My Name Is Ross Halbert

January 14, 2012 2:33 PM

Can anyone explain why, if you enter - @*[356:0] - then remove the star, and hit Enter, in a Facebook comment section, it will post the name "Ross Halbert?"

Here's how it was posted:

Okay, this is nuts: I just named my cell phone and his name is Ross Halbert!!! Take the last 3 digits of your mobile phone number. Example: If 356 is the last three of your cell phone, type it in the comment box below as: @*[356:0] - then remove the star, and hit Enter.

Other names that I've seen (depending on the digits used) include Debra Mao and Xi Wang.

Any ideas? Some sort of Easter Egg-like feature from some bored FB developers?

posted by davidmsc to Technology (21 answers total)

used exactly the same numbers and got Austin Speier..

for what is worth all those names have Linkedin google results near the top of the search
posted by edgeways at 2:37 PM on January 14, 2012

Best answer: Those names all appear on this list of Facebook early adopters.
posted by Knappster at 2:40 PM on January 14, 2012

Best answer: It has something to do with people's user IDs - the number that will be in their profile URL if they haven't chosen a custom URL. I got a different name when I did what you did, but I did a search for "Ross Halbert" on facebook and found the profile of someone whose user ID is 788. I then tried the same thing using 788 instead of 356 and got Ross Halbert.

I believe user IDs are related to when someone signed up, since facebook started at Harvard and this guy's profile says he went to Harvard (and 788 is a very low number.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 2:41 PM on January 14, 2012

I got Ashley Shuyler whose LinkedIn is neither near the top of her search results nor on that list of early adopters.
posted by cmoj at 2:41 PM on January 14, 2012

Response by poster: Interesting link, Knappster - thanks! But the puzzle...why the @*[NNN:0] format?
posted by davidmsc at 2:42 PM on January 14, 2012

(Profile URL for someone who hasn't chosen a custom URL will look like this: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=user number)
posted by needs more cowbell at 2:42 PM on January 14, 2012

"356 Austin Speier"


the textarea is execing FQL or something.

Someone take a look at the textarea events and step through with firebug but I'm geussing it is execing a query based on the user id
posted by Ad hominem at 2:43 PM on January 14, 2012

Ashley Shuyler does have a custom URL, but also went to Harvard.
posted by cmoj at 2:43 PM on January 14, 2012

You don't need to enter "*" and remove it.
posted by aroberge at 2:44 PM on January 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

It will also work with your user ID too, if you know it - it doesn't have be 3 digits.
posted by Brent Parker at 2:45 PM on January 14, 2012

Best answer: People have a user ID even if they have a custom URL. (Custom URLs are only a few years old) I just figured out mine (by looking at the URLs for links to my various facebook albums, and noticing that there was a particular string of digits in all of them) and tried it with that (6-digit) number, and it inserted my name (hyperlinked, just like an @+my name would do.) It probably doesn't hyperlink the other people because you and I aren't friends with them.
posted by needs more cowbell at 2:47 PM on January 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ross Halbert is user number 788, but ignoring all the unassigned user numbers makes him (by my calculations) the 358th user. Pretty close to 356.
posted by Knappster at 2:55 PM on January 14, 2012

The list of early adopters isn't complete, so it doesn't surprise me that some people's names would show up that aren't on the list. I have a 3-digit UID and I'm not on there. Heck, even some of the Facebook cofounders don't show up on that list.
posted by phoenixy at 2:57 PM on January 14, 2012

I believe user IDs are related to when someone signed up

Originally, you could determine someone's original network and join date using their user IDs. For example, it might have worked something like this:

• 0–99999: Harvard
• 100000–199999: Columbia
• 200000–299999: Stanford
• 300000–399999: Yale

Within each range, Thefacebook assigned user IDs based on join date. This all went away at some point as the network became less of an important concept, and was eventually abandoned.
posted by grouse at 2:57 PM on January 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Anyone can generate that list of early adopters by using need more cowbell's URL of https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=user number
and just working through the numbers.
posted by vacapinta at 3:09 PM on January 14, 2012

So is Facebook just not sanitizing their database queries? This seems like it would be an enormous security hole.
posted by gauche at 4:06 PM on January 14, 2012

So is Facebook just not sanitizing their database queries?

Unlikely.

This seems like it would be an enormous security hole.

What, exactly, is the risk? The user associated with a user ID on Facebook has always been public knowledge.
posted by grouse at 4:41 PM on January 14, 2012

The list of early adopters isn't complete, so it doesn't surprise me that some people's names would show up that aren't on the list. I have a 3-digit UID and I'm not on there. Heck, even some of the Facebook cofounders don't show up on that list.

Yep, I just scraped user IDs 1 through 788, and 739 of them returned profiles.
posted by Knappster at 5:00 PM on January 14, 2012

Just FYI, @622 doesn't come up with a name. My number broke the game.
posted by TooFewShoes at 5:42 PM on January 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Here's the explanation. It's facebook profile ID numbers.
posted by raisingsand at 9:29 PM on January 14, 2012

Fun fact: You can also log into Facebook using your user id instead of your username or email address.
posted by asphericalcow at 12:09 AM on January 15, 2012