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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’

#281

Post by dang »

rdiddly wrote: 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…

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Also, please don't go on tilt like this.

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

#282

Post by dang »

tmpz22 wrote: 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.

Jumping straight into religious flamewar like this was a huge violation of the HN guidelines and did serious damage. Would you please review them and not do this again on this site?

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22022195 and marked it off-topic.

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

#283

Post by dang »

FlowNote wrote: post #54
[deleted] wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Nope, this is pure dishonesty manifest. Islam throws gays off of buildings and beheads women. Christian city made you sad one time because your Dad made you go to Church. Your hopes to prevent analysis of moral arbitrage is nothing more than cheerleader cherry-picking.

We've banned this account for violating the site guidelines. You can't do flamewar like this here, let alone religious flamewar.

If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#284

Post by dang »

FlowNote wrote: post #56
rdiddly wrote: 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…

And not a Dang in sight. Imagine that.

We don't come close to reading everything that gets posted to HN—there is far too much of it, so we rely on users to let us know about the worst stuff. I had no idea that flamewars were going on in this thread until someone told me about it.

When you see a comment that ought to have been moderated and hasn't been, the likeliest explanation is that we haven't seen it yet. We can't moderate what we don't see.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

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

#285

Post by ta999999171 »

spacechild1 wrote: post #214
danso wrote: 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…

> traditionally Caucasian names like "Cummings" It always amazes me when US Americans talk in terms of human races like it's the most normal thing in the world. And no, “Cummings“ is not a “Caucasian name“ (whatever that is supposed to mean), it's an English name. I don't want sound too harsh, it's just that as a Central European with all our recent history, things like this really rub me the wrong way.

Meanwhile, you say stuff like "US Americans".

...are you a Poland Pole?

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

#286

Post by nullc »

cs702 wrote: post #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."

'Automated Stupidity' would be more descriptive and correct. :)

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

#287

Post by detaro »

Izkata wrote: post #272
kps wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

‘Handy’ comes from the WWII ‘handie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to hold in the hand¹, which followed the ‘walkie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to walk around with². ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portable_radio_SCR536.png ² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scr300.png

Meanwhile, at least in the modern US, "walkie talkie" is the name of the handheld unit and "handie talkie" would get weird looks because it's not really known.

Same in Germany when you're talking about radios.

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

#288

Post by winrid »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #184
winrid wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure. I have a credit card under a completely different name (by accident).

I think the claim is that credit card processors don't validate names at payment time. Back before KYC became a thing you could sign up for a credit card with whatever name you preferred. I think it's a bit more strict these days.

Ah, well it was only a few years ago.

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

#289

Post by likeclockwork »

IgorPartola wrote: post #223
feanaro wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, perhaps people just shouldn't be offended by names. There are more important things in life.

If your driver’s name was Hitler Did Nothing Wrong Nazis Rule, would you want to drive with them? I think name filtering like this is incredibly dumb and have never seen a good implementation of it. But “don’t be offended” is rarely the blanket answer people seem to think it is.

I'd want to know if that was their name, so I could not get into their car.

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

#290

Post by homonculus1 »

rjeli wrote: post #263
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dave Chapelle's Mark Twain prize show on PBS was littered with N and F bombs. Only Fuck was censored.

Not sure if you are aware but Chapelle is black

Does the skin color of the person vibrating the air impart some intrinsic quality to it?

The point of the comment above is that the meaning is informed by the listener, you can import all the traumas and neuroses of those around you or you can listen mindfully and limit the impact to whatever is the speaker's intent and capacity to harm you.

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