We were contacted the other day by BBC for a short interview. Some of my words look a tad twisted or they got lost in translation, but overall they weren’t too rough on us. It was our commentary vs. a Facebook spokesman, who considers us SPAM.
It also looks like Mashable is doing a piece on SWAPD/VA (i think). Not sure if that is good or bad.
I think this is bad… More exposure means more problems from Facebook/IG etc…
Remember pagehog??? When it became a little more known then it was in the beginning, Facebook caught up and unpublished all Facebook pages of every single person that was there…
I remember even another article, where BBC and another big media outlet made some years ago about some specific pages that were posting fakenews…
One day after the news was posted Facebook deleted all of this pages and alot other ones that were not connected to them but just had similar names or smth that they thought as a connection…
I think it’s better for swapd to be a small community and safe then have a lot of attention, alot of new users and then lose everything…
Just my 2 cents
English isn’t my native language, but when you’re saying “a piece” it sounds negative. or not?
And nice! This is the reason why you shouldn’t put your page details publicly! and only through a DM, and this is something I like about SwapD. ( bc as we can see, Facebook is well awared of these websites and might block pages that are up for sale )
I think this is bad… More exposure means more problems from Facebook/IG etc…
I agree, and I usually deny interviews. However, when I get a feeling an article will get published anyway, I rather have my say in it so someone doesn’t paint us in a negative light.
Remember pagehog??? When it became a little more known then it was in the beginning, Facebook caught up and unpublished all Facebook pages of every single person that was there…
Sure do. They got wiped as they had open to the public listings.
I think it’s better for swapd to be a small community and safe then have a lot of attention, alot of new users and then lose everything…
Again, I agree. But, there are sites that do what we do and have XXX,XXX members. They’re big, how come they weren’t wiped yet?
As @RandyMarsh said, FB knows very well about these sites (us included). Heck, SWAPD was banned from FB/IG before we started receiving any traffic. If people are going to write about us, I want our side of the story heard.
Yes, I completely agree that when they write about you, it’s better to be part of that article too bcs like this you minimize the risk that they write bullsh1t or say things that are not true…
P.S
I’m very curious can you PM me the site with that much members?? I’m pretty sure I know it, but don’t think they have that much…
Thnx
It’s not only the public part of the URL…
I personally know some cases when they went after the FB profiles…
Let’s suppose I make a lot of admin changes on different pages, like adding new ones, removing myself, then repeating this 100times per month with different people and different pages…
This have it’s own risks, and this FB profile it may be flagged by FB system, the first time a manual review comes for thia profile, all the pages that were part of this admin changes before have the risk to be deleted…
The ones that this profile is currently admin, it’s 100% sure that will be gone…
Two cases like this happened in November… 2 different people I know that never made the URL public or anything like this…
(They’re not part of swapd, just to be clear, dont want misunderstandings)
I’m very curious can you PM me the site with that much members?? I’m pretty sure I know it, but don’t think they have that much…
Doesn’t playerup/Epic have a ton of members? As I was mostly talking about them.
Yup, far more than here. Epic has slowed down a little since its awful forum updates about a month back but still probably one of the largest ones out there.
Haha, I don’t usually like to judge as beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. But holy God do I hate their new layout/theme. I just saw it three minutes ago when I was checking their members count.
Yes they have, you’re right.
But I doubt they do as many social transactions as you here…
They’re doing other kind of deals mostly, not FB and IG…
Anyway, Facebook is having other bigger problems at the moment so don’t think they’ll do a clean up soon… Or go after the small fish
English Translation of Mentioned Article:
Facebook: how the sale of groups and pages in the social network works and why the company considers it spam
Lucia Blasco
BBC News World
Most people use Facebook to keep track of their friends’ lives, stay informed or share an occasional video of a topic that interests them. But beyond the family photos and the viral videos of cats, there are those who use the social network to earn money.
There are different ways to make a profit on the platform, from creating a page to promote a brand to selling items on Facebook Marketplace -your sales space- or publishing an advertisement.
How I managed to sell all my things on the internet without making a big effort (and why it can be addictive)
The social network considers all these ways of making money legitimate.
However, among the more than 2 billion people who use Facebook there are those who have opted for a more risky method and on which there is no such clear regulation: buy and sell groups and pages to obtain media influence.
