Facebook group for Tom Bihn Bags & Discussion

[yyan203]

To elaborate: After they did not accept me, I found that I could not see the group in a search. So I left the Facebook app and went to a web browser, searched for the groups name, found it on Facebook, but could not click on it. I could see it because I was logged out, but once I logged back into Facebook, I could not. …And that’s exactly what happens when you are blocked.

That's a shame!

[thistle]

I know! I belong to three other bag groups on Facebook and they are concerned about scammers joining and act pretty quick to remove them. I can only imagine that this group blocks people to avoid that? And the rest of us got caught up in that?

They’ve had no new members in the past week whereas the other TB group has 50+ new members last week.

Sorry to keep talking about it, it just really bothered me to be rejected!

(edited for clarity)

[Meglet]

I know! I belong to three other bag groups on Facebook and they are concerned about scammers joining and act pretty quick to remove them. I can only imagine that this group blocks people to avoid that? And the rest of us got caught up in that?

They’ve had no new members in weeks whereas the other TB group has 50+ new members last week.

Sorry to keep talking about it, it just really bothered me to be rejected!

The no new members in weeks is not true, I just joined both TB FB groups within the past two weeks. They just may not show the new member count.

[thistle]

Sorry not “weeks” but this past week. There’s a thing that shows how many new members have joined and it was zero for this group and 53 for the other.

[yyan203]

I know! I belong to three other bag groups on Facebook and they are concerned about scammers joining and act pretty quick to remove them. I can only imagine that this group blocks people to avoid that? And the rest of us got caught up in that?

They’ve had no new members in the past week whereas the other TB group has 50+ new members last week.

Sorry to keep talking about it, it just really bothered me to be rejected!

(edited for clarity)

I experienced the same thing today after trying several times. Thanks a lot for making me not feel I am the only one on this!

[Mausermama]

Hey there! I am one of the moderators of the FB Group. I have not blocked anyone from seeing the group, so I'm not sure what's going on with that. I can shed a bit of light on why you may not be accepted into the group, however. To begin with, it is extremely important that you accept the rules, which means you have actually read them first. There is a box you can check that indicates you have done so.

Additionally, I can tell you we have had many, many attempted joins from nefarious individuals seeking to defraud people, either by "selling" a bag or by offering to "purchase" one. It has gotten so bad that we have had to become sleuth-like in how we accept applicants to the group. We do this in order to facilitate as safe and as friendly a space as possible. If you apply, and you have your filters so tight that we cannot verify your "humanness," then you will likely be denied. We look for things such as join dates to FB, post history, number of friends, groups joined, and likes to give us as much of a comfortable idea that you are a genuine person.

Does this mean that occasionally we decline membership to a "real" person? Yes, I'm afraid so. I have had some people private message me to ask about being admitted. Sometimes I work around that by having the individual "friend" me for a moment so that I can see their post history. I will do that, verify they are legit, and then add them to the group. Then they can delete me from their friend list.

Others have been rather rude to me, I'm afraid. That makes me less inclined to be as helpful as I might otherwise be. All of us moderators work full time jobs. I'm a teacher, and this time of year (well, all of spring, really) is incredibly busy. So sometimes it may mean that you have to wait until I can check things out.

We truly are a great bunch of people, and we want Tom Bihn bag lovers to join the community. But at the same time, we want to make certain it's truly the people who make BIHN great that get in, and that the swindlers don't sweep in as well. Thus the protocols.

I hope this helps! I am not in this space much these days as I am very busy working over on the social media side of things, but I will try to look over any comments you may have.

Thanks!

[yyan203]

Hey there! I am one of the moderators of the FB Group. I have not blocked anyone from seeing the group, so I'm not sure what's going on with that. I can shed a bit of light on why you may not be accepted into the group, however. To begin with, it is extremely important that you accept the rules, which means you have actually read them first. There is a box you can check that indicates you have done so.

Additionally, I can tell you we have had many, many attempted joins from nefarious individuals seeking to defraud people, either by "selling" a bag or by offering to "purchase" one. It has gotten so bad that we have had to become sleuth-like in how we accept applicants to the group. We do this in order to facilitate as safe and as friendly a space as possible. If you apply, and you have your filters so tight that we cannot verify your "humanness," then you will likely be denied. We look for things such as join dates to FB, post history, number of friends, groups joined, and likes to give us as much of a comfortable idea that you are a genuine person.

