I’ve always imparted this little tidbit to young people. “You can’t possibly live long enough to make ALL the mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others.” It’s a lesson that I’m still living out. 

I got a friend request from someone over the weekend. I knew absolutely for certain we were already friends, so I took a screenshot and sent it to her asking…is this you? Turns out, it was. She’s been on Facebook for over ten years. Yet, a couple of weeks ago, someone hacked her FB account, changed the password, hijacked a credit card she had on file to use for FB ads…racking up a pretty hefty bill. The money wasn’t what upset her…she has coverage for that and will get it back. However…there’s so much she’ll never see again.

They not only hacked her account and changed the password. They also DELETED her Facebook page. The whole thing…gone. She had only recently backed up her profile so she has a little bit of stuff, but there is so much that she can never get back.

She won’t see the sweet comments of family members no longer with us. She won’t see the photos her friends no family shared with her. Some friends and family who are gone had Facebook pages that she was “friends” with, but now…there’s no one there to approve her new friendship request. She can’t go back and browse their page and remember.

That’s what really hit home for me. What if I lost connection with Mr. Virgo’s page? Granted…I don’t go to it very often anymore, but I want to be able to visit if the mood strikes me. My friend suggested we always make sure a trusted mutual friend has your login info in case you ever need to get back in. 

I’ve also worried about this page. That’s why I spent an inordinate amount of time copy every singe post from three years worth of writing and put it on my website. Time very well spent. I still need to do a full backup of both pages…on a regular basis. So, I’m setting a weekly reminder to do just that. I would be devastated if I lost eight years of your comments, love, wisdom and support here on Marshmallow Ranch. 

EDIT: Here’s how to back up your page.

I didn’t explain it as well as my friend. She was referring to pages you may be an administrator for. Like, group pages. For instance, my high school class has a group page. For years it had one administrator. We went through a stretch there where we lost several class members and I thought…what would happen if something happened to her? So I sent her a suggestion that we should have more than one admin. She asked if I wanted to be an admin and I said sure. Later, we added a third person. That way, if my account were to be deleted and I needed to make a new account, there would be someone on my page that could approve my request to log in. Make sense?

The weekend was good. We got a lot done and went to visit the kids at their boarding stable. They needed to borrow our welder to fix a mower. The weather this week is going to be decidedly cooler so sleeping with the windows open in TOW-Wanda will be delightful!

Happy Monday, everyone!

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“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”

Proverbs 22:3 ESV