Facebook is explicitly designed to primarily be a platform for "real world" relationships, not digital connections with strangers. There are plenty of other places on the web to talk to strangers.

> I know another Richard that goes by Greg.

Then that's the name he can and should use on Facebook. Facebook's policy is not that you have to use your legal name. It's that you should use the name you go by in everyday life, not a pseudonym you invented for online publishing.

Good thing the developer can't control how people decide to use their software. I don't understand this obsession with wanting to force people to not use a pseudonym and only add friends who they know in real life. How does it affect you negatively to know that others use the service in a different way than you?

Your statement contradicts Facebook's actual policies in practice, which in many cases attempt to mandate the use of a name backed by government-issued ID.

Also, how do you prove to Facebook that this is "the name you go by" if they challenge it?

That seems like a pretty solid filter for me.

> But meeting someone doesn't necessarily mean you know their full name

Which is why Facebook's policies and technology is so great: I can easily find and add a new friend who I just met even if I don't have their last name yet.

> neither does it mean that they want you to know it

I can't plausibly imagine any real world scenario where I would willingly share my first name but not my last, but maybe that's just because my name is pretty identifiable.

> Also, how do you prove to Facebook that this is "the name you go by" if they challenge it?

That's the difficult part, and what Facebook is trying to find a good answer to.