For a long time, perhaps years, Facebook pages for Notaries have been dead other than the private discussion forums which seem to be where the buzz is these days. But, I was just on NNA’s Facebook and they are having questions for the visitors to answer and getting a lot of interaction. The interaction is not just on one or two posts, but on many. So, this is a good sign that the industry is finally turning around!

I have someone really good managing our Facebook page. We have many members, but the Buzz has declined although it is picking up a little.

I have had a little bit of trouble with Facebook over the years. It seems they think it is their right to stifle my American freedoms such as freedom of press.

We published an article with a tarot card. This got flagged since the card had several figures in it one of which was a naked doll that had no genitals. This is not offensive and does not contain any private parts, yet was arbitrarily banned. This is censorship, and similar to what is done in communist countries. I feel my rights have been stepped on.

Then, if I write anything about Trump, positive, negative or just commentary, it can get blocked by Facebook. Even photos of the white house can get banned.

All of this unnecessary heavy handed control tactics are very left-wing, are damaging to my click through rates, and also make me feel repressed or oppressed. I love my government, and my government is not doing any repression. Private businesses led by people with intolerant political points of view are undermining my basic human rights. Not fair. Facebook is a utility and should not hamper my freedom of expression.

I just wonder if the government will ever crack down on them.

However, I have another solution. Leave it to the user to set a filter. If they want to see any type of post, then fine. If they want to filter out political, right wing, moderate, or left wing oriented posts, race oriented posts, or whatever else bothers them — let them filter it themselves rather than having Facebook just ban all types of things.

Society has really changed and the new generation doesn’t seem to have American values or traditional values anymore. Hmmm.

Facebook was a popular way for 123notary get reach in our marketing and come into contact with a lot more people. But, in the last few years, Facebook got more and more restrictive in what you could post, especially on promoted posts. If anyone complained about a title being even slightly controversial or a photo used then I would get in trouble.

Facebook is a utility of sorts. In the USA, we have freedom of speech and press, and what we say on the phone or other communication utilities is our right. How I interact with my users on Facebook should be up to me. But, Facebook has intervened and told me that my image of a tarot card cannot be used because there is a figure of a naked person. It is so small I didn’t notice and it is a dummy person with no genitals, yet someone still complained.

It is a bit like living in a communist country where people are in a huge hurry to report you to the authorities for doing any tiny thing wrong. Why are Americans in such a hurry to limit another person’s freedom of expression? It baffles me. But, the current consciousness of Americans loves repression of freedom of speech, loves lynchings of people who have been accused of being racist or sexist whether the accusation is true or not, and even approves of torture of alleged terrorists. What is the world coming to? This is not the America I grew up in. It is getting very Marxist.

At any rate. a few years after Facebook became overly constrictive, I noticed that Facebook became a lot less popular in general, especially for 123notary. It is getting to the point where we might lower our involvement with Facebook or stop altogether. I feel that they developed bad karma from being too restrictive and that they lost a huge chunk of their business as a result.

I wonder if they will have a come back or whether they are just a has been who might be popular with an aging population but will never be popular with the millennials who run the country now. Hmmm.

I remember back in 2017 I was testing Notaries by phone. Many were complaining very loudly. There were Facebook groups that would bash us daily just because I wanted to have quality standards. Most Notaries claim to be great, but without testing them it does not make sense to take their word for it.

In any case, I heard that recently (in 2019) Notaries are saying nice things about 123notary on a few Facebook groups. It’s about time! All I do is work hard to maintain quality on my site! I stopped testing people by phone in early 2018, so hopefully people will forget about how unpleasant it is.

The real problem with the testing is that people did not want to be tested, and furthermore, they mostly did not know the answers. We test now by email and most people just don’t respond. But, those who do respond have time to think about the questions and answer them at a time that is favorable to them. Many people learn something answering my questions too.

Notary Public 101 is a free course I created that is on the blog. It is free and you do not need a password. Learn all about notary procedure, confirming appointments, handling tough situations, and more. You need to know this information anyway, so try to set apart some time and master it.

123notary strives hard to benefit Notaries even if we are tough sometimes. If we are demanding it is for a good reason — so we can please the users by offering them the best quality notaries possible. Thanks to those who say nice things about us on social media.