do that immediately. I did contact my local newspaper yesterday (an affiliate of USA Today), but I don't expect that to go far. After thinking about it some, I decided to wait a week. Two reasons: 1. Elections are next week and that is going to use up a lot of media bandwidth. Anything we got would be buried. 2. Give time for the blog to spread, hopefully virally, but that is probably asking too much. Anyway, please comment ON THE BLOG itself. The comments on my Facebook and The Compassionate Friends Facebook page are very helpful, but if the media gets to my blog, they will only see the comments posted there.
Finally, although it got me nowhere before, I will also contact Facebook. You never know. If I can get it into the right hands, something might happen.
I am making no promises. I am not a mover and a shaker. I am a retired AF sergeant and a wife and a mother. I am asking for help now. If you think this is an issue, whether you personally have been affected by it or not, do something. Nothing huge, nothing time consuming, but do one thing. Repost the link. Send the link to your newspaper or TV station. Make one phone call. That's all it really takes--I hope. I'm not up to standing on street corners with signs or starting a petition or bringing a lawsuit. It just isn't my style. Maybe it is the style of someone else who finds out about this though. Maybe the right person will pick up the fight.
I do want to make very very clear that my blog is not paid. I do not get anything at all in any way from people visiting my blog. I have no financial interest at all in this cause or this subject or this blog. I do not advertise on my blog or allow anyone else to advertise on my blog.
Thank you all so much for your comments and more importantly for caring about my heartbreak.
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