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American Express: your last name is improper

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Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#11

Post by Semaphor »

headPoet wrote: post #5

Addresses in Scotland use a slash to separate flat number from street number; e.g. 15/4 West Wallaby Way is equivalent to Building 15, Flat4, West Wallaby Way. I've had multiple websites tell me that my address isn't valid, and some delivery companies remove the number after the slash so the delivery driver knows which building, but not which flat.

My house number is 12-16. Even some government websites in Germany can't handle that and go with 12 ( which, to be fair, works for all purposes, but it's incorrect)

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#12

Post by SahAssar »

ss108 wrote: post #7
SahAssar wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That seems like a way to get a discrimination lawsuit I don't think names are a protected class, right? Regardless it is stupid, but I'm not sure if it on its own can be called anything else than lazy engineering.

Names are an attribute. Hijabs and turbans are not protected classes either, but religion is. In this case, one would argue nationality, probably, but I'm not sure what the strength of a lawsuit would be or on what basis.

I don't think the last name "Pot" is going to be clearly associated with any protected class. If they where banning all last names prefixed by "O'" or the name "Rousseau" that'd be a bit different.

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#14

Post by feoren »

runnerup wrote: post #13

Interestingly it appears this check happens clientside so a super-knowledgeable user could bypass the check by using the browser console to empty the “bad words” array.

It's common for the same checks to happen client-side (for user convenience and good error messages) and server-side (for the actual security/validation).

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#15

Post by feoren »

It's impressive how they managed to actually get the worst of both worlds here. There are infinite combinations of swear words that they can't catch from their puny static list. It's like they asked an intern to spend 10 minutes on this problem.

Names you can use: dickshit, bitchfuck, pisshole, gonorrhea

Names you can't use: this person's actual name. "gonorhea" [sic]. And "trust"!?

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#16

Post by ss108 »

SahAssar wrote: post #12
ss108 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Names are an attribute. Hijabs and turbans are not protected classes either, but religion is. In this case, one would argue nationality, probably, but I'm not sure what the strength of a lawsuit would be or on what basis.

I don't think the last name "Pot" is going to be clearly associated with any protected class. If they where banning all last names prefixed by "O'" or the name "Rousseau" that'd be a bit different.

Yeah, this is kind of the issue; I don't know if "Pot" is indicative of any clear nationality or heritage.

Kind of a lacuna in the law--I think almost everyone in the country would agree this person has a legit grievance here, but not sure what the exact legal theory would be...

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#17

Post by terribleperson »

headPoet wrote: post #5

Addresses in Scotland use a slash to separate flat number from street number; e.g. 15/4 West Wallaby Way is equivalent to Building 15, Flat4, West Wallaby Way. I've had multiple websites tell me that my address isn't valid, and some delivery companies remove the number after the slash so the delivery driver knows which building, but not which flat.

To me, this is very similar to the recent post about email address validation. Very often, companies feel the need to validate certain inputs themselves and do a terrible job, when there's a better solution.

When it comes to addresses, if they're in the U.S. there is an easy way to validate delivery addresses - the USPS. They offer free access to an API that includes address validation, and thankfully most shipping services now use it. Some services still screw things up, but its less of a problem than it used to be. I notice that the Royal Mail equivalent is paid. Perhaps that's part of the problem, or perhaps the Royal Mail validator fails addresses with slashes in it.

I also noticed that the Royal Mail is a publicly traded company. I'll uh, refrain from commenting on that.

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#18

Post by Perenti »

ss108 wrote: post #16
SahAssar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the last name "Pot" is going to be clearly associated with any protected class. If they where banning all last names prefixed by "O'" or the name "Rousseau" that'd be a bit different.

Yeah, this is kind of the issue; I don't know if "Pot" is indicative of any clear nationality or heritage. Kind of a lacuna in the law--I think almost everyone in the country would agree this person has a legit grievance here, but not sure what the exact legal theory would be...

Reasonably common and significant name in Kampuchea. One of the things these lists reveal is the depth of cultural bias out there.

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#19

Post by Hallucinaut »

mdaniel wrote: post #10
headPoet wrote: post #5

Addresses in Scotland use a slash to separate flat number from street number; e.g. 15/4 West Wallaby Way is equivalent to Building 15, Flat4, West Wallaby Way. I've had multiple websites tell me that my address isn't valid, and some delivery companies remove the number after the slash so the delivery driver knows which building, but not which flat.

The addressing system in New Zealand is also some especial "I have seen things " and I never worked on it but my colleagues said that Tokyo was also "you should pull up a chair"

NZ is exceedingly plain so I don't get that comment. Most are of the form 1337 Great North Road Pt. Chevalier Auckland 1002

You could even omit Auckland as it's implied by the simple 1000-series postcode.

The property boom may have led to subdivisions making a 1337/2 necessary but the vast majority of buildings outside of metro areas are detached, single family properties.

Re: American Express: your last name is improper

#20

Post by Kon-Peki »

terribleperson wrote: post #17
headPoet wrote: post #5

Addresses in Scotland use a slash to separate flat number from street number; e.g. 15/4 West Wallaby Way is equivalent to Building 15, Flat4, West Wallaby Way. I've had multiple websites tell me that my address isn't valid, and some delivery companies remove the number after the slash so the delivery driver knows which building, but not which flat.

To me, this is very similar to the recent post about email address validation. Very often, companies feel the need to validate certain inputs themselves and do a terrible job, when there's a better solution. When it comes to addresses, if they're in the U.S. there is an easy way to validate delivery addresses - the USPS. They offer free access to an API that includes address validation, and thankfully most shipping s…

> the USPS... offer free access to an API that includes address validation, and thankfully most shipping services now use it.

Unfortunately not all. My street "number", like 100,000 other houses near me, includes a letter in the middle. USPS will happily validate it correctly, but there are still websites I encounter from time to time that complain or refuse to work.

Where I am, 100 years ago, if your house wasn't inside a city, it simply didn't have an address. The fire departments got together and created a geographic encoding scheme that would allow them to find a house if they needed to. In the 1960s, the USPS adopted it as official. New homes continue to be issued addresses according to the scheme, even though it is not rural at all - it's inside one of the largest metro areas of the US.

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