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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

#121

Post by speeder »

franciscop wrote: post #52
franciscop wrote: post #41

As a Spaniard, I have 3-word first name and 2 family names. No middle name. Now shove that into a non-space-enabled, 2 inputs web form. For plane tickets which basically could leave me stranded in any country. I normally get some trouble trying to retrieve them in the airport in those auto-check-in machines that are being deployed all around Asia. I mean, they can spend thousands of dollars in those machines but don'…

I will even add that what you know as nicknames in other countries are deemed as real names here. My first full name is "Francisco de Paula", but in Spain everyone calls me "Paco" (historical reasons and all) the same as with a handful of other names. But the thing is it doesn't have a nickname status but rather these kind of names are used everyday in professional and personal spaces. I also gave up that fight and f…

I am of Portuguese descent (and learned recently I can't become citizen because my Portuguese grandpa died when my father was a child :/)

I have two first names, two last names, and filho (means "son"). I have yet to find any system that understand my name properly, even in Brazil where I had official documents with my name butchered in one way or another. (Nevermindt people assuming the last name was literal last name and insisting in calling me Mr. Filho, something that doesn't make sense)

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

#122

Post by speeder »

psankar wrote: post #118

Quora has blocked me too. For Tamils there is no last name but the idiots running quora insist that everyone should have a lastname. http://psankar.blogspot.in/2015/01/naming-policy-deactivated...

King of Greece has no surname.

People insist in demanding surname, not just for real reasons, but to actually spite him.

Greece even made a law after the king was deposed making surnames mandatory (and then promptly declared the guy noncitizen for illegally not having one)

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

#123

Post by sundarurfriend »

seiryuz wrote: 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.

I was in a similar situation as you (south Indian with only one name), and after trying to reason with their customer support, I found it easier to just use a fake name. If you think my real name is fake for no good reason, go ahead and have a fake name that "sounds real".

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

#124

Post by littleweep »

michalu wrote: post #116
joelthelion wrote: post #81

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.

Just curious, where do you go the other 99 times?

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

#125

Post by bunderbunder »

bambax wrote: post #80
pix64 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is to choose a "normal" pseudonym.

Exactly. I use Quora very rarely but every time I choose a plain fake name and it has always worked with zero hassle. (I need a new one because many times I don't remember the other one or the password associated with it). The only thing "real name policies" do is annoy people with unusual names; they can't do anything against people using fake names on purpose.

I don't think they're designed to dissuade people from deliberately using fake names.

They're designed to encourage people who causally use pseudonyms just for the fun of it to use their real name instead. The reason for that is just to have a better identification key to use when selling access to your data to advertisers.

To put it bluntly, most these companies probably don't have any reason care if that process also makes their service a PITA for people who don't have names like Bob Smith. With very high probability, those people don't live in countries their customers are trying to target with ads.

I just really can't buy that real name policies are meant to dissuade abuse. Not when you've got so many cases like Milo Yiannopulos being allowed to get away with chasing women all around the Internet under his real name, in accordance with real name policies, for such a long time.

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

#126

Post by Nuance »

cpayne wrote: post #74
emsy wrote: post #65

It baffles me that Quora is so successful despite their closed approach. You can't use a pseudonym and can't see questions unless you login (there are workarounds, but I'm talking about normal users). They also seemingly block archive.org from archiving their content. Stack Exchange on the other hand has none of these drawbacks.

This depends very much on how you measure success. Remember, News Corp valued MySpace for an $580 million. I think both (Quora and Stack Exchange) have plateaued to some level. Neither see the insane growth they originally had.

How has Quora plateaued?

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

#127

Post by Nuance »

manojlds wrote: post #82
enraged_camel wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fair to qualify the questions as "stupid," unless you want to make the argument that every subjective question with a qualitative answer is stupid. The two communities are vastly different and serve different purposes. It's really as simple as that.

I am not saying ALL the questions there are stupid. I am saying that Quora exists because it allows such questions to be promoted.

It's valuable in allowing open-ended questions that involve judgment (and aren't "finished"), and plenty of these aren't stupid questions.

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

#128

Post by googlereject »

analog31 wrote: post #120
gbog wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh the horror.

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

#129

Post by Nuance »

id122015 wrote: post #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 ?

I haven't seen this whatsoever on Quora. Even though there seems to be more left-wingers, right-wing perspectives are still upvoted for being well articulated. People who use personal attacks are "censored."

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

#130

Post by Nuance »

emsy wrote: post #65

It baffles me that Quora is so successful despite their closed approach. You can't use a pseudonym and can't see questions unless you login (there are workarounds, but I'm talking about normal users). They also seemingly block archive.org from archiving their content. Stack Exchange on the other hand has none of these drawbacks.

The closed approach allows for better quality control, and blocking archive.org means you can actually be anonymous/private if you choose.
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