_ What?! Where are you, Facebook friend?! Checking your
Facebook account, you realize that someone_ has disappeared from
your list of friends! Perhaps you had a falling out, or a
misunderstanding, and now you're wondering whether you were not
only unfriended, but also blocked. Here are some ways to find out,
if you've got the will and patience to do some cyber-detective
work. But then again, maybe its better _not_ to know! Think it
through carefully, first!
!! Steps !!
* Consider the alternatives. The steps below will outline some
scenarios where it's likely that you've been blocked, but there's
no guarantee. If your alleged blocker has been temporarily blocked
for violating Facebook policies, this could be a reason you're not
able to see them. It could also be that the person has deactivated
or deleted their account altogether.
* Note whether you've received a message from this person lately. If
you are blocked, they will not receive your messages at all. So,
if a person does respond to a message you sent, you are not
blocked. If they don't respond, you may or may not be blocked.
Either they aren't receiving your messages because they've blocked
you, or they're just ignoring your messages. Continue with your
investigation.
Search for the person while you are logged in. If you can find
them, then you can rest assured that you haven't been blocked.
(When someone blocks you, it prevents you from finding them on
Facebook.) If you can't find them, it may be that you are blocked,
or it may be that they have their privacy settings adjusted so they
can't be found.
Don't bother searching for this person while logged into a different
account. If you find them through that account and not through yours,
it could be for a variety of reasons:
* If the account you're using isn't friends, or a friend of a friend
of that person, it's just like searching for them while logged
out, which is discussed in the next step.
* If the account you're using IS friends, or a friend of a friend of
that person, and you find them through that account but not
through yours, it may just mean they have their privacy setting
adjusted so they can only be found by those people (friends, or
friends of friends). It doesn't necessarily mean you've been
blocked.
* Search for the person on Facebook while logged out. If you can
find them while logged out but not while logged in, it means they
have their settings so they can be searched by everyone _except
you_. That means you've been blocked.
Google them. Google is the most widely used search engine, so give
it a go to see if it has knowledge of this possibly blocked friend.
* Log out of your Facebook account.
* Search for the person's known Facebook name inside quotation
marks. For example, "Brad Pitt", "Daisy F Football", etc.
* If there is a search engine return, click on it.
* In a separate window, log into Facebook. Go back to that search
engine result and click on it again. Is it different? Does it show
you something different than what you saw before? Does it tell you
that profile doesn't exist? If so, you're probably blocked.
* If the friend doesn't come up in search results, don't jump to any
conclusions. It could be that they adjusted their setting so their
profile can't be crawled by search engines, or their profile
simply hasn't been indexed by Google yet.
C'mon guys! Which one of you blocked me?! Ask others. At the risk of
looking desperate, angry, or just plain nosy, you could consider
asking other people if they know whether something's up. This method
will depend entirely on whether or not you feel comfortable asking
others and are able to handle the ramifications of your mutual friend
knowing you've been blocked:
* Ask mutual friends online. Ask them if the possible blocker is
still appearing actively on their Facebook feed. An affirmative
answer is all you need to know you've been blocked.
* Ask friends offline. If you're in a close-knit group of friends
offline and it's one of your offline friends who seems to have
blocked you, ask your friends if they know anything. Again, you
need to be ready for answers you might not like hearing and it
could mean that more is up for your personal friendship than
you're willing to grasp!
Be attentive. None of the following are "proofs" in and of
themselves but they might help you to build a picture that points
to your having been blocked:
* Chatter on your Facebook wall that seems to be involving your
possibly blocked friend, or doesn't make sense without him or her
being part of the updates.
* Check your own updates and see if you have said anything that
might have been potentially offensive or upsetting to your
supposed blocker. You will often have a gut feeling about this if
you know their leanings and feelings well.
* Check their Twitter name if you know it. If they're still pointing
to a Facebook address or leaving tweets about using their
Facebook, that's a sign they're still actively using Facebook and
that you might have been blocked.
* Check any other mutually followable accounts you have where you
know this person has an account. For example, Twitter, YouTube,
Ping, LinkedIn, etc. Have they removed you from mutual following
on any of these? If so, you might be at the receiving end of a
very big message...
Fake it. This is not a very efficient method and may not work
simply because the person who has blocked you is discerning about
accepting friendship requests. However, if you're desperate, give
it a try:
* Make a fake or decoy account on Facebook. Make yourself likable,
find a photo on Flickr Creative Commons, etc., and give yourself
hobbies or interests you think this person would like.
* Send this person a friend request.
* Wait. You might be waiting forever. But if they take the bait,
you've just discovered a block on your real account!
* Use a third party application. There are some applications online
that claim to help in your pursuit of the blocker. Use a search
engine to find them. And consider whether you really need to go to
this trouble!
Set aside paranoia, irritation, or worry. If another person
decides to block you, how much are you willing to let this
interfere with your personal life? Facebook is just another way to
communicate with people and in the real world, sometimes people
shun you for the most bizarre reasons of their own and you just
have to learn to live with it. Facebook is no different! Try to
see it with a good heart and without taking it personally:
* Some social media users suffer from narcissistic tendencies that
cause them to take slight easily and to feel superior.[1] This
could lend them to readily dropping "friends" if they feel put
out. If you've been entangled with one, perhaps the blocking is a
blessing.
* Some social media users have a sudden urge that drives them to
clean out their friends in the hope they can control an online
addiction/overuse or simply to "cut out all of the noise". It's
not likely you're going to change their mind when this is the
reason behind a block. Take comfort in knowing that if this is the
reason for a block, then you're probably not the only person they
blocked.
* Think very carefully about what knowing who has blocked you will
bring about. It's not as if you can claim mutual satisfaction by
blocking them back – they won't care! If it makes you so angry
or annoyed that you need to be rude to them or say unkind things
to mutual friends about them, then perhaps there was substance to
their desire to blocking you. It's best to leave it be and think
"who cares?!".
!! Tips !!
* If you can still access your friend through other means (for
example, Twitter or an email), sometimes it pays to tread
carefully, swallow your pride and ask your friend for reasons in
case there has been a misunderstanding, an error, or something
that can be mended. On the other hand, if your friend either fails
to respond, or responds negatively to you, be ready to move on.
* This is the text of the Facebook message when you can't get
through: _"The page you requested was not found. You may have
clicked an expired link or mistyped the address. Some web
addresses are case sensitive. Return home. Go back to the previous
page."_
!! Warnings !!
* Facebook can temporarily block you or another user from accessing
parts of the site for "misuse". Don't confuse a personal block
from someone with one caused by you or the other person doing
something that raised the ire of Facebook!
* Do not use sites that claim to know who blocks you, or sites that
request your personal details. This goes for any social network -
not just Facebook!
!! Things You'll Need !!
* Facebook account
!! Related WikiHows !!
* How to Unfriend Someone on Facebook Without Actually Unfriending
Them
* How to Cancel a Friend Request on Facebook
* How to Tag a Friend in Your Status on Facebook
* How to Delete Friends on Facebook
* How to Annoy Your Friends on Facebook
* How to Invite All Your Friends to a Page or Group on Facebook
* How to Make Friends Lists on Facebook
!! Sources And Citations !!
* Facebook Knol,
http://fbknol.com/how-to-know-if-someone-has-blocked-you-on-facebook/
– Research source
!! Article Tools !!
* Read on wikiHow
*
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