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As much as I understand the privacy concerns etc., am I the only one who REALLY hates being on Facebook and seeing a fake name with all sorts of odd punctuation

As much as I understand the privacy concerns etc., am I the only one who REALLY hates being on Facebook and seeing a fake name with all sorts of odd punctuation and random capitalization in a list that consists otherwise of clean "Firstname Lastname"s? Even seeing "Equality" as someone's middle name bothers me to an extent. Maybe I have OCD, but I'm personally glad I don't have to see this on Google+ for now (but I wouldn't be surprised if they changed their policy on this within a week or two given how fast they acted in response to the "gender must be public" feedback).

SeoxyS 15y ago
I totally agree. I can't stand people who put random crap in their Facebook names (and actually tend to unfriend them.) Similarly, I religiously give everybody on my IM buddy list their real name. I would go crazy if everyday I only saw pseudonyms and had no idea who was who.
- saurik 15y ago
  What do you do when two people have the same real name? Also, I personally only think remembering everyone's last names, in an area of society where you hardly ever use them, becomes infeasible once you scroll through your address book and find 15-20 people named "Michael" (this is the case in my phone): it is often much more valuable to name people to include their context. (Which, I might say, is another "myth of names" to add to patio11's list: "the list of names someone goes by is objective and transitive"; I might think of that person as "that Steve from Hacker News", when other people call him "Steve Johanson", "Stevey", or even "stivox".)
- thristian 15y ago
  I don't use Facebook, but many of my Google+ contacts are people that I've know for years on IRC. I'm going crazy because I can't see pseudonyms, and so I have no idea who's who.
- nitrogen 15y ago
  Clearly you never used IRC. When I got started with computers, BBSes, etc., using your real name was considered a monumentally bad idea.
  - mike_esspe 15y ago
    I still don't understand why the fetish for the names from government ID originated. Was it because of Facebook's policy? I'd like to see this trend reversed.
MostAwesomeDude 15y ago
Currently on my Facebook friends list: * A MTF transsexual who prefers going by a feminine spelling of her name * A Vietnamese girl who prefers to go by an adopted American name * A Jewish woman who prefers to spell her name in Hebrew, and whose legal name contains six names For all the things Facebook gets wrong, the name input is really not one of them, compared to Google+. People have known me as MAD for over a decade now, and although I sometimes wish I could just go by Corbin, it's something that I'm stuck with, better or worse. Nomenclature is hard, and any attempt to shoehorn names into a single culture's rules is going to fail.
- FaceKicker 15y ago
  I'd be fine with any of the examples you gave, actually. I think as long as they "kinda seem" like they could be real names and are properly capitalized, my craving for consistency is satisfied.
  - MostAwesomeDude 15y ago
    They are real names. Your idea of what constitutes genuine nomenclature is distorted and narrowed.
    - FaceKicker 15y ago
      I wasn't saying they weren't real names (though we'd need to define what "real name" means to actually decide that). I was just saying that in order to fit into my personal model of "consistency" they only need to seem like they are real names. Secondly, as I sort of hinted at in my first post, I acknowledge that it wouldn't really make much sense to design a policy around my personal visual preferences, which I realize are a bit culturally exclusive. Nonetheless, I can't help but be annoyed by some of the names I see on Facebook.
spc476 15y ago
I knew a guy in college that went by the name of "Rebel". "Rebel One" if you were an instructor. His real name, and I am not making this up, is "The Rebellious One" and yes, he changed his name to that. I'm not expecting to see him on Google+ anytime soon.
blahedo 15y ago
I have a number of former students who do this, and generally they have come up with some clever way to modify their name so that a search on their IRL name will not turn up their FB page, but a glance at the FB name will immediately bring to mind the IRL name. It's a useful tactic for anyone job-hunting, honestly, because as inappropriate as I find it that employers take into account irrelevant outside-of-work behaviour, the fact is that a lot of employers do take into account irrelevant outside-of-work behaviour, and it's a perfectly valid privacy tactic to make oneself less net-stalkable.
- dreamdu5t 15y ago
  I do this on FB by removing the vowels in my last name. It is clearly obvious to anyone who I am once they see my profile/listing, but searching my name will not bring it up.
sixtofour 15y ago
Does everyone have a first name and a last name? Or do you only see people on the list whose names can fit the mold?

