Dras, I hate to be the bearer of bad news... especially when I really don't know exactly the way it is myself... but I think you just said like 5 things that were wrong...
The worst one is if FB turned your page into a community page, I'm sorry to tell you, you lost it. By that I mean they flat out stole it from you. They basically determined you were just another 'fan', and that you had no 'right' to make that page... so they took it back, made it generic, and now it aggregates data on that subject and you have no more access to admin it. Sorry.
Well I've been working on facebook for several hours since I posted this and have learned quite a bit.
Part of this particular problem is the va set the page up as a retail product instead of a website. IOW, when you make a "page" you make it for a business, cause, product, etc. If you identify it as a website or business then you can claim ownership of the entity and makes your page "Official." Regardless, it seems I still have full admin rights to the page and basically use it just like a user account but for my *page*. I control the wall, msgs, etc. and can delete the page altogether. I can "Use facebook as a Page" under account which lets me comment, post, etc. just like a regular user but with the Page account itself. It's kind of interesting, and seems this function has been added in the past few months. I read some stuff about community pages being moved into the collective and I don't think it is handled that way anymore. I think this is a simple distinction between "Official" (page authored by actual entity owner) and unofficial pages.
There were also some other ideas about turning it into a website or something else... that doesnt happen on FB. You make new ones and delete. And websites, apps, pages, etc are all different things and cant change after you make them.
What I mean by website is how the page is classified. When you build/make a "page" it is about something. Your business or your website or actor/musician or whatever.
Another thing I have learned is FB has just done (or is just now doing) away with FBML (facebook markup language) for working with your pages. Now they have some kind of iframe setup that I'll be exploring soon. Supposedly using the new setup you can have a full fledged working multi page website on your fb page. Have no idea how close to the truth that is, but I just found a mound of info on it that I need to dig through. (pm if you want it)
Note one of the biggest overriding reasons for this is FB maps everything on a social graph. Therefore everything is written in stone; there are no redirects, redoing, re-anything.
What I'm referring to here is the option to reclassify the page. When I visit my account page I get the msg that it has been made a community page and "If you think your Page has been miscategorized, let us know." which links to a form for recategorizing your page.
So, while I don't have the answers to my specific questions (dunno diff between community and official pages regarding site promotion and how long to reclassify), I have learned enough to keep moving. It's not a huge deal on this one with only 1k or so fans anyway, I was just hoping someone might know the deal right off.
As an aside, being an IM for over 12 years, it was interesting with the wife showing me how some facebook stuff worked. Playing with it personally I've generally hated it, but for site promo its very new and different and in the end I actually enjoyed it. (so far)
