The Force is not with you, Facebook tells Yoda

Davey Winder
Sunday, 31 August 2008 17:33

Business IT - Networking

In one of the most unlikely Internet stories to emerge as the annual silly season for news comes to an end, I just had to recount the tale of a woman called Hiroko Yoda who allowed to join Facebook was not...

It seems that a Japanese author by the name of Hiroko Yoda has found herself unable to join Facebook because the Force was not with her.

The woman claims to have made numerous attempts to sign in using her real name, in itself an unusual occurrence if you believe all the stories of people pretending to be someone else online, all to no avail.

She always eventually got told that Facebook was unable to complete her registration.

Of course, the light(saber) dawned upon Hiroko in the end, and she wondered if her surname could be the problem.

Hiroko tried signing up as Yohda instead, and was successful, in order to prove the point.

The Force is strong with this one, so Hiroko contacted Facebook to protest. She claims that the social networking site responded via email with the following explanation:

"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."

It is not clear if Hiroko responded, as I would have, with "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will..." but according to the latest posting on her Life as Yoda blog, Facebook has now finally relented and allowed Yoda to join.

I cannot wait to see who her friends are...