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had a new status message on Gmail/Google Talk

“Stress testing new StartupNewz.com code for upgrade”

August 22 at 9:28 am - Link

posted two links

“Changes: I'm joining RWW full time as VP of Content Development...and I'm getting married!!! http://bit.ly/1FZugB woo hoo!”

August 1 at 7:24 pm - via Reshare - Link

“Overlooking the ocean where drilling would happen (I'm in Rocky's house in Pacifica). Down the street is a sign: "drill here, drill now."”

August 1 at 7:12 pm - via Reshare - Link

posted a link

The unlimited power of social media is bound by my human limitations

August 1 at 7:01 pm - via Reshare - Link

David Muir and Mike Fruchter liked this

posted a link

Re: Startup Customer Service

July 30 at 3:30 pm - via Reshare - Link

Facebook need to have customer service like this. - Vic Podcaster

posted a message on Twitter

“After 8 months @Facebook suddenly decides to disable my account and tell me it does not allow fake names. Is it accpetable?”

July 28 at 10:42 pm - Link

Mike Fruchter, Arturo Servin, David Muir, Ryo and 3 other people liked this

are there no artist names in the US? xing did something similar trying to force celebs to use their real name [which nb knows] - Nicole Simon

Uh-oh. I think this will be a big deal. For example, a friend of mine, Bill Parnell, goes by Biznill Parnorell in Facebook. Is he doomed as well? (And I know Vicky's secret last name. We were coworkers from 2002-2005.) - Louis Gray

Show 36 more comments

Avatars deal with this fear all the time. I couldn't have my gamer name 'Spin Martin' there. Myspace, yes. Facebook, no. Of course people think my name is a stage name so I'm waiting for the day. Stupid anagram names. >:| - Eric Rice

ouch. Sorry to hear about it Vic. - Mitchell Tsai

oh, yeah - modern digital slavery 'gimme yr name or gtfo'... feel for you, Vic - silpol

Facebook sucks for just this reason. - Robert Scoble

Every case like this I've seen Facebook has re-enabled the account once they've realized the person was real. I think this is a good thing - it keeps fake people from being on the service, something unique to many other services out there. Why does it suck? - Jesse Stay

I know "Records" is also a name that cannot be used. My friend ran into that problem. - Daynah

I'm wondering if being preemptive would mean anything. If you real name is also a celeb name or looks fake, should you contact FB to let them know. I'm sure there are many people with an initial as their last name as well. - Phillip Jeffrey

One thing Facebook does still need to do, but I argue this is a minor thing, is make sure a human is reviewing disabled accounts before they get disabled. This is why Robert's account was suspended and most likely why yours was suspended. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

Do you think they'll believe Oli Kenobi is a real name? If my account's disabled, I won't go back with my real name. Who will be the loser in the end? Not me! - Oli Kenobi

my friend Bruce Cumcock was denied access. - PC Easy

Thanks everyone for your support. - Vic Podcaster

Jesse: Imagine Google deciding to shut down my gmail account because they do not like my last name. It has not happened and is not going to happen, period. If Facebook does not allow certain last names, they can for sure check and prevent me from opening an account. 8 months latter, I am an active user, they just can't get up one morning and shut me down because they don't like my name anymore. This is simply not done. - Vic Podcaster

It will be a lot better for everyone that Facebook spells out the rules clearly. Today it is about names, tomorrow they may not like something else. Facebook has to play fair game. - Vic Podcaster

Vic, I agree - Facebook needs humans monitoring this process before disabling accounts. However, on the same front, Google is full of spammers and scammers because they're not as strict. Facebook still needs these scripts to keep the "real person" environment that they have. They just need to do some filtering before they actually disable accounts. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

"Facebook sucks for just this reason" -- Facebook sucks period and the reasons in the hundreds I think. - Brian Sullivan

Jesse: Do you work for or are paid for by Facebook? It is great and all that you wrote a book about using Facebook, I am just curious why you have picture with 'Mark Zuckerberg' in your Facebook profile photo? http://www.facebook.com/people... - Vic Podcaster

Vic , no - I don't work for them - I was just having him sign my book in that picture. I'm as big a critic as I am a proponent of Facebook - Jesse Stay via twhirl

This is crazy, you've been using that name in REAL life forever.... - Zoli Erdos

Zoli: I am not sure how to tell this to Facebook. They simply disabled the account without any courtsey email or advance notice. There is no one to contact in the error message. - Vic Podcaster

Vic, no e-mail whatsoever? That's different from other cases I've heard. Did you get a screenshot of what it shows you when you try to log in? Send it to me at jesse@staynalive.com, I'd like to blog about it. I'll also see if I can find someone at Facebook that can explain or help. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

Posted: http://www.louisgray.com/live/... - Louis Gray

That Louis Gray guy - he always beats me to it ;) - Jesse Stay via twhirl

Go figure. Well that's Facebook for you. They'll disable your account, but the 20 or so people with the name "Jesus Sonofgod" are A-ok. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/6mz2zo - Michael Forian

@Jesse, not only is the story interesting to me, but I know Vicky personally, so I shouldn't get much credit here for going first. - Louis Gray

I'm just glad I didn't have to do another blog post tonight - I have 3 I need to do still - Jesse Stay via twhirl

but seriously, if Facebook won't allow "nicknames", part of "real life", I agree with Robert now - Facebook sucks because of this! I hope they allow you back on. I'll see if I can ask around myself - Jesse Stay via twhirl

