Someone can do this:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Colebroo ... 1598370419

[goes to get the huge bag of "kettle korn" we just brought back from the festival]

This is the primary problem with the internet and facebook, especially: With everyone talking, is anyone really listening?
Time was, you needed money to print out a magazine or have a TV/radio station to get a message out to anyone. So in most cases, that filtered out the nuts and you never heard from them much back in the day unless you personally came across them.
Now, with the internet, anyone with a computer has a voice. And many of these people, you might be better off never hearing.

Sandy, have you reported the page? I did. A high number of complaints will help raise the level of scrutiny.

And the upside to this downside is that the Colebrookdale folks can respond in kind, directly or indirectly, and the saucy-pants Scrooge behind the page can be further shamed into obsolescence.

Also, engaging the page will only permit it to rise into others' Newsfeeds. Reduce the eyeballs and reduce the relevance.

KL

Kelly, that's why I did. The page is bovine excrement.

Unfortunately, this is a cycle that has been repeated several times in PA-area RR preservation. This will continue to occur as long as there are well-meaning folks trying to preserve our RR heritage that are unfamiliar with this local RR preservation difficulty.

As other posters have commented, the best thing to do is to not frequent any of the pages set up by this individual. If you must look, keep in mind the words of Jerry Seinfeld regarding a much more pleasant topic, "Looking at cleavage is like looking at the sun. You don't stare at it. It's too risky. Ya get a sense of it and then you look away."

It is unfortunate that some of the people involved appear to have decided to engage him on his terms. This is a big mistake. The organization should have a clear protocol in place for dealing with this and enforce it very strictly. This would include not posting on any of his pages and not responding to any of his posts on any forums. It could also include emphasizing on their organization's pages that those pages are the only places where accurate and reliable information regarding the RR can be found. If they have the funds, I'd recommend they retain someone to ensure that their web pages register the highest on any search engines so that unsuspecting members of the public are less likely to encounter this nonsense when searching for information on their RR.

This is a very sad situation for all involved.

I noticed a name on there of someone who got thrown out of the outfit who used to be a troll on here.
What a dumb page!

I suspect reporting the page will have little effect. It has to violate FB's terms of service before they're likely to act.

There's really not much you can do if somebody tries to badmouth your operation. It's a tough choice to pick whether or not to reply, doing so often lends some legitimacy to the page, may be better to simply ignore it. It all depends on the situation and how much traffic it's getting.

Leonard F. Shaner is involved. Enough said.

It can be worse, you can be a pop star. And their answers to it are right on point.
You have probably heard Taylor Swift's answer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM
But Lily Allen is the champion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDlofPAOZy0

It's all more of the "Greater Internet Jerkwad Theory" (warning strong language ahead) http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GIFT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_dis ... ion_effect

At the end of the day, it's just trolling hatebait. Nobody cares. Though you can make an art form out of trolling right back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAHfUdf_aX8

This would likely fall under Facebook's harassment or intellectual property guidelines. At most it could be considered false representation, seeing that it could confuse folks searching for the real museum online.

There's several approaches on how to handle bad social media content, but it depends on what it is. If it's a visitor complaining online, you make a public effort to reach out to that person showing that you want to fix their issue. It will look good to potential customers when they see you are making an effort to listen to complaints.

If the complaints are a lot more serious, and I'm talking borderline slanderous, then you issue a release in conjunction with the company's lawyer.

In this case of a "fraudulent" social media account, you just put a statement on social media to the effect, "Please be aware there are several fake accounts claiming to be "Company X." This is the ONLY official Facebook page for "Company X." We have contacted Facebook and are working to correct the issue. Meanwhile, visit "Company X" website for great deals on tickets for our upcoming super fun great event. Order soon as the trains often sell out!"

Nice job, people. See what was posted four hours ago:

"I want to thank all who's involved with the Railway Preservation News for your help in bringing our total page likes to 2,126 likes .
It really touches me deep to know you really care!!

viewtopic.php…"

I give Nathaniel Guest a lot of credit for the tremendous progress he's made it bringing this historic and very scenic gem of a branch line back to life. He and his dedicated team have worked miracles in the short time they've been at it.

As we all know far too well our " industry" has its fair share of goof balls and it's often hard to avoid them. I'm confident that Nathaniel did all he could to avoid dismissing this individual but found it necessary in the end.

Sure is an interesting test of the old maxim " no such thing as bad publicity".

Also, gives me additional pause about getting into the Facebook medium.

Ross Rowland

Taking a quick look, it appears that 59 people "like" Len's page, and not 2,126.

We'll see how they respond. If I was running the page, I'd say "I'm simply stating the facts, not harassing anyone. There are no personal attacks here, or any racial or ethnic slurs. I'm simply trying to alert people the fact that this operation is (so the site claims) unsafe and dangerous. People should be aware of that!"

I suspect FB would say "Free speech" and let it ride, unless you could provide more substantial evidence.

As it should. I really don't get facebook at all and why people seem addicted to what is, in effect, a pyramid scheme dedicated solely to be a conduit for selling ad space with users not bright enough to know this is why they're wasting so much time there.
Clearly, I don't like Facebook and I really do not at all get why anyone does (or even could).

I'm a big fan of these guys, and they did a great video on trolls:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O83vd0l-_Ew