Ah! It's not so exciting. Here's the short version: 1. I have an unusual name. 2. Facebook introduce their "real names" policy. 3. Several months pass. 4. I can't log in to Facebook any more. I get a badly-formatted error message about how Facebook is a community where people use their real names. 5. I'm given the option to upload scans of government issued ID. I send my driving license. (My account still shows as active to my friends, but any messages they send to me just disappear into a black hole. I am a Facebook non-person.) 6. Several weeks pass. 7. I reply to the auto-response email I got from them, asking how long it's likely to take. 8. Several days pass. I re-send my email. 9. Another day passes. Somebody from Facebook responds to reiterate their requirements (government issued photographic ID). I reply to say that that's exactly what I sent them. I try to log in to Facebook again, to try to submit something else, but their form now won't let me (it says that because I've already submitted ID, I now have to wait). 10. Somebody from Facebook responds by email with the same prefab response again. I email back, including a scan of my driving license AND a scan of my passport. 11. I get another email, telling me that my name is unacceptable because "Facebook is a community where people use their real names." Apparently my name isn't real enough for them. So now my account's been closed. Fuck 'em. The good news is: I don't actually miss it. I was angry for a while, but I actually seem to be doing fine without it (I didn't use it often as it was: just logged in once every few weeks to see what was new). As a developer, I keep a Facebook account (with no friends) so I can test Facebook integration ("Like" buttons, etc.) on websites I build. But, of course, that one's a fake Facebook account and doesn't use my name. So, ironically: Facebook banning me for using a fake name (when I wasn't) has ended up with me only having a Facebook account with a fake name. tl;dr: Facebook introduced their "real names" policy, and decided that my name wasn't real enough for them, even when I proved that is was real enough for Her Majesty's Government.
If you don't mind my asking, what is so unusual about you're name?
That's crazy. Where does your family come from that "Q" is your last name? Or did you change it (like Kim Dotcom)?
I wasn't born with this surname, no. My then-partner and I changed our surnames by deeds poll. We'd always wanted to share a family name, but didn't feel that marriage was for us, and we wanted something quirky and unique and "ours". We'd talked about it for years, until one day I suggested the possibility of a single-character surname (knowing that this would reduce the options to just 26 and thus potentially expediate the decision-making process). My blog post announcing the change. Since then, I've run a website, freedeedpoll.org.uk, which aims to help people (in the UK) to change their name by deed poll without expense nor a solicitor: you just fill in a form, print a PDF, sign it, and you're done. My name's caused me a couple of problems over the last six years or so that I've had it (for example, I always get stopped by Immigration Control when I travel, because they don't believe my passport is real - I try to explain every time that if I were going to make a fake passport, I'd pick a more-believable name!), but it's not been too troublesome except with Facebook. Sometimes I'm in computer databases as QQ or Qu or QQQ or Q', in order to get around short-sighted character limitations, but that's not a big problem either. My ex- and I split up, but I keep the name (mostly because it feels like it's "mine") and she's kept it too (mostly because she's too lazy to change it, I believe). But as far as I know, we're the only two people legally-known as "Q" in the world.
Wow, that's quite a story. I hope in your future travels you meat more understanding people!knowing that this would reduce the options to just 26 and thus potentially expediate the decision-making process
if I were going to make a fake passport, I'd pick a more-believable name!
Both of these made me laugh.
Welcome to hubski, Dan Q. I've never been on FB...while I suppose it's nice to know what your friends and "friends" are up to on FB, on Hubski you can find out what people you've never met are up to -- and if you are really interested in what your friends are up to, you can still email them. win win all round.
...and sometimes, when you're lucky those random strangers become your friend.