Offbeat Name? Then Facebook's No Friendhttp://www.washingtonpost...3/04/AR2009030404159.htmlWhat Caitlin wanted did not seem that hard. She had signed up for Facebook after she married, as Caitlin Shaw. Now, to make it easier for old friends to find her, she wanted to add her maiden name. Her maiden name is Batman.
Facebook's name-change procedure suddenly required superhuman effort.
Because after Caitlin Batman Shaw, a mental health therapist in Arlington, submitted the brief online form, she received an automated response rejecting her. The faceless gatekeepers of Facebook had decided her name could not possibly be real. Batman Shaw appealed, and was rejected. Appealed, rejected. "The process took me three weeks" and several e-mail queries, she says, before she was finally able to use her full legal name.
She can join the Yodas, the Christmases, the Beers, the Pancakes and all of the other wannabe Facebookers whose online rejections represent the latest in a lifetime of name shame. And really, what's the point of Facebook if you can't be yourself?
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After several failed exchanges with customer service, Miranda Batman -- no relation to Caitlin -- of Indiana decided her real name wasn't worth pursuing. Facebook had requested she fax a copy of her driver's license, and she worried about security.
Instead, Miranda signed up for an account as "Miranda Stewart," using her husband's bachelor surname. (He took on Batman when they got married because, well, wouldn't you?) Facebook immediately accepted the fake name. "Which is so ironic," the nursing student says. "Because that's what they're trying to" prevent. The only way for Miranda to overcome accusations of fraud was by . . . committing fraud.
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