Several readers have been asking why we haven’t uploaded any of my movies to Instagram. The short answer is that it seems Instagram isn’t particularly interested in letting us create an account. Despite our enthusiasm for sharing content on the platform, the process has been unexpectedly challenging, leading me to question whether Instagram is the right fit for our work at this time.
For reasons that are still unclear, Our IP addresses has been blocked by Instagram. I’ve made numerous attempts to understand the cause, but so far, I haven’t been able to determine why this has happened. It’s incredibly frustrating, as this issue prevents me from accessing the platform and sharing content with my followers. Until this situation is resolved, I won’t be able to use Instagram as I had originally planned.
Even more frustrating than my IP being blocked is the poor user interface and user experience when trying to create an account. The process is so flawed that when I click the ‘Create Account’ button in my browser, nothing happens. There isn’t even a basic visual clue to guide the user or indicate what went wrong. If I weren’t a web developer, I’d be completely lost at this point. Fortunately, my background allows me to dig a little deeper, and I can see through the web developer console that a fetch request is being sent but blocked with an unclear message: “Sorry, something went wrong while creating the account. Please try again soon.”
It’s incredibly disappointing to see such a critical part of the user experience handled so poorly, especially considering the immense resources Instagram has at its disposal. We’re talking about a company valued at 1.3 trillion dollars, with access to the best talent and technology in the industry. One would expect them to have perfected the basics, like creating an account, yet here we are, dealing with issues that should have been resolved long ago. It’s baffling that such a fundamental aspect of their platform is so poorly executed, leaving users like myself feeling frustrated and confused. It makes one wonder how many others are facing similar issues but lack the technical skills to diagnose or even understand what’s going wrong.
This experience has made me reconsider whether Instagram is the right platform for me. If I can’t even get through the account creation process, it doesn’t bode well for my future interactions with the platform. At this point, I’m weighing my options and considering alternative ways to share my content with my audience besides Youtube. I’m not giving up on Instagram just yet, but it’s clear that the platform has some significant issues that need to be addressed before I can confidently use it to share my work.