I just contacted a new social media service that wants you to sign up with your Facebook account. I have multiple Facebook accounts but I don’t like to use them to sign up with social media services. So I sent a polite suggestion that they allow people to create accounts through other mechanisms. The starry-eyed reply I received included the following: “…Facebook currently has the best mechanism to ensure there is a real person behind a username.” Sorry, folks, but that is absolute nonsense. Facebook will allow anyone with an email address to create an account. They can’t even filter out proxy services. If you’re launching a new business and you are concerned about people creating multiple accounts, DON’T LAUNCH YOUR NEW BUSINESS. Facebook cannot protect you from spam accounts. Facebook cannot tell how many times you have signed up. Facebook doesn’t know if there is a “real person” behind the username (hint: there is ALWAYS a “real person” behind the username). Facebook is not a miracle worker. If you want real customers and users you need to let people join your service however they wish and then do your best to clean up the multiple signups because, frankly, I [...]










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