This is a practice that would fit into what we define as ‘spam’ in our community standards, a spokesperson for the social network told BBC Mundo.
Facebook says that buying likes or followers in a deceptive way is a fraud.
The Facebook spokesperson cites a section in which the platform explains that "it works hard putting limits on commercial spam [unsolicited messages] to prevent misleading advertising, fraud and security breaches.
We do not allow people to use misleading or inaccurate information to collect likes (‘likes’), followers or shared publications, the report reads.
This text prohibits, among other things, creating or using false accounts or compromising the accounts of others to impersonate a business, organization, public figure or individual.
Read here the Facebook rules regarding spam (in English) *
However, some consider that there is no clear line on this type of activity.
I think they confuse two different issues, which are buying and selling, and buying and selling pages has nothing to do with spamming - in fact, if you start sending spam, people stop following you, he says. BBC Mundo a spokesperson for ViralAccounts.com, a company that manages the sale and purchase of accounts and pages on social networks.
Buy influence.
ViralAccounts.com notes on its website that it buys and sells Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube accounts.
Our main focus is the viral properties in social networks, so if you have an account with a high number of followers, give us an opportunity, says the company. We buy and sell influence on Facebook pages.
The spokesperson of ViralAccounts.com tells BBC Mundo that most people never realize that there is a change of ownership [when they buy a page or account] and that the content remains the same.
However, the company representative says that this type of business is not as big as when it started.
Two or three years ago even a small page (between 100,000 and 300,000 followers) offered the potential to earn between US $ 1,000 and US $ 2,000 a day, and in 2013 the income was even higher.
But this year the market for Facebook pages is collapsing, they are not worth as much anymore. Blame it to the new policies introduced by the social network in March and that allow you to remove the pages used to monetize websites and force people to pay Facebook to have visibility.
As for legality, it’s a hotly debated topic, he adds. One thing I’m sure of is that there is no criminal code in the world that says buying and selling Facebook pages is illegal.
Is it against the terms of use? Surely, but that does not make it illegal. There have been hundreds of cases around the world where judges have stipulated that Terms of Service (TOS) clauses are not legally binding, although that does not mean you can not be involved in a civil case.
Personally, I find it strange that Facebook forbids me to transfer those properties, but has created a proprietary system designed to transfer the rights from one account to another without having to sell your personal email account.;
The voices against
In London, there was a case that caught the attention of the British press in recent days: 25,000 members left a group in protest after finding out that the administrator had sold it.
The story came to light after an investigation by the BBC, which contacted several users of the social network that are dedicated to this practice.
The group was created by a woman named Kathryn Coles in 2011, but she was no longer in charge of it when the sale took place. A lot of people are angry, they had a lot of affection for the group; Coles said.
It was a space in which they promoted activities and events in the neighborhood (Northfields, west of the city), discussed local issues and sold items.
Facebook responded by saying that it disabled the account and that & it urges the community to report cases like this so that we can investigate them and take action.
Jon Morter is in charge of a Facebook group about Essex that has about 30,000 members and is the administrator of another group. A few weeks ago, a member published that someone had offered to buy the group; he told the BBC.
Another member of the group said he was also contacted, and a lot of us investigated it and we realized they are the same people.
We discovered that they have at least five, or maybe more, community groups, they also say they charge money for posting ads.
The BBC also contacted people who buy the groups.
Some of the buyers say that they are dedicated to buying groups as a business and that they also sell unofficial Facebook advertising space.
Morter says that in 2014 a US company offered him $ 4,000 for a fan page for a musical group he was in charge of.
They said they belonged to a marketing company and that ‘we would like to put our own ads on it, but we will not prevent you from continuing to publish your content.’
Morter says he did not sell the page.
He also considers that Facebook’s community standards are not clear regarding the sale of pages and groups.
They are not precise, there is nothing specific that says whether or not you can buy the rights of the administrator.
Oh, and the positive thing about this article is - It’s very good for SEO. Like, VERY.
I wish. No live backlink 
(Our website converted the text into backlinks which may have fooled you).
Any press is good press
Might need to make the forum invite only until the spotlight goes away.
A few more of these and you’re eligible for verification. 
Lmao
we should collectively all pitch in to do press from swapd and verify its Instagram 
