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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’

#121

Post by robocat »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #116
9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely Semyon would be the more common way of rendering семён?

Transliteration is almost always a mess, rarely yielding good results. If I were him I would just demand the authorities to spell my name as Simon. Or, perhaps, keep it as Semen and make fun of that myself. I could even sue someone who would ban me for this.

> I could even sue someone who would ban me for this.

That only works for a very small subset of the world population. Even in the US, try sueing tictok.

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

#122

Post by qwerty456127 »

finnthehuman wrote: post #119
rhizome wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I bet someone named Shooter[1] has no problems signing up. 1. https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/extreme-boys-names

Why wouldn't they? "Shooter" is a word that's acceptable to use in almost any company, even though the verb at it's root part of some abhorrent acts. "Fuck" is a distasteful word for an act with near-universal approval.

> "Fuck" is a distasteful word for an act with near-universal approval.

Near-universal approval and near-universal distaste. A curious phenomenon, isn't it?

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

#123

Post by big_chungus »

winrid wrote: post #115
somebodythere wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend named Aryan who was not allowed to sign up for a Microsoft account with that name. Support even refused to make the exception when asked, suggesting that he sign up with the name "Ryan" instead. To this day, emails from that account have "Ryan " in the header.

How do people find that offensive?

It is probably best known as part of nazi ideology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan

This is no the only use, of course, but that doesn't matter. Good luck being a Hindu and displaying a swastika.

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

#124

Post by interestica »

zeta0134 wrote: post #29
danso wrote: 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…

This is making me think of elevators that deliberately leave out floor numbers (13 in north america, 4 in asia) because they are 'bad luck'. Numbers! As Mitch Hedberg would say, the people on the 14th floor know which floor they're really on.

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

#125

Post by interestica »

ithkuil wrote: post #111
bradleyankrom wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the life of me I cannot get “may” to stop autocorrecting to “May”

I tried for Boris too but couldn't find a solution

you have to type "exit" after you're done.

you may have to do it a few times before it works.

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

#126

Post by GrantZvolsky »

Macha wrote: post #117
danso wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, no name filter is going to be perfect for all edge cases. But presumably, it's a lot cheaper to have the Lyft support team handle email tickets from the relatively few Professor Fucks, than to have them also deal with every Cummings and Dick.

And what about Mr. Fucks, the fast food worker with no network to get his issues in front of a Lyft employee? He's probably just unable to use the service.

That guy's so used to services failing him that he doesn't use his real name unless necessary.
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