Does this mean that occasionally we decline membership to a "real" person? Yes, I'm afraid so. I have had some people private message me to ask about being admitted. Sometimes I work around that by having the individual "friend" me for a moment so that I can see their post history. I will do that, verify they are legit, and then add them to the group. Then they can delete me from their friend list.

Others have been rather rude to me, I'm afraid. That makes me less inclined to be as helpful as I might otherwise be. All of us moderators work full time jobs. I'm a teacher, and this time of year (well, all of spring, really) is incredibly busy. So sometimes it may mean that you have to wait until I can check things out.

We truly are a great bunch of people, and we want Tom Bihn bag lovers to join the community. But at the same time, we want to make certain it's truly the people who make BIHN great that get in, and that the swindlers don't sweep in as well. Thus the protocols.

I hope this helps! I am not in this space much these days as I am very busy working over on the social media side of things, but I will try to look over any comments you may have.

Thanks!

Mausermama Thanks a lot for the explanation! That helps clear some of the confusions we had.

[thistle]

Hey there! I am one of the moderators of the FB Group. I have not blocked anyone from seeing the group, so I'm not sure what's going on with that. I can shed a bit of light on why you may not be accepted into the group, however. To begin with, it is extremely important that you accept the rules, which means you have actually read them first. There is a box you can check that indicates you have done so.

Additionally, I can tell you we have had many, many attempted joins from nefarious individuals seeking to defraud people, either by "selling" a bag or by offering to "purchase" one. It has gotten so bad that we have had to become sleuth-like in how we accept applicants to the group. We do this in order to facilitate as safe and as friendly a space as possible. If you apply, and you have your filters so tight that we cannot verify your "humanness," then you will likely be denied. We look for things such as join dates to FB, post history, number of friends, groups joined, and likes to give us as much of a comfortable idea that you are a genuine person.

Does this mean that occasionally we decline membership to a "real" person? Yes, I'm afraid so. I have had some people private message me to ask about being admitted. Sometimes I work around that by having the individual "friend" me for a moment so that I can see their post history. I will do that, verify they are legit, and then add them to the group. Then they can delete me from their friend list.

Others have been rather rude to me, I'm afraid. That makes me less inclined to be as helpful as I might otherwise be. All of us moderators work full time jobs. I'm a teacher, and this time of year (well, all of spring, really) is incredibly busy. So sometimes it may mean that you have to wait until I can check things out.

We truly are a great bunch of people, and we want Tom Bihn bag lovers to join the community. But at the same time, we want to make certain it's truly the people who make BIHN great that get in, and that the swindlers don't sweep in as well. Thus the protocols.

I hope this helps! I am not in this space much these days as I am very busy working over on the social media side of things, but I will try to look over any comments you may have.

Thanks!

Thank you for taking the time to write out all of this information. I appreciate it.

I understand keeping it tight to keep out scammers. I still wish I knew why the group vanishes from view once you’ve been denied, as several people have reported. According to your post, I did everything correctly.

I would like to reapply with my account more open to show I’m a human. But I can’t try again and there’s no way for me to contact a moderator because… the group is gone now that I’ve been denied. It’s invisible. Other folks have the same experience. That’s what’s super puzzling!

[thistle]

Mausermama Thanks a lot for the explanation! That helps clear confusions we had.

I’m still so confused why everyone appears blocked from the group

[yyan203]

I’m still so confused why everyone appears blocked from the group

Yes, I found I cannot see the group still.

[Mausermama]

I’m still so confused why everyone appears blocked from the group

PM me your name, and I will do some research on it.

[yyan203]

Update: both thistle and myself got accepted into the facebook Tom Bihn discussion group with the help of Mausermama (big thanks!) I am not sure if Mausermama will check the post frequently. I hope this is only a one-time technique issue. But if anyone (no swindlers!!!) come across similar situations, you may leave a comment here (adding @Mausermama) –– hopefully someone if not Mausermama in the group will help.