Woman With Last Name of 'Yoda' Barred From Facebook
If you hear the name Yoda, you probably think of the little sage sage in the 'Star Wars' films who had a funny way of speaking and apparently was pretty handy with a lightsaber. In Japan, however, Yoda is simply a common family name, a situation that social networking site Facebook seems somewhat oblivious to, since Facebook has been blocking all 'Yodas' from signing up on the site.According to Boing Boing, Japanese author and translator Hiroko Yoda was attempting to create a profile on the site, but was prevented due to an error message about her name. After using different spellings, she was eventually allowed in. She contacted the site and received this note from Facebook's customer service:
Facebook blocks the registration of a number of names that are frequently abused on the site. The name "Yoda," also being the name of a popular Star Wars character, is on this list of blocked names. I apologize again for the inconvenience. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.Completely locking a considerable portion of the population of Japan out of your service seems like a little more than an inconvenience to us. Sure, they may not be able to use the Force, but they can certainly use the Internet just fine, and since when is that not enough criteria for a Facebook account? [From: Boing Boing]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JOHN @ Aug 27th 2008 8:36PM
WHAT WOULD THEY DO, IF THE LAST NAME IS LIPSHITZ.
portorikan @ Aug 29th 2008 9:39AM
I have a friend who's last name is Gay and they won't let her use her last name either.
She goes by Kayla Houseword on facebook now.