P1020372 Sena Brothers with her hearing dog Itzl

at the Fencon social network get-together in the hotel bar on Friday night. The little dog informs her about ringing phones and other sounds in high frequencies, which she can't hear. As we chatted a little about social networks, she said that neither Facebook nor Myspace allowed her to create account in her own name. They both interpret last name as a name of a business, and their policy does not allow businesses to register, only individuals. The management of Facebook and Myspace did not bend their policies even when she wrote to them and explained that Brothers is her real name. This is so bizarre, especially when Facebook allows people to register all sorts of made-up names.

UPDATE (3/2011): Facebook must have finally allowed Sena Brothers to register an account, because I often see her on Facebook. :-)

Here are my blog posts from Fencon 2008:

Slushpile Live panel -- how anthologies are made.

Writers' workshop.

Fencon opening ceremonies: somber and cheeky.

"Science: fact or crap?" game.

Fencon costumers.

Guest of Honor, science fiction writer and physicist Gregory Benford on problems facing the world.

Or you can view all my Fencon 2008 posts in one page.`