I’m super-mad at a super-poke. Was El Reg ever right. You can never leave Facebook. Wrote Chris Williams:

The funniest thing about such groups is that you can’t actually leave Facebook. Ever. The closest you can get to the escape hatch is a temporary deactivation. As Zuckerberg whispers in your ear as you grab the handle: “Even after you deactivate, your friends can still invite you to events, tag you in photos, or ask you to join groups.”

You can opt not to receive emails telling you about it, but your data cadaver is still there, waiting to be reanimated. Spooky.

Well, technically that’s true. You can indeed opt not to receive e-mails telling you about it. It’s just that nobody’s listening.

Facebook doesn’t actually heed that request. When I deleted my account, I took great care to heed the warning, and to choose not to receive any futher e-mails from Facebook. What do I need notifications for if I need a Facebook account to see what they’re about?

Within hours, I had received e-mails notifying me of a private message, that I got tagged in a note, and that someone sent me a super-poke. Even before leaving, I had told Facebook that I wasn’t interested in the damn super-poke application. So that’s twice Facebook told me to go poke myself.

The link that claims to allow me to “control” what e-mails I receive from Facebook requires… re-joining Facebook.

The spamming sods deserve Microsoft. I expect a video raspberry from Mark Zuckerman next, for falling for his phishing scam.

I’m off to update my spam filters. Facebook is now officially evil.

I promised I’d leave Facebook if it did a deal with Microsoft. I said I’d make good on this promise.

Some impatient souls (or should I say Facebook Fanboys) weren’t even prepared to grant me a few days to tie up loose ends and inform friends and group members, but insisted that I delete my Facebook account instantly.

This update is for them. My account is now gone. To be accurate, it is available for perusal only by Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft.

I can be found on Orkut, LinkedIn and Plaxo Pulse. I’ve never liked the idea of using more than one social network site, however, so eventually I’ll choose. I quite like the update stream and look-and-feel of Plaxo, but in the end I’ll probably settle on Orkut. Especially since it’s due for a re-launch and overhaul starting next week. I can’t wait.