Reg top tip: Don't have the same name as someone else if you use Facebook's Instagram An apparent account mix-up briefly lead to Spanish soccer star Andrés Iniesta inadvertently hijacking the Instagram account of another man with the same name. Andrés Iniesta, a Spanish man who is not a member of FC Barcelona, said that his account (ainiesta) was abruptly removed and linked to the account of the star athlete of …
You're thinking of the other John Smith.
No, not John "No Middle Initial" Smith from Accounts, or John "John Smith" Smith, the amateur John Smith impersonator from Smitham. You know: Johnny, and his mate Smithy's, brewer friend, John Smith!
Or maybe it was Dave. I often get those two confused.
This post has been deleted by its author
"I think if Instagram had responded in time all this could have been avoided."
This is undoubtedly true, but of course responding personally, to every single request for help, would cost an absolute fortune.
It's interesting. With many of the massive web-based corporations, from review websites through social media to new airlines, customer service seems to be an afterthought. However the ability for exceptional cases to go viral can, occasionally, bite them hard.
The risk/reward analysis must be pretty complex. There must be a PhD in there somewhere.
Many of the 'automatic' processes on Facebook are ill-conceived. Perhaps some time in the next 5 years we may finally get a list of UK places that actually exist and don't keep changing when someone posts an inappropriate 'edit'. There are daily reports of places being linked simply because something looks vaguely similar.
"responding personally, to every single request for help, would cost an absolute fortune"
Well, tough. Instagram need a bloody good slap for that.
Not because they eventually sorted it out, but because they ignored the guy until their hands were effectively forced. If that hadn't happened, he'd still be wondering if Instagram would pull their fingers out before the sun burnt out.
I see I'm being downvoted, so feel the need to clarify - my comment wasn't an attempt to defend Instagram/Facebook etc (their behaviour is truly appalling) but to look at why problems like this keep occurring, and what is causing them. As Isces points out problems like this are endemic to badly designed automated systems (placenames like Scunthorpe being famous, but countless people have had their own names deemed "inappropriate" too).
The obvious solution, as Laura says, is "a bloody good slap." Which is where the viral stuff comes in, by exponentially increasing the risk.
However the issue is that can only work so often; the problem is so widespread, and the reward so high, that even the occasional beating won't make it go away. Which leaves a pretty nasty taste.
"The risk/reward analysis must be pretty complex. "
I wouldn't think so. The typical user represents an increment of income very close to, but not quite, zero. Any time and effort whatsoever that is spent on supporting the customer means that the customer instantly (see what I did there?) becomes, not an almost-negligible amount of net income, but a net expenditure.
Of course, that's probably only true for those companies that actually turn a profit. Few of them seem to do so. In that case, each customer would be assumed to represent a loss, pure and simple.
Interestingly, as I believe that Instagram, like all of these shitty social networks, runs in the red, it could well be the case that the more popular a user is, the greater an expense he represents.
Although the saying was coined long before the internet came into existence, there is no place where it is truer: "Sure we lose money on every sale, but we make it up in volume".
The risk/reward analysis must be pretty complex. There must be a PhD in there somewhere.
Close but no cookie (biscuit). No PhD involved at all probably. Most likely it's a beancounter... 3rd one on the left in row 5. Profit vs. exposure to litigation... or maybe just "profit!!!! Who gives a crap about users.".
... how, exactly, did "ainiesta" become "andresiniesta8"? Do the children running instagram really not understand that computers are quite literal when it comes to ones & zeros? Do they really not actually understand how computers work? Are the investors worried (yet)?
Note: One of my pet peeves is that I'm not "Jake" here on ElReg, rather I'm "jake". There really is a difference between '01010100' and '01010110', like it or not.
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/user/26670/
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/user/4800/
Either both [Jj]akes are you (which looks likely, given the tone of the content), and you either forgot you already had a login or were too, ahem, inattentive to spot the "Forgot password?" link on the login page, or there are two distinct Jakes, one of which then evidently needs to make do with "jake", "Jake1", "AnotherJake", "NotTheSameJake" or any other variation .nes. "Jake"
"Either both [Jj]akes are you (which looks likely, given the tone of the content),"
Honestly? My commentardary makes me sound like a tea-bagger?
