Image courtesy włodi.

The following is a cautionary tale of technology and misattribution.

It was Tuesday night. I was on the phone, joining the San Diego Filmmakers planning meeting remotely (as is my norm). We were discussing our Facebook page when I noticed a doppelgänger. That’s right, someone had created their own SDF page and was using it for their own evil purposes.

I’m guessing they took a page out of Dr. von Kaiser’s evil playbook, as there was only one fan, but we had to act regardless and take the page down.

Without alerting anyone, I clicked the “Report Page” link and filled out the DMCA form, citing abuse of our intellectual property. The next morning, I receive an email stating that they had removed my page for violation.

“Wait, that’s not right,” I thought as I logged in to see what happened. Apparently, in my haste to report them and my distraction of being on the phone, I put our official URL in the field where I was supposed to put the offending page. And now, our hard work and 1,200+ fans were gone.

That’s right, I pushed the big red button and nuked my own God damned Facebook page. Let’s just say that, if I’m ever elected president, they won’t be letting me anywhere near the nuclear launch codes. I’d be likely to blow up Newark or something (not like that would be a bad thing).

How did I respond? I swore. A lot. I pounded my desk as I muttered the F-word, tempted to throw something valuable across the room in anger. How could I have done this? How could I have been so reckless? I took a walk, calmed down, then rationally approached the situation.

Thankfully, the page had merely been disabled and Facebook operations restored it within 24 hours (while also disabling the offending profile). I do think that part of the blame lies in their confusing form (I assumed that they knew what page I wanted deleted based on where I clicked the link), but I do have to take the responsibility for the rest of it. Luckily, no permanent harm was done and—who knows—maybe New Jersey would look better with a giant crater in the middle of it.