Unfriended by Facebook?

Facebook Community Council: Citizen’s Patrol
Using users to monitor the facebooksphere for ‘ethically offensive material.’

I, for one, love Facebook. Yes, it has its glitches here and there and can quickly become like a DVR inbox of “to-friends” or “to communicate” lists, but all in all, it has eliminated the need for me to spend 30 minutes on the phone catching up with each friend every once in a while.

On-going privacy setting tweaks aren’t so bad, though it helps to stay on top of managing them for personal and business pages. Otherwise, all your posts and information could potentially go über-viral. At moments I do wonder if all my personal photos (and those taken of me in public venues) are tagged with deliciously insightful personal information and stored away on some server that could be purchased by the government one day (thank goodness I am pure and innocent).

Earlier this year, Facebook took some flack for not removing pages posted by the Holocaust Denial Movement. So when the social monolith announced its Facebook Community Council—whose goal according to a recent Fast Company blog post is to “harness the power and intelligence of Facebook users to support us in keeping Facebook a trusted and vibrant community”—I figured hey, sign me up. I want to be involved in managing my community, of course. I have an opinion on what is considered profane, violent, offensive.

Then: click, click, denied.

I get this message:
Sorry, use of Facebook Community Council requires an invitation at this time.
Facebook Community Council is currently being tested with a small number of users.

Wait, what? Denied by Facebook? My own, personal, free global community won’t let me in? Well who are you letting in? Anyone on my Friends list? So you are going to shut me out, corporately unfriend me (to use the New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year) if I cause a ruckus? Why I have half a mind to . . .

Then I took a moment to rethink my irascible intentions. I don’t actually have any of my friends’ phone numbers anymore because I just contact them all through Facebook. Deleting my Facebook account could potentially remove me from a vast circle of close, trusted, and sometimes virtually unknown friends. However would I get back in touch? MySpace? Too 2006. Classmates.com? Too expensive. Friendster? That’s soooo last decade. Guess I better stay well-behaved before I get kicked off the island and lose my address book.

What do YOU think about Facebook’s Community Council approach?