>four fifths of their food bookings were taken on Facebook
That shocks me
duncanmarshall on
>”There are other **Black Bull** pubs that have had their Facebook page pulled. I’m assuming it’s something to do with copyright.”
Yeah, *maybe* copyright. *Maybe*. Or, you know…
Jabba_TheHoot on
I mean…if another pub owner just maliciously reported the page, because they wanted their customers?
.
Would it just get auto taken down or is their a human checking system?
Swiss_James on
This is why we absolutely cannot call the pub “Free The Paedos”
NuPNua on
While obviously Facebook/Meta are not the good guys in almost any scenario, this should be a lesson for businesses not to rely on it as their only web presence and to maintain their own website and booking system. As someone without a facebook account, nothing turns me off ~~of~~ going somewhere like trying to find their website and being taken to a facebook page I can’t use.
Charles-Petrescu on
It’s free mate.
They could delete your page with literally zero rational reason, and you would have no comeback.
Longjumping_Stand889 on
Many businesses live or die by their social media output, you can’t really tell them not to use facebook or whatever because there aren’t any alternatives. Then when they delete you due to some corporate whim you find they are impossible to contact.
Afternoon_Kip on
My local is named the Black Boy. Guess they’re next lol
Alaskan_Pipeline666 on
At a bare minimum for having an online presence for bookings, use something like GoDaddy. I’m looking into this now for my wife’s childminding business and I’m looking at an annual cost of approx £250 for something that meets her needs.
Don’t rely on the likes of Facebook as there is no recourse for when things go wrong like this.
GhostRiders on
When are people going to accept that Facebook is a privately owned business can implement whatever rules they like, when they like and then choose to arbitrarily enforce those rules.
If you’re going to rely on Facebook for your business then you have to accept that at any point they can just arbitrarily delete your business for whatever reason they like.
If you can’t or refuse to accept this, then don’t use Facebook.
Makaveli2020 on
Why on Earth would any business primarily rely on a social media platform to take their sales?
jamesdownwell on
4/5 bookings through Facebook, that’s the concerning thing. Imagine practically all of your business being dependent on a system with no support desk or obligation to help because it’s “free.”
I get why small businesses do it but this should serve as a bit of a wake up call. A decent reservation system would cost the same as one decent booking a month and they’re not going to delete your business and stick their fingers in their ears.
Flaky-Jim on
How about changing it to The Bell End? Customers can then come in, wondering how it got its name, see the landlord, and say “ah, *that’s* why”.
Clbull on
This anecdote may seem unrelated, but I’m posting it here to highlight just how shit the customer service experience is for anybody using Facebook and the need for actual government level regulations in the social media space.
I used to work with a colleague who had her Facebook account hacked a few years back. She couldn’t recover it because she made the account using a university email address she no longer had access to.
Meta have virtually no customer support and are probably just as bad as if not worse than Google in that respect. Her attempts to get in touch with a human led her down a rabbit hole of support articles and FAQs that couldn’t help her because she no longer had access to her recovery email.
When she tried to take the matter to Twitter and tweet to any profiles associated with Meta, the only attention she got were from spam accounts running ban appeal scams like “hey tweet @ThisGuy he helped me to get unbanned”, which btw have been a massive problem with Twitter LONG before Elon Musk took over and rebranded it to X. The difference is Musk no longer pays lip service to the problem and pretends to do anything about it.
Even when she took to Instagram (she still had access to that profile) and tried to Facebook on blast by commenting on her situation, they responded within a minute by removing her comment because it “went against community guidelines” even when it wasn’t. When she later tagged them in a story, they removed her post and slapped her with a 24 hour posting restriction.
You’d think that a corporation which hired former Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, would treat its users better…
I feel bad for the owners of the Black Bull. If you rely on things like showing televised sports games, live music, pub karaoke, open mic nights, etc to bring patrons in, then having a social media presence is critical.
JohnRCC on
Quality compo faces in the article there.
Don’t use social media as your sole online business presence!
kingjim1981 on
There’s a pub called the Black Boy in Oxford.
I ~~hang~~ rest my case.
WholeAccording8364 on
Well I stayed at the Black Cock inn but didn’t Google it at work
pazz5 on
So just name your page “location: black bull”. Why is this news.
waltermayo on
loving the GCSE-english-language-esque ending to the article:
“But I said, ‘don’t worry they can’t just wipe it’.
*”But they did.”*
JoeKhol on
I’m calling bull! (at least to some extent)
A Facebook page isn’t going to be removed by the company without any kind of messages or reasoning from them and obviously their support (not the Meta PR team) could be contacted to follow up. It certainly isn’t always easy to get a clear answer from these companies but you’d never get nothing.
There are still plenty of other “Black Bull” pages on Facebook (and apparently even a new one created for this pub – incidentally, they do also have a website). I’m not convinced by the “copywrite” (or even trademark) assumption, and some kind of automated profanity filter, while more feasible, doesn’t seem likely either.
I suspect some more specific technical quirk or failure (be it by Facebook or the owners) that’s been blown somewhat out of proportion to get them a bit of free publicity. I’m not saying it won’t impact their business (though as other have pointed out, it should be more of a warning about single point of failure) but there is clearly more here that either isn’t being mentioned or hasn’t even been followed up.
pikantnasuka on
This sub as ever showing how clued up it is about most peoples lives
“Why did they have facebook no one has facebook any more”
Under an article about a pub which took 80% of its food bookings via Facebook…
Disgruntled__Goat on
Facebook is garbage. They’ve ALWAYS done this, deleting pages on a whim with zero notification, no reason given, and no way to contact them.
