How Much Is Too Much?

Good question. I tend to post a lot of photos to social media. I’m in many groups, each with different guidelines. I try to abide by all the guidelines set down by each. Since they are all different, I sometimes I get it wrong, and an admin will tell me and I will apologize. Doesn’t happen often, easily fixed with an apology and a virtual handshake.

So it came as quite a surprise when a group admin unceremoniously blocked me from posting or commenting in their group for two weeks, AND deleted all my previous posts in the group. Yes, gone.

Clearly, I caught that admin on a bad day. But no group rules were broken. The feedback given was that I had posted too frequently. No rules covered frequency of posts, and frankly I was posting the same content to other groups at the same time. No problems anywhere else. Nothing broke group rules, nothing was offensive, political, or in any way contentious. Quite the opposite, my posts are very positive and upbeat. Just pretty pictures, enjoyed by many, and pretty popular. I may have posted too frequently, in which case a simple message from an admin to tone it down would have kept things amicable. But blocking me for two weeks? As well as deleting all my previous posts (about 50 during the last six months, or one every few days, hardly excessive)? I would say that that is too much. No bueno.

I happen to know one of the admins in this group, so I reached out for clarification. I’m waiting while they confer with the other admins, to see who did what and why. Fair. but in the meantime I’m in limbo, wondering if I even want to remain a member in a group that takes such drastic action without warning. It could happen again, for some other imagined offense which also didn’t break group rules. I just want to post pretty pictures.

I’m going to have to think about this.

Update: A month later and all my images are still gone. Still no response from the group admins, though I nudged a couple of times. Not a peep, even from my friend who is, I imagine, stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t want him to be stuck there. So I left the group.

Their loss. I’m not going to post and get my work deleted again. That would be crazy. I’ll take the high ground and keep it professional enough not to name the group, but I will say this: This is no way to run a social media channel. I won’t be back. That would also be crazy. Onward.