"you either forgot you already had a login or were too, ahem, inattentive to spot the "Forgot password?""
No ... I'm pretty certain I've been here for a while and know my password.
"one of which then evidently needs to make do with "jake"
"I'm not "making do", I'm just "jake". Have been, for quite awhile.
""Jake1", "AnotherJake", "NotTheSameJake" or any other variation .nes. "Jake""
No idea who any of them are, nor even if they exist on ElReg.
Wait, so you're not a Tea-bagger? I always assumed you were, sort of, everything trollish, all rolled into one. Which obviously would inherently include tea bothering.
:p
On a side note, not sure I understand your actual complaint - obviously if there are 2 users, jake and Jake, then The Reg clearly does understand the difference, and treat them differently.
<i.No ... I'm pretty certain I've been here for a while and know my password.</i>
This doesn't in any way disprove that at some point you might have had the "Jake" login which you then forgot about.
"I'm not "making do", I'm just "jake". Have been, for quite awhile.
So why label it as a "pet peeve" then?
This post has been deleted by its author
"Don't you mean 01001010 'j' and 01101010 'J', rather than the binary for ASCII '6' and '8'?"
Possibly he's expressing it LS bit first. In low level comms you get used to the possibility of reading bit patterns in either direction.
A comms linked papertape punch produced a test tape that the customer held up to the light and pronounced ok. Putting it through a Telex machine it was rubbish. The developer didn't know that the IBM comms processor needed the application data bytes in reverse bit order. The customer had read the large hole patterns on the tape - not noticing that the sprocket holes were in the wrong track.
I know you're just joking, but using government ID numbers probably wouldn't be all that easy. A migrant can end up having several such ID numbers, issued by different governments, but still not having the one you wanted for your database. Top football players do tend to migrate a bit...
For deciding that "Gene Cash" wasn't my real name and demanding to see a birth certificate, driver's license, and other things you aren't entitled to see.
You saved me from having to deal with all the rest of your shit. Plus it's a better story than the usual "ah don' do farcebook" grump.
In case anyone is wondering ainesta was taken because the famous ainesta or his team asked for it. There is no other logical explanation as to why he would all of a sudden get a new name on instagram, indeed the fact he started posting to it.
Ref: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33592599
The ref is for him posting pictures to it.
"I don't know much about football, but is it really so unusual not to be a member of FC Barcelona? What percentage of Spanish adult males are members?"
It is unusual to be a member of FC Barcelona.
FC Barcelona is owned and operated by the supporters - i.e. members. Wikipedia says that there were approx. 170,000 members in 2010. I couldn't find any demographic information about members in the FCB website.
I have too much free time so here's my educated guesswork:
The population in Spain was about 40,500,000 back then (2010), and the sex ratio was 0,96 so about 19,800,000 males. Adulthood in Spain is defined as 18 years but the demographics in CIA don't break the age groups into 0-18 years, so further deducing tells me that around 80% are adults - 15,840,000.
170000 / 15840000 * 100 = 1,07%. A small subset may be foreigners so let's call it an even 1 percent - especially without exact demographic numbers.
NB: The numbers were lifted from Wayback machine and are not current.
"This is undoubtedly true, but of course responding personally, to every single request for help, would cost an absolute fortune."
Yes, because most requests for help are probably pointless and stupid, like "Hey Instagram help me get viruses off my computer" or whatever.. No, I would not respond to those.
But, if they have enough manpower to decide legitimate accounts are "imposters", they can damn well have enough manpower to respond to requests *from the very accounts they disabled*, saying "Hey, I'm a real person."
Surely for the Snr Iniesta to have a 'simple' username with no digit attached it must have been set up a while ago. The footballer has an 8 suffix so his must have been set up later. A simple check of account dates should've raised questions. Have accounts 1-7 been similarly grabbed??
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
