Should Facebook Allow Aliases?
Posted by Nick O'Neill on November 1st, 2007 10:59 AMEarly this morning, Jon Swift, a political blogger, sent me an email notifying me that his Facebook account had been removed. Only a couple of days ago, I blogged about how dangerous my reliance on Facebook is given that I now have hundreds of contacts that I don’t have backed up information for. Jon has now posted a lengthy diatribe about how unfair Facebook’s decision is to remove his account.
Technically, Facebook has a legitimate argument that this is a “fake account” given that Jon Swift the blogger, uses an alias to blog. If Jon ever speaks at a conference I wonder if he also speaks under his pseudonym. Should Jon be allowed to have a fake account? I don’t think so since Facebook does honestly want to have only legitimate accounts on their site. That’s one of the primary reasons for their spectacular growth over the past few years.
Some people do wish to protect their privacy though and that is a valid position. Ultimately, if you want to completely protect your privacy, don’t sign up for Facebook. If you want to create an alias, be discrete about it. I know a number of people that have false accounts on Facebook (none of whom I will name), but they have never had an issue with their alias accounts being shut down. That’s because they aren’t public about the fact that they were using an alias on Facebook. So if Jon wants to have an alias account, I suggest he use an alternative name that isn’t a publicly known for being false.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh though. Do you think Facebook should allow users to register aliases?
(4.64 out of 5)
(4.22 out of 5)
November 1st, 2007 at 11:04 am
This is pretty important for me.
I use Jez XXX and I also have a work FB with Jeremy XXX … My friends all know me as Jez and it is a recognised shortened version of Jeremy.
I set up the work FB account as I realised that letting work colleagues know what I was up to at the weekend was a bit of a no no. I don’t really use it and want to get rid of it soon in favour of aliases.
Also didn’t Facebook just change some back end coding that means they can now provide an individual user ID for everyone on earth and all of there pets?
Lets hope this means that when they bring in the much needed groups of friends feature that we could have:
Jez XXX - Friends
The most wonderful Jez XXX - great friends!
Jeremy XXX - work
J XXX - Family
Would really help things out!
November 1st, 2007 at 11:28 am
Fake accounts weren’t a problem until FB went from the university scene to the world. Now anyone can have multiple FB accounts, impossible to control. WTG, FB!
November 1st, 2007 at 11:31 am
It seems they only catch so many fake accounts.
I wonder when they’re going to notice I created an account for my motorcycle? It doesn’t pretend to be an account for a real person at all, and yet it’s been up for about half a year now.
If they delete it, it’s no tragedy for me, unless of course they delete my main account as well because I created a fake account. It wouldn’t be hard to figure out that I created the account. We’re listed as being in an “Open Relationship,” and I’m sure they can check their logs and see we login from the same IP address.
Next week, I’m going to work on a Facebook backup program. It’ll let you backup the uid’s of all your friends to a file to save on your computer, and if you get booted off, you create a new account, add the app again, upload your backup file, and it’ll let you readd all your friends.
I wonder if FB will delete that app?
November 1st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
This is pretty important for me.
I use Jez XXX and I also have a work FB with Jeremy XXX … My friends all know me as Jez and it is a recognised shortened version of Jeremy.
I set up the work FB account as I realised that letting work colleagues know what I was up to at the weekend was a bit of a no no. I don’t really use it and want to get rid of it soon in favour of aliases.
Also didn’t Facebook just change some back end coding that means they can now provide an individual user ID for everyone on earth and all of there pets?
Lets hope this means that when they bring in the much needed groups of friends feature that we could have:
Jez XXX - Friends
The most wonderful Jez XXX - great friends!
Jeremy XXX - work
J XXX - Family
Would really help things out!
November 1st, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Fake accounts weren’t a problem until FB went from the university scene to the world. Now anyone can have multiple FB accounts, impossible to control. WTG, FB!
November 1st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
It seems they only catch so many fake accounts.
I wonder when they’re going to notice I created an account for my motorcycle? It doesn’t pretend to be an account for a real person at all, and yet it’s been up for about half a year now.
If they delete it, it’s no tragedy for me, unless of course they delete my main account as well because I created a fake account. It wouldn’t be hard to figure out that I created the account. We’re listed as being in an “Open Relationship,” and I’m sure they can check their logs and see we login from the same IP address.
Next week, I’m going to work on a Facebook backup program. It’ll let you backup the uid’s of all your friends to a file to save on your computer, and if you get booted off, you create a new account, add the app again, upload your backup file, and it’ll let you readd all your friends.
I wonder if FB will delete that app?
November 1st, 2007 at 3:31 pm
The solution to this would be the availability of officially sanctioned ‘aliases’ from Facebook that would be linked to real accounts. Perhaps this, in combination with the new friend grouping that is coming, would satisfy people.
In the meantime, I fully support Facebook’s stance. Aliases are one thing, but the true problem is when companies, bands, groups, etc. all start creating accounts. The ‘one person, one account’ philosophy is key. Facebook should work on ways that non-people can be represented on the site, but they should be separate from the main person directory.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:31 pm
The solution to this would be the availability of officially sanctioned ‘aliases’ from Facebook that would be linked to real accounts. Perhaps this, in combination with the new friend grouping that is coming, would satisfy people.
In the meantime, I fully support Facebook’s stance. Aliases are one thing, but the true problem is when companies, bands, groups, etc. all start creating accounts. The ‘one person, one account’ philosophy is key. Facebook should work on ways that non-people can be represented on the site, but they should be separate from the main person directory.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I totally agree with Jon Nichols. One of Facebook’s main asset is the trust we grant them for providing us a network of real and honest people.
Now just like in real life, you can always flirt with the forbidden at your own risks. That’s part of the game.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I agree with Jon Nichols. Aliases lead to marketers. I understand that people like their privacy, but then don’t create social networking profiles.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I totally agree with Jon Nichols. One of Facebook’s main asset is the trust we grant them for providing us a network of real and honest people.
Now just like in real life, you can always flirt with the forbidden at your own risks. That’s part of the game.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:34 pm
I agree with Jon Nichols. Aliases lead to marketers. I understand that people like their privacy, but then don’t create social networking profiles.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:51 am
It seems to me the answer to this problem is in two parts:
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.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:51 am
It seems to me the answer to this problem is in two parts:
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.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I don’t mind too much using my real name in FaceBook for my friends and I do have my profile reasonably well locked down, but I’d really like to be able to use and alias when I venture into other areas like games.
Because my name is reasonably unique, it’s just too easy to google me.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I don’t mind too much using my real name in FaceBook for my friends and I do have my profile reasonably well locked down, but I’d really like to be able to use and alias when I venture into other areas like games.
Because my name is reasonably unique, it’s just too easy to google me.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Something I've always believed in is that people tend to use alias when they are at risk of danger or stalking(well known public figures, celebrities, abused people, etc), are not proud or unsure of what they say, scared of other people's reactions, asking for sensitive advice from sites and when they have something to hide. Usually it's one or more of these that causes one to use an alias. I see no real need for an alias on a site like Facebook. There's other(and better) places to blog, to play games, join groups, etc.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I believe that he could have a page or a group to share under his Aliases and have his profile at maximum privacy.
Pages and Groups gives you the abilities to have Videos, photos and with pages now ad html
September 10th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
My girl's account was removed 2 weeks ago. No warning or reason was given. She was devistated because she had over 200 friends, and has no contact information for many of them other than stupid facebook.
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.