4 ms·

what gets me is how hard facebook doubles down on the "single account + real name = authenticity" excuse. it's the exact antithesis of authenticity - the more p

by zem 11y ago

what gets me is how hard facebook doubles down on the "single account + real name = authenticity" excuse. it's the exact antithesis of authenticity - the more people you have following a single account, the more guarded and lowest-common-denominator you have to be in order to not leak stuff from one area of your life into another.

johncolanduoni 11y ago
I think that approach had some value in setting up a very different atmosphere than MySpace in Facebook's early days. Especially since this was before people started to realize what kind of scrutiny those accounts would face from employers etc. However, I think at this point they would be better off dropping it. Facebook's tone has already been set, and the most common impact the real name policy has at this point in time is its use as a weapon against transgender users and those who need to maintain anonymity for fear of personal safety.
- zem 11y ago
  and the steady stream of people getting kicked off because their (perfectly real) names look weird to anglophone americans.
  - johncolanduoni 11y ago
    Too right! My favorite crash-course in the realities of names is "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names"[1]. I think any programmer whose work deals with any kind of personal information should google "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About" and read all of them (gender, addresses, etc.). [1]: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-b...
teddyh 11y ago
I think it’s time to link this thing again: Who is harmed by a "Real Names" policy? http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Rea...
- will_pseudonym 11y ago
  Interesting. Have you read any of The Last Psychiatrist? This article in particular is directly related to this thread. http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2014/05/cyberbll.html http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2014/05/cyberbll.html
  - teddyh 11y ago
    A few interesting points, but that writing style is really hard to follow, even if you know what the many references are referencing.
    - will_pseudonym 11y ago
      It is really hard to handle, but once you get to some critical mass, it starts to become easy to read.
vlehto 11y ago
In Instagram there is pretty substantial amount of traffic about soft core porn. The women get thousands of followers with nicks like "ehg bloblo". If you look who he is and what he follows, it's just other girls who show some cleavage. No sane guy these days would put real name on such account. If Instagram would double down on those followers, the "models" would also have very little incentive to continue posting. But this does nothing to the market of soft core porn. So Instagram would very likely face competition after that. It might be that Instagram could then cater better for a subset of the current users. But they would risk not being the 800 pound gorilla of social photo sharing. So the old adage seems to hold so far: the internet platform that is good for porn, wins over internet platform that is not.
RogtamBar 11y ago
Do they? I know of a guy who has 2 accounts, one as a public figure, another normal one. Same name on both.

by zem 11y ago

johncolanduoni 11y ago

I think that approach had some value in setting up a very different atmosphere than MySpace in Facebook's early days. Especially since this was before people started to realize what kind of scrutiny those accounts would face from employers etc. However, I think at this point they would be better off dropping it. Facebook's tone has already been set, and the most common impact the real name policy has at this point in time is its use as a weapon against transgender users and those who need to maintain anonymity for fear of personal safety.

zem 11y ago
and the steady stream of people getting kicked off because their (perfectly real) names look weird to anglophone americans.
- johncolanduoni 11y ago
  Too right! My favorite crash-course in the realities of names is "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names"[1]. I think any programmer whose work deals with any kind of personal information should google "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About" and read all of them (gender, addresses, etc.). [1]: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-b...

teddyh 11y ago

I think it’s time to link this thing again: Who is harmed by a "Real Names" policy? http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Rea...

will_pseudonym 11y ago
Interesting. Have you read any of The Last Psychiatrist? This article in particular is directly related to this thread. http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2014/05/cyberbll.html http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2014/05/cyberbll.html
- teddyh 11y ago
  A few interesting points, but that writing style is really hard to follow, even if you know what the many references are referencing.
  - will_pseudonym 11y ago
    It is really hard to handle, but once you get to some critical mass, it starts to become easy to read.

vlehto 11y ago

In Instagram there is pretty substantial amount of traffic about soft core porn. The women get thousands of followers with nicks like "ehg bloblo". If you look who he is and what he follows, it's just other girls who show some cleavage. No sane guy these days would put real name on such account. If Instagram would double down on those followers, the "models" would also have very little incentive to continue posting. But this does nothing to the market of soft core porn. So Instagram would very likely face competition after that. It might be that Instagram could then cater better for a subset of the current users. But they would risk not being the 800 pound gorilla of social photo sharing. So the old adage seems to hold so far: the internet platform that is good for porn, wins over internet platform that is not.

RogtamBar 11y ago

Do they? I know of a guy who has 2 accounts, one as a public figure, another normal one. Same name on both.