this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Edit: I accidentally refreshed the page and it offered alternative questions for ID validation, such as high school of graduation and SSN. But it's still absurd to expect someone to even humor the premise of the prompt.

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[–] De_Narm 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Could be due to my country, but I've never met someone who doesn't know their sign. Neither have I ever met someone who actually gives a fuck about it.

Of course, just ask for the month. If you know that, you can probably guess the zodiac too.

[–] FuglyDuck 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I haven't a clue. I have much more important things to remember. like the cheat codes for the OG version of AOE II

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I wonder if that's an age thing? I was born in the 70s. I think pretty much everyone my age knows their Zodiac sign. And way too many think it has significance.

I even remember that shit being in children's books at the library.

[–] FuglyDuck 2 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe?

I dated this girl in highschool (all of two dates…) that went on about it. She seemed to take it seriously.

[–] FlyingSquid 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

For the handful of us born near the end or the beginning of a month, it would make it harder to guess, but yeah. It's really not the best identity question but it is something most people either automatically know or can figure out really easily even if they forget later, so I can sort of see the rationale even though I think it's silly.

[–] vinniep 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

108 days of the year fall in that end-of-the-month window where they belong to the astrological sign associated with the month that follows, so almost 30% of all possible birth dates become harder to guess. (Your comment made me curious as to just how significant this variability could be in practice - a lot more than I would have guessed)

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 2 weeks ago

I guess it's a slightly better security question than I thought, but still not great. Nowhere near as hard to guess as something like your first childhood pet.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At least you can say does not apply...

But geez.

[–] vinniep 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That would be a bad idea if the "correct" option is available. This is a DoB check without actually displaying your real DoB on the page, which could be used as PII verification by a malicious actor. If the correct astrological sign is listed and you say "Does not Apply", it will count as a wrong answer.

Crappy way to do this, but they're trying to walk a line between confirming your identity (or at least that you know the sensitive data of the person you're spoofing) with multiple choice questions and not creating a security vulnerability where someone can leverage their site to compile sensitive data on individuals.

[–] taiyang 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm diehard anti-theist but I still knew my sign. I blame Gradius 3 having that in the high score menu, but to be fair my mom also believes this shit so it's more likely that, lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

That's fucked up. I'm feeling like Lawrence on this one.

Here's Sagan in a rooftop garden:

Astrology developed into a strange discipline; a mixture of careful observations, mathematics, and record-keeping with fuzzy thinking and pious fraud.

Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Astrology

[–] shalafi -2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

How the hell does anyone reach adulthood and not know their sun sign?! I can't imagine asking someone what their sign is and getting, "Hell I know." It's just a bit of trivia about yourself.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

How the hell does anyone reach adulthood and not know their sun sign?!

By simply never caring about this particular superstition when religious and that not changing when abandoning superstition entirely. I don't care to know what my sign is. It'd be a five second google search but it's not worth five seconds to me.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 1 points 2 weeks ago

Right? We used to read the horoscope in the newspaper and laugh about how wrong it was