Apparently I’m too cool for Facebook.
The message I see when I try to log in to Facebook. Sadly, I'm also prohibited from using Pidgin to connect to Facebook Chat, which is just about the only thing I use Facebook for these days.
Okay, that’s not what that message actually says, but that’s how I chose to read it. It turns out that my name isn’t real. I went through their forms to tell them that “no, really, this is my name”. They also asked me “what I use Facebook for”, to which I – of course – answered “chatting to friends and stalking exes, same as everybody else – why, what do YOU use Facebook for?” But when I submitted the form, it just ran me back around in a circle back to where I started.
Also: Facebook! Is that exposed HTML code in your message? Dear me.
I’d be less frustrated if I didn’t just send them a copy of my driving license earlier this year, in order to prove that my name was really my name. I guess that the media claims that Facebook keeps all of your information indefinitely aren’t true, and in actual fact they have the memory of a proverbial goldfish.
I’d be more frustrated if I actually used Facebook for anything more than pushing blog posts out to people who prefer to see them on Facebook, and occasionally chatting to people, thanks to the wonderful pidgin-facebookchat plugin.
So on average, I suppose, I’m pretty indifferent. That’s the Facebook way.
![Where'd the ball go? [gif]](http://ffualo.com/rthumb/QtR1Vl4.gif){kind=link}
By Rory 24 November, 2011 - 20:20
Have you had any trouble with Google Plus yet?
By Scatman Dan 24 November, 2011 - 20:33
Nope. Surprising, really, considering that they were the social network that were loudest about the “real names only” issue.
By Claire Q 25 November, 2011 - 00:36
I’m yet to have trouble of any kind from either, though it could just be a matter of time.
By Ele 24 November, 2011 - 22:44
Gits!
By Gareth Bowker (via Google+) 1 December, 2011 - 10:40
Change your name by deed poll to “Facebook Sucks”?
By @Eskoala (via Twitter) 1 December, 2011 - 10:50
So, is it just a matter of time before the same thing happens to me?
By @jonny_boy27 (via Twitter) 1 December, 2011 - 10:54
@scatmandan @Eskoala are you guys related? :P
By @scatmandan (via Twitter) 1 December, 2011 - 10:54
@jonny_boy27 Yes. @Eskoala and I were a couple for a long while, once. See scatmania.org/q for the story of our shared surname.
By @jonny_boy27 (via Twitter) 1 December, 2011 - 10:59
@scatmandan sorry, I thought your and @Eskoala ‘s shared surname was a quite extraordinary coincidence!
By @jonny_boy27 (via Twitter) 1 December, 2011 - 10:55
@Eskoala oh, right, so you are. Sorry, I just thought that was an extraordinary co-incidence!!!
By @tajasel (via Twitter) 1 December, 2011 - 11:40
@scatmandan evidently you need to send them a copy of that note the Passport Office sent you or something :)
By Scatman Dan 1 December, 2011 - 11:42
For anybody who’s interested, the note @tajasel is referring to can be found at http://www.scatmania.org/2007/04/28/a-note-from-the-passport-office/
By Hello, Facebook; Goodbye, Facebook | Scatmania 18 December, 2011 - 10:02
[...] little over three weeks ago, I was banned from Facebook for having a fake name. This surprised me, because I was using my real name – it’s an unusual name, but [...]