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Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

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Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#41
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple endpoint, inconsistent as it was, was a little more permissive than I expected. At least compared to something like the Sony Playstation ID filter; for example, 'hitler' is fine for Apple, whereas Sony seems to block out any ID containing the literal string of 'hitle', e.g. `hitle123987` [0]. Meanwhile, Apple manages to block some of the more esoteric sexual profanity that Sony's filter can miss, e.g. `bung…

I'm still trying to work out what Sony's filter doesn't like about my username (zeta0134) which I've had for ages. The first bit is just the letter "z" in Spanish; there's no deeper meaning. To my knowledge it's not considered offensive in Spanish, but Sony would not let me have it no matter how many variations I tried. Maybe there's some political thing I'm not aware of? Anyway, I switched languages and I'm "zed0134…

[deleted]

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#42
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple endpoint, inconsistent as it was, was a little more permissive than I expected. At least compared to something like the Sony Playstation ID filter; for example, 'hitler' is fine for Apple, whereas Sony seems to block out any ID containing the literal string of 'hitle', e.g. `hitle123987` [0]. Meanwhile, Apple manages to block some of the more esoteric sexual profanity that Sony's filter can miss, e.g. `bung…

I'm still trying to work out what Sony's filter doesn't like about my username (zeta0134) which I've had for ages. The first bit is just the letter "z" in Spanish; there's no deeper meaning. To my knowledge it's not considered offensive in Spanish, but Sony would not let me have it no matter how many variations I tried. Maybe there's some political thing I'm not aware of? Anyway, I switched languages and I'm "zed0134…

Los Zetas?

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#43
post #18

Tell me again why anybody cares? Is it because the Church is so central to our lives? We're masters of rationality and technology, who believe in a retributive super-ape in the sky? Is it because we're medieval scribes and we really want to use the Latin faeces to indicate our scholarly intentions, instead of the Anglo-Saxon shit that everyone around us uses? There is no reason I can think of that comports with a tec…

Words have meanings. These particular words have offensive meanings, in the sense of them being used to intentionally offend others. There's no word I'm aware of that is only ever used to offend and they all have (and generally have stated with) inoffensive meanings. In pretty much every community, we seek to reduce the friction between members, and as a part of that, different communities would often choose a point…

Sure, agreed, and Lyft's apparent priorities are a big part of why I'm not in a relationship with them or part of their "community" (read: "customer base." Community is a lie and therefore offensive, despite being totally a "clean" word... great and unexpected example... I digress).

Edit: sorry, digressed so far that I forgot to finish. By "priorities" I mean, Lyft, pull your people off of pointless projects like messing with people's identities, and put them on QA of basic functionality like accepting a credit card payment via your website. Last and only time I tried it, it failed utterly. Now I don't know how much anti-sales other people need to de-persuade them before they'll not-buy, but in my case that was enough. The person for whom I was trying to buy a gift card, got something nicer with a lifecycle that doesn't burn such an obscene/offensive quantity of fossil fuels.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#44
I hereby propose the term "AS" for Artificial Stupidity: The use of software to automate obviously stupid behavior.

Sample usage: "AS is sometimes an unintended result obtained when insanely smart people work with vast resources on very complex problems for long periods of time."

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#45
post #34
post #26

Its funny to me how they try to apply christian values like avoiding vaguely sexual sounding words while also making significant amounts of money off late night debauchery, picking people up from clubs at 3am.

How does this directly relate to “Christian” values? Could “Islamic” values be applied? Afterall, the Prophet Mohammed made his opposition to crude language clear in the Hadith. Follow up: Also appears there are some misgiving regarding crude language within the Hindu religion as well. [0] [0]: https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?...

[deleted]

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#46
post #16

Besides the humor of how Lyft's filter flagged traditionally Caucasian names like "Cummings" – in addition to the usual issues with non-Western names, e.g. Pimpong and Poon – I'm fascinated/confused how this made it into production? The user database already exists and was currently being used by the live application. Before deploying this new filter onto the production database, wouldn't you do a dry run to get not…

This is all bullshit anyway. A word is just a word and whenever it insults somebody it's their own problem. I would rather change my actual name to Fuck if I wasn't too lazy to deal with problems like that.

I once read a story of a Vietnamese man named Hui. He had to go to the court to protect his right to be named this way in Ukraine where the word is used widely and has only one meaning - a dick.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#47
post #18

Tell me again why anybody cares? Is it because the Church is so central to our lives? We're masters of rationality and technology, who believe in a retributive super-ape in the sky? Is it because we're medieval scribes and we really want to use the Latin faeces to indicate our scholarly intentions, instead of the Anglo-Saxon shit that everyone around us uses? There is no reason I can think of that comports with a tec…

Words have meanings. These particular words have offensive meanings, in the sense of them being used to intentionally offend others. There's no word I'm aware of that is only ever used to offend and they all have (and generally have stated with) inoffensive meanings. In pretty much every community, we seek to reduce the friction between members, and as a part of that, different communities would often choose a point…

These are names. not words.

Re: Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’

#49
post #34
post #26

Its funny to me how they try to apply christian values like avoiding vaguely sexual sounding words while also making significant amounts of money off late night debauchery, picking people up from clubs at 3am.

How does this directly relate to “Christian” values? Could “Islamic” values be applied? Afterall, the Prophet Mohammed made his opposition to crude language clear in the Hadith. Follow up: Also appears there are some misgiving regarding crude language within the Hindu religion as well. [0] [0]: https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?...

Ok, let's call that puritan values of abrahamic religions.
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