Whats in a (Facebook) name

A rose by any other name is just as sweet, but not on Facebook, as the L A Times notes about one "v" Addeman's attempts to set up a profile:

Addeman says he's well aware that his first name -- a single letter -- is unusual. He picked it out himself. An aspiring writer, he thought it would look good someday on a book jacket. So he changed it legally.

But Facebook's automated system rejected his registration effort. Addeman complained but says he got the runaround from customer service. Then he was told he had to supply a valid government-issued ID.

He balked. "I shouldn't be forced to submit to additional verification if that's not a normal request for all Facebook users," he said. ...

... He eventually got an apology and an account from Facebook customer service: "In the course of our investigation we have determined that your use of 'V' does appear to be legitimate."

Facebook says it requires people to provide their real name and date of birth; the goal is to prevent users from impersonating others and to preserve the authenticity of the social network. So it blacklists names such as Donald Duck and George Clooney. Even Santa Claus had to prove his identity and couldn't exceed his friend limit.

This is verifiably total cr*p. We were kicked off Facebook last year for being the Broadstuff Blog* (when they instituted real names only policy for Beacon - I did a search at the time and pointed out the many Jesus Christs, Attilla the Huns, Santa Clauses, Julius Caesars etc...but to no avail. The official line is that there are no false identities on Facebook....dream on! )

* and we're not famous enough to get put back on