She started up a new account and that one was promptly deleted too. She sent over 15 emails to the idiots at facebook who finally said she got deleted for using a fake name.

She's been called 'devilgirl' for over 15 years now, starting from way back in the Toronto music scene - and many of her friends only know her by that name. There are 500+ current Facebook members with 'devil' in their name. Why single her out?

They finally did reply, and restored her 2nd account, but not the first one with all her friends.

Facebook is screwed. Both of us are getting ready to opt out of it for good… And I have a feeling facebook is generally on it's way of the dodo so we're a few of the first.

Pages and Groups gives you the abilities to have Videos, photos and with pages now ad html

Because my name is reasonably unique, it’s just too easy to google me.

Because my name is reasonably unique, it’s just too easy to google me.

1. Organizing facebook friends by tagging which are social, college, family, business, church, etc. — this features is coming from facebook and assuming each of these groups of tagged individuals will see a slightly different profile page for me, a different mix of photos, etc., then there is no need for an individual to have an alias

2. Expansion of the Groups concept (see http://blog.adonomics.com/2007/10/12/is-supergroups-the-next-killer-app-for-facebook/) — this will allow folks who want to write a blog (and even make money from it), or companies who want to have a sustained presence that is not dependent on an individual to create their own personal brand (vs. their identity) inside of facebook.

With these two changes facebook can keep its subset of the social graph pure. This is important for social interactions (e.g., I want to know that the Steve Ballmer account I’m interacting with is the real Steve and not a another FakeSteve). It is also important for advertisers and for merchants who will want to know that an individual in facebook is the real deal and someone they can trust to pay with the credit card that they have registered inside of facebook.

So, IMHO the solution is coming. That being said, I do feel like the Backup my Facebook Identity (including e-mail, notes, wall posts, photos, etc.) is a great idea for an app. I would hate to lose all of this data due to a bug in facebook. I also think that if an account is turned off that there should be some kind of appeal period where you can still use the account and back your data up but perhaps be restricted from sending too many messages (since this is how they prevent fake-account spamming).

I had my account disabled for a period one time through some kind of false positive report and it was VERY DISCONCERTING. Part of facebook’s power to reinvent the web is the fact that unlike the wild west chaos of the web, facebook is like a town with an all-powerful sheriff. However, with tremendous power comes tremendous responsibility and I’m hopeful that facebook will use some of their new resources to focus on this part of their system.

Thanks,
Lee Lorenzen
CEO, Altura Ventures — the first facebook-only VC

(c) 2007 Altura Ventures LLC.

1. Organizing facebook friends by tagging which are social, college, family, business, church, etc. — this features is coming from facebook and assuming each of these groups of tagged individuals will see a slightly different profile page for me, a different mix of photos, etc., then there is no need for an individual to have an alias

2. Expansion of the Groups concept (see http://blog.adonomics.com/2007/10/12/is-supergr...) — this will allow folks who want to write a blog (and even make money from it), or companies who want to have a sustained presence that is not dependent on an individual to create their own personal brand (vs. their identity) inside of facebook.

With these two changes facebook can keep its subset of the social graph pure. This is important for social interactions (e.g., I want to know that the Steve Ballmer account I’m interacting with is the real Steve and not a another FakeSteve). It is also important for advertisers and for merchants who will want to know that an individual in facebook is the real deal and someone they can trust to pay with the credit card that they have registered inside of facebook.

So, IMHO the solution is coming. That being said, I do feel like the Backup my Facebook Identity (including e-mail, notes, wall posts, photos, etc.) is a great idea for an app. I would hate to lose all of this data due to a bug in facebook. I also think that if an account is turned off that there should be some kind of appeal period where you can still use the account and back your data up but perhaps be restricted from sending too many messages (since this is how they prevent fake-account spamming).

I had my account disabled for a period one time through some kind of false positive report and it was VERY DISCONCERTING. Part of facebook’s power to reinvent the web is the fact that unlike the wild west chaos of the web, facebook is like a town with an all-powerful sheriff. However, with tremendous power comes tremendous responsibility and I’m hopeful that facebook will use some of their new resources to focus on this part of their system.

Thanks,
Lee Lorenzen
CEO, Altura Ventures — the first facebook-only VC

(c) 2007 Altura Ventures LLC.

Now just like in real life, you can always flirt with the forbidden at your own risks. That’s part of the game.