Why Facebook Sued Me
26 Jul
You can see all my previous posts about FacebookProfile.com here:
- Category listing of all posts
- Introducing FacebookProfile.com
- How I had the site designed
- The chalkboard gimmick
- Because of FacebookProfile I was in a Lebanese newspaper
- Because of the Lebanese newspaper I was on Digg
- Selling FacebookProfile.com
- Sold it
Interesting side note:
Because of the screenshots I’ve posted from FacebookProfile.com of my own Facebook profile back in the day….my whole profile (including phone number, address, email etc.) has been in HUNDREDS of documents including newspapers, magazines, published papers, blog posts, books, news stories and presentations all over the world!
Another interesting side note:
Till this day, if you Google the term “Facebook ASCII”, 98% of the art you find was made by ME! You will see it on many different websites, all by people who:
- Read my blog posts about how much traffic FacebookProfile.com got.
- Made their own Facebook-related site.
- Swiped all the content from FacebookProfile.
After it was bought I didn’t care less. However the next owner of the site never updated it, then about a year later the site disappeared…
It also doesn’t matter anymore because most of that ASCII made back then is now obsolete due to changes in Facebook’s text editor.
Good story.
Thanks Steven! I thought it would take me 30 minutes to write this out….4 hours later it’s posted :-)
dear nev,
i never knew this.
- linda
Hahahah…my repertoire of “people who’ve sued me” seems to grow every year.
great story. i’m digging the handwriting, too. interestingly, facebookprofile.org has one post dated July 22nd, 2010.
Jude…GREAT JOB catching that!
It’s WELL documented fact that when I post something on NevBlog, explain how I built it, then state “OMG IT’S MAKING MONEY” ….someone will invariably copy it within a week (in this case 12 hours).
They usually never succeed with it very much, but it’s rather annoying.
One of the downsides about openly sharing I suppose.
…however it is kind of cool that I at least inspired someone to DO SOMETHING. And since that site is long gone, they’re free to resurrect it in any form.
Crazy story. I just stumbled across this blog. I love the format you use to write, kept me interested.
Nev… oh those were the days. I remember starting FacebookASCII.com after you launched facebookprofile.com. I too received a nice fedex letter from Facebook….luckily I had sold the site just that week and was no longer the legal owner. lol. It is still up though and the new owner is loving the cash flow I guess.
J
Neville,
I guess all the great copywriters get busted for something eh?
Makes for a pretty decent “beginnings” legend
Hahaha, that’s awesome, Nev. Sorry to hear about your friend getting canned though.
hahaha…..it was Noah….and now he runs AppSumo…so he’s doing just fine :)
Great Great Great Story! I’ve enjoyed a lot and also the way you have presented. Very creative Neville! (And I hope your friend is good now :-)
You should start a ASCII design shop … Kidding, I know you are trying to focus on more lucrative projects.