22 Comments
>four fifths of their food bookings were taken on Facebook
That shocks me
>”There are other **Black Bull** pubs that have had their Facebook page pulled. I’m assuming it’s something to do with copyright.”
Yeah, *maybe* copyright. *Maybe*. Or, you know…
I mean…if another pub owner just maliciously reported the page, because they wanted their customers?
.
Would it just get auto taken down or is their a human checking system?
This is why we absolutely cannot call the pub “Free The Paedos”
While obviously Facebook/Meta are not the good guys in almost any scenario, this should be a lesson for businesses not to rely on it as their only web presence and to maintain their own website and booking system. As someone without a facebook account, nothing turns me off ~~of~~ going somewhere like trying to find their website and being taken to a facebook page I can’t use.
It’s free mate.
They could delete your page with literally zero rational reason, and you would have no comeback.
Many businesses live or die by their social media output, you can’t really tell them not to use facebook or whatever because there aren’t any alternatives. Then when they delete you due to some corporate whim you find they are impossible to contact.
My local is named the Black Boy. Guess they’re next lol
At a bare minimum for having an online presence for bookings, use something like GoDaddy. I’m looking into this now for my wife’s childminding business and I’m looking at an annual cost of approx £250 for something that meets her needs.
Don’t rely on the likes of Facebook as there is no recourse for when things go wrong like this.
When are people going to accept that Facebook is a privately owned business can implement whatever rules they like, when they like and then choose to arbitrarily enforce those rules.
If you’re going to rely on Facebook for your business then you have to accept that at any point they can just arbitrarily delete your business for whatever reason they like.
If you can’t or refuse to accept this, then don’t use Facebook.
Why on Earth would any business primarily rely on a social media platform to take their sales?
4/5 bookings through Facebook, that’s the concerning thing. Imagine practically all of your business being dependent on a system with no support desk or obligation to help because it’s “free.”
I get why small businesses do it but this should serve as a bit of a wake up call. A decent reservation system would cost the same as one decent booking a month and they’re not going to delete your business and stick their fingers in their ears.
How about changing it to The Bell End? Customers can then come in, wondering how it got its name, see the landlord, and say “ah, *that’s* why”.
This anecdote may seem unrelated, but I’m posting it here to highlight just how shit the customer service experience is for anybody using Facebook and the need for actual government level regulations in the social media space.
I used to work with a colleague who had her Facebook account hacked a few years back. She couldn’t recover it because she made the account using a university email address she no longer had access to.
Meta have virtually no customer support and are probably just as bad as if not worse than Google in that respect. Her attempts to get in touch with a human led her down a rabbit hole of support articles and FAQs that couldn’t help her because she no longer had access to her recovery email.
When she tried to take the matter to Twitter and tweet to any profiles associated with Meta, the only attention she got were from spam accounts running ban appeal scams like “hey tweet @ThisGuy he helped me to get unbanned”, which btw have been a massive problem with Twitter LONG before Elon Musk took over and rebranded it to X. The difference is Musk no longer pays lip service to the problem and pretends to do anything about it.
Even when she took to Instagram (she still had access to that profile) and tried to Facebook on blast by commenting on her situation, they responded within a minute by removing her comment because it “went against community guidelines” even when it wasn’t. When she later tagged them in a story, they removed her post and slapped her with a 24 hour posting restriction.
You’d think that a corporation which hired former Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, would treat its users better…
I feel bad for the owners of the Black Bull. If you rely on things like showing televised sports games, live music, pub karaoke, open mic nights, etc to bring patrons in, then having a social media presence is critical.
Quality compo faces in the article there.
Don’t use social media as your sole online business presence!
There’s a pub called the Black Boy in Oxford.
I ~~hang~~ rest my case.
Well I stayed at the Black Cock inn but didn’t Google it at work
So just name your page “location: black bull”. Why is this news.
loving the GCSE-english-language-esque ending to the article:
“But I said, ‘don’t worry they can’t just wipe it’.
*”But they did.”*
I’m calling bull! (at least to some extent)
A Facebook page isn’t going to be removed by the company without any kind of messages or reasoning from them and obviously their support (not the Meta PR team) could be contacted to follow up. It certainly isn’t always easy to get a clear answer from these companies but you’d never get nothing.
There are still plenty of other “Black Bull” pages on Facebook (and apparently even a new one created for this pub – incidentally, they do also have a website). I’m not convinced by the “copywrite” (or even trademark) assumption, and some kind of automated profanity filter, while more feasible, doesn’t seem likely either.
I suspect some more specific technical quirk or failure (be it by Facebook or the owners) that’s been blown somewhat out of proportion to get them a bit of free publicity. I’m not saying it won’t impact their business (though as other have pointed out, it should be more of a warning about single point of failure) but there is clearly more here that either isn’t being mentioned or hasn’t even been followed up.
This sub as ever showing how clued up it is about most peoples lives
“Why did they have facebook no one has facebook any more”
Under an article about a pub which took 80% of its food bookings via Facebook…
Facebook is garbage. They’ve ALWAYS done this, deleting pages on a whim with zero notification, no reason given, and no way to contact them.