When I began blogging for MakerBot, it was with the stipulation that I would be able to continue to blog under my pseudonym. This was not a problem at all. In fact, I was assured that many people go by their adopted ‘nym’s which are more reflective of who they are than their given names ever were. I’m saddened and disappointed that Google+ does not recognize this and is apparently banning people from their Google accounts for using pseudonyms.
Seriously, guys? E-mail addresses, logins, Google accounts, they’re all pseudonyms of some fashion. If Google+ is supposed to be the equivalent of posting my driver’s license online to confirm my name, physical address, and organ donor status, you can delete my account right now. If, instead, it is about letting people use the names they’ve chosen to participate in social interactions with people who really only know them by those names… Then stop banning people.
</rant>
They may justbe having a banning spree to keep the beta clean. For one thing, they’re keeping those under 18 out of the beta.
I have the same issue. I never liked the idea of being expected to associate my online identity with what the government and my family call me. There was a time when I wanted the freedom the freedom to abandon an online name and take up a new one, and I have done so once or twice in the process of figuring out who I am, but now I would sooner shed my meatspace identity than my cyberspace one. I like my “nym”, and I care about the people who know that name and not what’s on my driver’s license far more than those who know me by my “real” name. It is not a pseudonym or a mask that I wear, its what’s underneath the mask I wear when I need to walk in the sunlight.
Now, I no longer feel the need to keep my “real” name a secret online, but I don’t want people to start using it to refer to me either, and I certainly don’t want the “who’s that?” reaction that I have had to most of the people on G+ who don’t have distinctive avatars. I didn’t choose that name, and the name my parents chose for me doesn’t represent me any better than the one chosen by some jerk I knew in high school did, but I don’t see G+ expecting me to put that on my profile.
It’s a really messed up policy. I can understand wanting people’s accounts to have “real” names associated with them, but if nobody knows you by that name, it’s a real problem. What they should do is tell you to put your “real” name (the one on your birth certificate, or some variation thereon) in the “name” field of your profile, but let you use the “nickname” field as your primary identifier. That fixes the anonymity problem that is caused by everyone using names like skaterdude8397263 AND the other anonymity problem caused by nobody knowing who the frak you are because you never use that name.
Pingback: Has Google become evil? | MakerBlock