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Scam? That assumes deliberately misleading people for the scammer to benefit. Who exactly is benefiting from this? While I don't agree that it's obvious even n
by atleta 6y ago
Scam? That assumes deliberately misleading people for the scammer to benefit. Who exactly is benefiting from this?
While I don't agree that it's obvious even now that that using real names is damaging (i.e. makes things worse than anonymity/pseudonymity) the assumption that it's a scam goes 100% against Hanlon's razor.
It's pretty easy to claim that using real names online does more harm than good when pointing at a data leak but we should also consider the opportunity costs, the outcome of the alternative scenario. I'd say that all the fake and troll profiles show that anonymity makes people behave in a way that's damaging to online communication (and hence is a lot, maybe most communication is online these days, all communication). You can say that fake profiles are there anyway, which is true, but it still doesn't mean that everyone going anonymous wouldn't be a lot worse. So at best it's an undecided question as opposed to being a deliberate scam.
- s_dev 6y ago> Who exactly is benefiting from this? Facebook.
- atleta 6y agoOh, I wasn't aware that the GP comment suggested that it's something invented by FB. Anyway, how is it a scam and how is FB benefiting from the real names? Especially at the expense of the people? Another commenter above said that they think the real names were the main selling point of FB. Maybe. But then it's not a scam by definition (as FB is a very popular product and if the real names made it to be that, then that's what the people wanted most).
- cblconfederate 6y agoReal names were facebooks selling point. 'Join in, all the friends you know by name are here, upload your entire phonebook to us, look everyone's doing it'. Facebook's quick growth made billions and billions to some of people
- atleta 6y agoI'm not sure that was the selling point but that doesn't make it a scam, right? Especially because if it did work as a selling point it means that people were also benefiting, so it couldn't really have been a scam.