Hey Jesse, while you're at it, could you find me someone at Facebook who is in charge of privacy? Wait. That's their Chief Privacy Officer. Scratch that. Can you find someone who is in charge of privacy, because their Chief Privacy Officer is "traveling" "unavailable" or "out of the country" any time I make an inquiry? Or would you lose your access that you got for writing your book? - Andrew Feinberg

I know of someone who has at least 2-3 fake identities on FB, not even a nickname, and I'm wondering how they slipped through the cracks. I don't feel like playing cop and turning them in, but you wonder how they even managed more than one account. - Cathryn Hrudicka

That's funny. Ryo is my everyday name in real life, too. Well, I'm not on Facebook anyways. - Ryo

Andrew, unfortunately most of my access there is in their platform team. For my first book no one would talk to me there. I can ask Dave Morin though, although I'm not sure if he'll be able to help or not. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

I imagine they only do this only with english words. If you were using something like Victor Podcastero (Vic Podcaster in Spanish) probably they would never ever notice it. - Arturo Servin

Thanks a ton Louis for writing the post. - Vic Podcaster

Jesse: I appreciate your offer for help. I just sent you the screenhots at your emai. - Vic Podcaster

Andrew: It is almost impossible to find anyone at Facebook. I guess only way is to drop by their office. :) - Vic Podcaster

Michael: Facebook can not disable these accounts http://tinyurl.com/6mz2zo as it will not be politically correct. - Vic Podcaster

Arturo: I like your suggestion. Though Vic Podcaster is the real name I use in real life and been doing so for a long long time. - Vic Podcaster

Jesse: Based on your profile picture with Mark, you should have a hotline into Mark's office. ;-) - Vic Podcaster

An afterthought, I participated in a Facebook panel discussion this Saturday evening titled "Facebook Change-athon to migrate to new profile" http://socialsoftware.meetup.c... and I my advice to site developers regarding "Facebook Connect" was wait and watch before running with it. It will be childish of me to imagine that disabling my account on Sunday and speaking my mind about Facebook on Saturday are co-related - one of my friend just pointed out the coincidence. - Vic Podcaster

Vic - lol - I wish! I do have a video of him playing rockband with his family at F8 that he doesn't want published. ;-) I would never do that to him though. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

posted a message on Twitter

“Hope that everyone in LA is OK”

July 29 at 1:01 pm - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“@Facebook does not like my last name (says its fake) and disable my account without notice. Is Facebook the new Microsoft?”

July 28 at 10:49 pm - Link

You were probably caught by some script - Facebook just needs to provide a way you can apply to have a fake-looking name not get caught by the scripts. They also need a way to pass these accounts by a real person and give you a chance to plead your case before they disable your account. - Jesse Stay

Jesse: I think the scripts should not be going around disabling the accounts. The normal procedure is flagging the account followed by the review, and Facebook should adopt something similar. - Vic Podcaster

published photos on Flickr

July 26 at 1:51 am - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“@Sun should not push Yahoo Toolbar through @JAVA update down users throat - should make it opt-in instead of opt-out”

July 25 at 11:03 am - Link

Zoli Erdos and Louis Gray liked this

Sun - stop pushing the software. let us opt-in if we want something, we will get it. - Vic Podcaster

posted a message on Twitter

“Damn! @Facebook only allows 60 photos in an album. Breaking 160 TechCrunch August Capital 2008 party pictures into 3 albums.”

July 26 at 1:21 am - Link

published photos on Flickr

July 25 at 3:12 pm - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“Going to @Techcrunch party today. See you all there.”

July 25 at 12:06 pm - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“Going to F8 day after party in SF - cool real social media friends coming”

July 24 at 3:52 pm - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“Retweet @biz: for those affected, we're restoring followers today—not sure exactly when it will be finished”

July 24 at 12:28 pm - Link

Twitter restore status:"not sure exactly when it will be finished” - is better than "in couple of hours" (old status at their blog). We atleast know now that the problem is serious and @twitter is working on fixing the problem and follows and followers will simply not disapper. Good to know that I all my twitter friend circle will not disappear in thin air. - Vic Podcaster

posted a message on Twitter

“Dear @twitter friends - I didn't stopped following you, it is the folks at @twitter fixing things - should be back to normal soon.”

July 24 at 10:34 am - Link

Louis Gray liked this

How soon is soon. Its been 19 hours and counting. They had to have trashed their database, and if they do not have mirroring or some professional technology that minimizes data loss than they will suffer user loss. - Matthew Sibenik

Mathew: Though I believe that the twitter team is working hard to solve this issue, with couple of folks spending their night in the office fixing database and monitoring database recovery, I totally agree with you that they need a better database solution and protection solution. Further they need to set the expectations of their users correctly with regards to the recovery time - this is basic PR 101. - Vic Podcaster

On second thought - let me go a step further in recommending a database solution for Twitter. What they need is a super-cool fast box like BLUEARC, its capable of recovering and restoring databases in an instant virtually eliminating downtime. BLUEARC's TITAN protected storage works great for the likes for Media Temple, Shopzilla and Rythm & Hues - I am sure it will do the job for Twitter and make it fly. --(Full Disclosure: I worked for Bluearc in previous life and know the technology in an out) - Vic Podcaster

posted a message on Twitter

“Does @Twitter has a community manager? Though they empower the social communication, do they need a community manager?”

July 24 at 10:36 am - Link

posted a message on Twitter

“Checking out new Facebook Profile layout”

July 23 at 11:27 pm - Link

had a new status message on Gmail/Google Talk

“Playing with new Facebook profile - finding it slightly disorienting”

July 23 at 4:54 pm - Link

had a new status message on Gmail/Google Talk

“Working on http://startupNewz.com”

July 23 at 2:08 pm - Link