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When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

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Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#111

Post by innes »

saurik wrote: post #104
innes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, actually global scale is wrong too - I retract that :) The problem arises regardless of 'scale' (number of users). To reiterate: the number of users (scale) is irrelevant to the issue of problem names. I can see why someone sprinkled buzzwords on the HN title that didn't exist anywhere in the article, and weren't applicable though. Makes the issue sound more 'techie'.

I wrote that article, and consider the title I assigned to it here on Hacker News to be its official title; this is also the title that I used when I linked to it on my Facebook Page. Why, therefore, it matters at all that these words "didn't exist anywhere in the article" is beyond me. As for "buzzwords", if you deal at all with Google employees, this becomes an irritating mantra: systems that have less than a hundr…

With the benefit of time and reflection, I now think that the term web scale is fine in this context and I was just being a curmudgeon. For what it's worth, which admittedly isn't much!

Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#112

Post by protomyth »

benologist wrote: post #79
mason55 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask where this was? Crazy to me that there would be a place with UPS service but not E911 service.

We have Fedex/UPS/DHL and use directions in Nicaragua and surrounding countries - I live 50 meters south of a doctor's clinic.

Its amazing when you get in rural environments how directions like "left after the old Benson house" (never mind Benson has been dead for 40 years) or "first house on the left in the 52 housing" (52 was the year the houses were built.

// never mind the "Easter Egg housing" and how they got their name - cheap*$$ government and their "bright" paints

Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#114

Post by rmc »

StrawberryFrog wrote: post #91
gaius wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I know people who IRL insist on being called by made-up names, mostly goths, you know, something like Darkraven Bloodmisery. Whatever they called themselves in Livejournal. Very few of them follow through tho' and fill in a deed poll form! For me that's the acid test: whatever it says on your passport is your real name. And government IT - the least efficient kind! - has managed to solve this. Why can't the mig…

I know a couple of LJ'ing goths who now have Google+. Thus I can see people with stated first names like "Persephone", "Ariadne" etc. The rule of thumb is that if someone says that's their name, that's what you call them. There are also some clearly pseudonymous accounts, e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc. It's impolite to ask what their "real name" is. I've seen someone (call her X) get upset because som…

e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc.

I reminded of Catherina Fake, a Flickr co-founder.

Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#115

Post by StrawberryFrog »

rmc wrote: post #114
StrawberryFrog wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a couple of LJ'ing goths who now have Google+. Thus I can see people with stated first names like "Persephone", "Ariadne" etc. The rule of thumb is that if someone says that's their name, that's what you call them. There are also some clearly pseudonymous accounts, e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc. It's impolite to ask what their "real name" is. I've seen someone (call her X) get upset because som…

e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc. I reminded of Catherina Fake, a Flickr co-founder.

As far as I know "Fake" is the surname that she was born with.

Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#116

Post by StrawberryFrog »

rmc wrote: post #114
StrawberryFrog wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a couple of LJ'ing goths who now have Google+. Thus I can see people with stated first names like "Persephone", "Ariadne" etc. The rule of thumb is that if someone says that's their name, that's what you call them. There are also some clearly pseudonymous accounts, e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc. It's impolite to ask what their "real name" is. I've seen someone (call her X) get upset because som…

e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc. I reminded of Catherina Fake, a Flickr co-founder.

As far as I know "Fake" is the surname that she was born with.

Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#117

Post by rmc »

StrawberryFrog wrote: post #115
rmc wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc. I reminded of Catherina Fake, a Flickr co-founder.

As far as I know "Fake" is the surname that she was born with.

Yes that's my point. You have to be careful about "clearly pseudonymous accounts"

Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#118

Post by StrawberryFrog »

rmc wrote: post #117
StrawberryFrog wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know "Fake" is the surname that she was born with.

Yes that's my point. You have to be careful about "clearly pseudonymous accounts"

All right then. I'll give Tallulah von Strumpet-Hausen and Martin Soulstealer the benefit of the doubt ;)

if your point is "you don't actually know" then mine is "you don't need to even care".

Re: When operating "at web scale", users often simply don't have "real names"

#119

Post by sedev »

StrawberryFrog wrote: post #91
gaius wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I know people who IRL insist on being called by made-up names, mostly goths, you know, something like Darkraven Bloodmisery. Whatever they called themselves in Livejournal. Very few of them follow through tho' and fill in a deed poll form! For me that's the acid test: whatever it says on your passport is your real name. And government IT - the least efficient kind! - has managed to solve this. Why can't the mig…

I know a couple of LJ'ing goths who now have Google+. Thus I can see people with stated first names like "Persephone", "Ariadne" etc. The rule of thumb is that if someone says that's their name, that's what you call them. There are also some clearly pseudonymous accounts, e.g. last names like "jumpycat", "Purple" etc. It's impolite to ask what their "real name" is. I've seen someone (call her X) get upset because som…

"The rule of thumb is that if someone says that's their name, that's what you call them."

Yes! Insofar as it can be made simple, that's how simple it is. I can't fucking believe how hard it is for some people (and databases) to accept that part.

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