SeoxyS 15y ago

I totally agree. I can't stand people who put random crap in their Facebook names (and actually tend to unfriend them.) Similarly, I religiously give everybody on my IM buddy list their real name. I would go crazy if everyday I only saw pseudonyms and had no idea who was who.

saurik 15y ago
What do you do when two people have the same real name? Also, I personally only think remembering everyone's last names, in an area of society where you hardly ever use them, becomes infeasible once you scroll through your address book and find 15-20 people named "Michael" (this is the case in my phone): it is often much more valuable to name people to include their context. (Which, I might say, is another "myth of names" to add to patio11's list: "the list of names someone goes by is objective and transitive"; I might think of that person as "that Steve from Hacker News", when other people call him "Steve Johanson", "Stevey", or even "stivox".)
thristian 15y ago
I don't use Facebook, but many of my Google+ contacts are people that I've know for years on IRC. I'm going crazy because I can't see pseudonyms, and so I have no idea who's who.
nitrogen 15y ago
Clearly you never used IRC. When I got started with computers, BBSes, etc., using your real name was considered a monumentally bad idea.
- mike_esspe 15y ago
  I still don't understand why the fetish for the names from government ID originated. Was it because of Facebook's policy? I'd like to see this trend reversed.

MostAwesomeDude 15y ago

Currently on my Facebook friends list: * A MTF transsexual who prefers going by a feminine spelling of her name * A Vietnamese girl who prefers to go by an adopted American name * A Jewish woman who prefers to spell her name in Hebrew, and whose legal name contains six names For all the things Facebook gets wrong, the name input is really not one of them, compared to Google+. People have known me as MAD for over a decade now, and although I sometimes wish I could just go by Corbin, it's something that I'm stuck with, better or worse. Nomenclature is hard, and any attempt to shoehorn names into a single culture's rules is going to fail.

FaceKicker 15y ago
I'd be fine with any of the examples you gave, actually. I think as long as they "kinda seem" like they could be real names and are properly capitalized, my craving for consistency is satisfied.
- MostAwesomeDude 15y ago
  They are real names. Your idea of what constitutes genuine nomenclature is distorted and narrowed.
  - FaceKicker 15y ago
    I wasn't saying they weren't real names (though we'd need to define what "real name" means to actually decide that). I was just saying that in order to fit into my personal model of "consistency" they only need to seem like they are real names. Secondly, as I sort of hinted at in my first post, I acknowledge that it wouldn't really make much sense to design a policy around my personal visual preferences, which I realize are a bit culturally exclusive. Nonetheless, I can't help but be annoyed by some of the names I see on Facebook.

spc476 15y ago

I knew a guy in college that went by the name of "Rebel". "Rebel One" if you were an instructor. His real name, and I am not making this up, is "The Rebellious One" and yes, he changed his name to that. I'm not expecting to see him on Google+ anytime soon.

blahedo 15y ago

I have a number of former students who do this, and generally they have come up with some clever way to modify their name so that a search on their IRL name will not turn up their FB page, but a glance at the FB name will immediately bring to mind the IRL name. It's a useful tactic for anyone job-hunting, honestly, because as inappropriate as I find it that employers take into account irrelevant outside-of-work behaviour, the fact is that a lot of employers do take into account irrelevant outside-of-work behaviour, and it's a perfectly valid privacy tactic to make oneself less net-stalkable.

dreamdu5t 15y ago
I do this on FB by removing the vowels in my last name. It is clearly obvious to anyone who I am once they see my profile/listing, but searching my name will not bring it up.

sixtofour 15y ago

Does everyone have a first name and a last name? Or do you only see people on the list whose names can fit the mold?