Well, update on my last post on Facebook Opera Mini fanpage deletion controversy, both Facebook and Opera Mini have apologized for the mix-up. Opera Mini gave a quick response when contacted, and few things became clear after the exchange of emails:-

• Opera thought of its presence on Facebook, but found various namesake fanpages (created by users like me) on Facebook, contacted Facebook to know the admin of pages.
• Facebook denied giving the details of users for privacy concerns and instead asked Opera to create their own page for their business and get the fans migrated from previous fanpages to official one.
• Thus, new official Opera and Opera Mini fanpages were created and then the Facebook guys did a mistake of mixing up Opera Mini fans and Opera browser fans.

Here are some excerpts from the mails received from Opera Mini:-

I want to apologize for this mix up, and tell you that we truly appreciate the work you have done to benefit Opera…

 

Facebook Fan Pages (which can be created by anyone, technically, even if it’s against Facebook policy) are intended to be official corporate- maintained pages, but there is no way for Facebook members to easily tell whether or not any given Fan Page has been created by the company itself or by an unauthorized third party (sometimes, but not always, with malicious intent)… 

 

After all, “Fan Pages” sound like they’re supposed to be created by fans for fans (even if they’re not)…

 

Also, fans of Opera Mini on your page should have been transferred over to the newly created and official Opera Mini Fan Page, not the Opera Browser page...

 

We’ll work to fix that situation, even if it means sending an explanatory message to everyone on the Opera Browser Fan Page…

And then Opera Mini sent an update to the fanpage as shown below:-

Now, it was Facebook’s turn. Well, it took 6 emails to make the Facebook folks understand the whole thing (My experience says when you contact these big guys, the first email response will be a direct copy-paste from the help section). On asking them specifically - being a Opera Mini fan does not mean being a fan of Opera Browser too, How can Facebook add me and various other Opera Mini fans as fan of Opera Browser without our intent, will or knowledge? Facebook replied:-

After looking into the situation, it appears that  that the fans of the removed Opera Mini Page were added to the Opera Browser Page.  Seeing as how the Opera Mini is different from the browser, I can see how this would be confusing for the fans. We apologize for this and we will investigate Pages more before we migrate content.

On a different note, when a Facebook user’s friendlist exceeds 5,000 limit he/she can request Facebook for a fanpage and all the existing friends are automatically migrated as fans. On asking being a friend does not mean being a fan too, Facebook replied:-

We appreciate your feedback. We will certainly keep it in mind as we continue to improve the transition for friends to fans.

Well, to summarize, now Facebook has to treat fanpages with a different perspective! What’s your say on this?

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