Probably not a conspiracy

Facebook's entire business mode is premised on the fact that your information is not essential. Their database is enormous, and not truly live.

When you upload a photo your friends and family may not see it for several hours. Some friends may see it before others.

It's a free service: you're not paying for it (except in the abstract sense of providing personal information in exchange for a service) so they're doing this to try to keep costs low: they run as minimal a database as is reasonably possible.

Twitter is in a similar position: the Fail Whale pops up, people complain. People aren't paying so what's too complain about?

This isn't a huge conspiracy Bill. It's called getting what you're paying for. The thing is, you're not paying a thing.

Facebook is a Corporation

Corporations conspire
Governments conspire

Corporations have screw ups (Toyota accelerators)
Governments have screw ups (just about everything Gordo has done)

So, it is either a conspiracy or screw up.

Situation normal Bill. Sounds like you are now waking up to dealing with what we all deal with on a daily basis.

Journalism is about finding out exactly who, what, how, when and why the conspiracy/screw up is taking place. Get thee back to pounding the pavement Bill and finish the story.

Or.....

....using the cover of a screwup to "fiddle" with ways to exert control over the internet. Facebook is innocuous, and not to be considered except lightly. What better place to "explore"....?

Governments and corporations both detest democracy. Our PM has alluded that democracy interferes with running the country (prorogue anyone?).

Question Everything!

When Estonia had riots with

When Estonia had riots with Russian residents back in May of 07 the whole countries computer system was hacked. The Estonians found out later that the hacking (if thats the proper word) was from Russia. So Bill, on your question, I'll answer with a question; If Russia Government has hired on hackers, why can't our Government be any different?

Covered in honey, staked out on an ant heap

There oughta be a law for anyone -- after hearing 3 or 4 facts -- who cries out "Conspiracy Theory!" 30 hours on an ant-heap reading James Joyce' Ulysses (followed by an exam) if caught using that "Conspiracy theory!" ploy.

Peter Ewart has written an explanation for this. His column is here: http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/ dated January 28, 2010. His point is that there's a conspiracy behind these dumb-ass shouts of "Conspiracy Theory!"

As for Bill Tieleman, he didn't even mention the unsolved mystery of who broke into his office, stole nothing, but left a message indicating that the vandalism was payback for his work on reporting the most important trial B.C.'s history: the BC Rail (Basi-Virk) trial.

Bit cynical Bill

Using the conspiracy gambit to get some free publicity for your HST cause. Smart in one respect but also does damage in that it reinforces to the uninformed that there are conspiracies everywhere as a simple solution to the world's problems. Sad.

What? I deny there's a conspiracy? I must therefore either be a corporate lackey or a government dupe or part of an even deeper conspiracy designed to cover up the mere existence of conspiracies.

Yes, I confess and repent. I am president of the conspiracy denial network and we are truly attenpting to take over the world, one conspiracy at a time!!

The Case of the Disappearing Facebook Groups

The most likely reasons for those two groups to go off-line would be technical or security as related to fraud. Facebook is not without its issues on the technological front, but those issues tend to be more of a security nature than a physical hardware or software failure. Facebook and its user base are under constant attack by organized crime for fraudulent purposes, something the usually quite secretive Facebook corporate does not like to talk publicly about.

Take this scenario. Large groups of names, a great cause and the possibility to farm those supportive names with a script file for fraudulent purposes. Organized crime creates a dummy bank account with a handy money laundering “mule” who in reality is some sucker who thinks he/she is helping out in some legitimate business affair. A Facebook plea is created to exploit the names farmed from the list with exhortations to deposit money in the mule’s bank account in the name of “the cause.” Deposited money is transferred on-line to various other fake accounts as fast as it comes in and voila, we have ourselves a now very common 21st century cyber crime.

In my line of work, as I’m a private cyber-crime investigator, this is all too common. I dealt with a case last week that involved a much smaller list of names acquired by someone who hacked the Hotmail account of a well to do individual. The faked personal exhortation from the victim of immediate dire financial need caused funds to be dumped into a fraudulently setup bank account in Europe. Unfortunately, regular law enforcement is so backlogged with such cases the victims are pretty much out of luck. It’s good business for me in the private sector, but it’s all too often a matter of being paid to close the door after the horse has long left the barn.

Given the circumstance in this case of disappearing Facebook groups, my best guess would be that Facebook security detected something fishy going on and decided to take the groups off-line until they had determined the cause and provided a fix. But you may never know, and I might not be allowed to tell you.

There is no coincidence

Everything has meaning, and there is no harm in being open to ALL possibilities and seeking answers/truth.

Lessons to be learned

Odds are that you will never get a logical explanation as to where you site went, Bill. Computers are no more foolproof than any other mass produced item. The raw materials they use may not be as pure as thought, quality control may have been less than stellar etc. Facebook may have had a server that malfunctioned, and assuming that they have banks of servers and backups on other servers, they might not know the problem for a long time. And even when they determine what went wrong, doesn't mean that they will be willing to share this information with you or anyone else. You may just have to be happy that eventually your site reappeared intact.

One thing I would like to comment on is for those that think that we should allow the citizenry of Canada to be able to vote online. It may be convenient, as one doesn't have to leave their abode or even put on their clothes to cast a vote. But what happens if their ISP suffers a glitch in their system, or there is a power outage or any number of other anomilies? Was the vote cast actually received at the other end? If a recount is required, to what does one refer to? No hard copy means no proof of anything.

Machines are definitely useful, but they are not infallable.

Bill has a point.

When political causes and political sites go down, you have to check for reasons. If it is the ordinary criminals, fine. But if it went down because the bc lib "information" department got it, we NEED to know.
Remember that bc has a huge propaganda department who watch everything media based.
And they do not just watch. They control too.
They tamper and they fudge
This could just be a test run for the next election. It is quite likely that the bc libs were really impressed with the phone call misinformation that perhaps saved the saanich gulf islands federal riding for the conservatives.
Imagine what they could do if all ndp facebook sites went down on the last day of a tight provincial election? It could easily make a difference.