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Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

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Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#111
that is why its better to use a fake name anyway. Anywhere. Its been a long time since Quora is dominated by Political Correctness. It seems like democracy is screwed, wherever leftists are allowed to vote, they vote against Science. See for example YouTube Be a Hero and Censor Free Speech.

Why dont more of us contribute to software immune to censorship ?

Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#112

that is why its better to use a fake name anyway. Anywhere. Its been a long time since Quora is dominated by Political Correctness. It seems like democracy is screwed, wherever leftists are allowed to vote, they vote against Science. See for example YouTube Be a Hero and Censor Free Speech. Why dont more of us contribute to software immune to censorship ?

Tragedy of the Commons.

Unfettered free speech is incredibly powerful as long as the preponderance of the community respects it and self-polices. But if such a community grows, over time some selfish actors appear who start gaming the system in a way that makes the community worse for everybody else.

That sets up an incentive to either join inthe gaming or leave, and left unchecked, the community devolves into a smaller core of people being awful and everyone else having decamped either to a newer community that hasn’t been spoiled yet, or to a community that has moderation a/k/a censorship.

Note that we are having this conversation on a platform that has, from the beginning, chosen to moderate speech.

Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#113

Quora has been completely ruined by dogmatic Silicon Valley thinking and poor monetization attempts. Content cloaking, removal of the credit system, deliberate choice to promote crappy clickbaity answers as opposed to quality ones, aggressive question length limits... I think there is definitely space for someone to recreate the original Quora without the delusions of grandeur. A place for people to exchange question…

I added quora.com to my search result spam blacklist for content cloaking back before Google made them tone it down so you'd at least see the text you saw in the search results. It'd take a top-level management change to consider going back.

Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#115
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about Quora's "work with a mod to verify the name" policy works, but I have heard from at least one friend that Facebook makes you give them a scan your driving license or other Government ID in order to show that your slightly unusual name is actually what you say it is. Which is just absurd. A random social network should never be so powerful as to demand your Government-issued IDs for some bogus "real…

In the US, As long as "other Government ID" is not an actual Government ID. Scanning/photocopying is a violation of Title 18, US Code Part I, Chapter 33, Section 701. While there evidently are exceptions for government agencies performing official business, Facebook is not a government agency.

The problem with a layman like myself trying to read the law is this kind of thing "except as authorized under regulations made pursuant to law" [1]. What does that mean? It makes the law entirely unreadable. Does this actually prohibit me from making a scan of my passport as a backup while travelling? Presumably not, given that doing so is actually the official suggestion of the state department [2]. So how the hell do I know if something is illegal or not?

[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/701 [2] https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/checklist.h...

Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#116

Quora has been completely ruined by dogmatic Silicon Valley thinking and poor monetization attempts. Content cloaking, removal of the credit system, deliberate choice to promote crappy clickbaity answers as opposed to quality ones, aggressive question length limits... I think there is definitely space for someone to recreate the original Quora without the delusions of grandeur. A place for people to exchange question…

StackExchange? Btw. same here, I used it before it reached it's first million users, even went to few Quora meetups but I blocked the site on notebook two years ago. I feel it became a place for chronic procrastinators and self-promoters + there's very little unique knowledge... as a content researcher, 99 out of 100 I find better information elsewhere.

Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#117
post #9

I should get a couple of people from around here (Native American reservation) to sign up and see how messy their policy is. If you cannot validate names, then you probably should not use a real name policy. It bad enough Facebook (and I guess Quora) causes people pain, don't add your own wounds.

Facebook's policy is so weird. I have a ton of older test accounts that literally include TEST and other such very obvious fake text in the name.

Yeah. I've done some work for other people and businesses in their Facebook accounts but never signed up myself. Recently I tried to sign up just so I could add Facebook Login to one of my apps. Used my real name, verified my email and mobile number, and account was immediately blocked, requiring me to send in a scan of my id. Nope.

Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#119

Quora sucks. Well, I guess it is OK, if you like a sterile community, where contrary opinions and rational thought are smoothed and sanitized for easy and spineless consumption.

Yes and where only the elite get the upvotes even if they write a factually incorrect and laughable answer. Too much for being a "community"

Re: Quora has blocked me because it doesn't think Theodore Ts'o is my real name

#120
post #71
post #44

Oh boy, Indonesian here, I only have one name (No last name). Websites that require me to have both first name and last name are the bane of my existence. Quora also blocked me, despite me sending an email to their appeal division with a copy of my ID. In the end I gave up fighting for it.

Yes, I had this issue when working for some administrative software, and other problems like what date of birth do you input for the many people which have unknown date of birth? I have also seen many handwritten "identification papers" which you'd have very hard time deciphering anything from it with some degree of certainty. We believe our times are more free than past times, but that's only partially true. In some…

While I was in grad school, it was possible for married students to purchase two sets of football tickets. Concerned about scalping, the university one year decided to require a marriage license at the ticket window. It was chaos.
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