# Who is Alexander Halim and why is his Facebook profile a "default"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 3, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514 "2015-11-03T12:42:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/1 "2015-11-03T12:42:39Z")
Sometimes when I try to follow a Facebook link that has been deleted or had its privacy settings altered, I get bounced to a page that has nothing to do with what I wanted to look at. It is always this guy’s profile. I have no idea who he is, and he is not friends with anyone who I am friends with. It seems like his profile is some kind of default that Facebook sends people to when a link fails. What’s going on? When I click his name I just get this link: > **[Log in or sign up to view](https://www.facebook.com/comment?fref=ts)** > > See posts, photos and more on Facebook. Screenshot: [http://i.imgur.com/K1pYI3f.png](http://i.imgur.com/K1pYI3f.png) Edit: Is it possible that he managed to set his Facebook vanity URL as “comment”, and that is what is causing the weirdness? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/2 "2015-11-03T14:34:27Z")
He seems like an affable fellow to me. Since it’s never happened to me I have to take your word that it happens to you consistently. My WAG is that either it’s a bug in Facebook’s software, or it defaults to this guy on purpose. Perhaps they picked a particular ID that happened to belong to this guy as the default page for certain kinds of errors? I agree it’s strange, but they have to send you somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/3 "2015-11-03T16:21:42Z")
It’s never happened to me, either. That’s strange. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/4 "2015-11-03T16:38:40Z")
Send Alex a friend request and find out. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/5 "2015-11-03T18:01:31Z")
I think it is as per my edit. On Facebook you get a URL of the form facebook . com / your.name.XX, but there are also “vanity URLs”. If you go to [Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/comment), you get Alexander’s page. Or at least, I do. Is that the case for other people? So it seems that he has bagged /comment as a vanity URL, which means that when a FB URL with “/comment/” in it gets munged, it goes to his page somehow. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/6 "2015-11-03T18:07:54Z")
I just looked; I got his page too. Wonder if he knows? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/7 "2015-11-03T20:45:58Z")
A junk facebook link just sends me to a standard error page. Do you have an example of an invalid link that sent you to Halim’s page? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/8 "2015-11-04T16:59:20Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > A junk facebook link just sends me to a standard error page. Do you have an example of an invalid link that sent you to Halim’s page? No. I usually get the standard error page, if I deliberately mess up a URL. It happens on mobile, randomly. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/9 "2015-11-05T01:48:41Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > [https://www.facebook.com/comment?fref=ts](https://www.facebook.com/comment?fref=ts) > > Screenshot: [http://i.imgur.com/K1pYI3f.png](http://i.imgur.com/K1pYI3f.png) > > Edit: Is it possible that he managed to set his Facebook vanity URL as “comment”, and that is what is causing the weirdness? Yes, looks like “comment” is his Facebook name. If I replace “comment” in the URL above with my Facebook name, it goes to my profile. I’m not surprised it causes some strangeness. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/10 "2015-12-01T05:48:28Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I think it is as per my edit. On Facebook you get a URL of the form facebook . com / your.name.XX, but there are also “vanity URLs”. > > If you go to [www.facebook.com/comment](http://www.facebook.com/comment), you get Alexander’s page. Or at least, I do. Is that the case for other people? > > So it seems that he has bagged /comment as a vanity URL, which means that when a FB URL with “/comment/” in it gets munged, it goes to his page somehow. Maybe. And this is how internet experts are born. You’ve been quoted on that, dear. 😉 > **[Who is Alexander Halim? A Facebook glitch is making him famous](https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/scitech/technology/546337/who-is-alexander-halim-a-facebook-glitch-is-making-him-famous/story/)** > > The Facebook profile of one Alexander Halim is the talk of the Internet this Tuesday, after it mysteriously began to pop up in Facebook users' browsers around the world. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-alexander-halim-and-why-is-his-facebook-profile-a-default/736514/11 "2015-12-02T12:31:27Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > And this is how internet experts are born. You’ve been quoted on that, dear. 😉 > > [Who is Alexander Halim? A Facebook glitch is making him famous | GMA News Online](http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/546337/scitech/technology/who-is-alexander-halim-a-facebook-glitch-is-making-him-famous) Neat! And it’s been happening for a lot longer than “since November”. I first noticed it about a year ago.