Banned From Facebook

Apparently I’m too cool for Facebook.

The message I see when I try to log in to Facebook. Sadly, I'm also prohibited from using Pidgin to connect to Facebook Chat, which is just about the only thing I use Facebook for these days.

Okay, that’s not what that message actually says, but that’s how I chose to read it. It turns out that my name isn’t real. I went through their forms to tell them that “no, really, this is my name”. They also asked me “what I use Facebook for”, to which I – of course – answered “chatting to friends and stalking exes, same as everybody else – why, what do YOU use Facebook for?” But when I submitted the form, it just ran me back around in a circle back to where I started.

Also: Facebook! Is that exposed HTML code in your message? Dear me.

I’d be less frustrated if I didn’t just send them a copy of my driving license earlier this year, in order to prove that my name was really my name. I guess that the media claims that Facebook keeps all of your information indefinitely aren’t true, and in actual fact they have the memory of a proverbial goldfish.

I’d be more frustrated if I actually used Facebook for anything more than pushing blog posts out to people who prefer to see them on Facebook, and occasionally chatting to people, thanks to the wonderful pidgin-facebookchat plugin.

So on average, I suppose, I’m pretty indifferent. That’s the Facebook way.

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13 comments

  1. anonymous anonymous says:

    A couple of deeds poll later, and Claire and I are half-way to having changed our surnames. Our new surname: Q. I hereby declare this blog post to be the official FAQ of the Dan/Claire name change. So there, Ms Q. 1. You’ve changed your names? Yes, we’ve changed our names. I’m now “Dan Q”, and

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  2. Rory Rory says:

    Have you had any trouble with Google Plus yet?

    1. Dan Q Dan Q says:

      Nope. Surprising, really, considering that they were the social network that were loudest about the “real names only” issue.

    2. Claire Q Claire Q says:

      I’m yet to have trouble of any kind from either, though it could just be a matter of time.

  3. Change your name by deed poll to “Facebook Sucks”?

  4. So, is it just a matter of time before the same thing happens to me?

      1. @jonny_boy27 Yes. @Eskoala and I were a couple for a long while, once. See scatmania.org/q for the story of our shared surname.

        1. @scatmandan sorry, I thought your and @Eskoala ‘s shared surname was a quite extraordinary coincidence!

      2. @Eskoala oh, right, so you are. Sorry, I just thought that was an extraordinary co-incidence!!!

  5. @scatmandan evidently you need to send them a copy of that note the Passport Office sent you or something :)

    1. Dan Q Dan Q says:

      For anybody who’s interested, the note @tajasel is referring to can be found at http://www.scatmania.org/2007/04/28/a-note-from-the-passport-office/

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