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Pseudonyms Now Allowed On Google+
An anonymous reader writes When Google+ launched, it received criticism across the internet for requiring that users register with their real names. Now, Google has finally relented and removed all restrictions on what usernames people are allowed to use. The company said, "We know you've been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be."
I see the only major impact of this being that people can now leave pseudonymous comments on Youtube again.
"Now that our pseudonym to single user identity resolution algorithm is reasonably accurate, go right ahead and make up a fake name."
Now Google+ is sure to become the popular destination it's always been destined to be! I'm going to go on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Reddit and Tumblr and a site with Disqus and tell everyone it's time for Google+! Then I'll pull down my pants and tell all my friends on SnapChat!
- The news Story = " removed all restrictions on what usernames people are allowed to use"
- So i clicked "Edit your name:"
- I enter "4D", in the name field
Result = "Please fill in the name fields."
Garbage news for a garbage product. Did any of the devs even think to "test it"?
Yes,
Unnecessarily difficult, because google either already knows who you are (via some other registered service(s) i.e. Adwords etc) or will link in a relationship to your choosen "Pseudonym" to your real name, web history and other online events later on anyway.
So yeah google, what a stupid idea.
Actually, "Anonymous Coward for the WIN!" should be the headline of this story.
having to use real names has made it far less trollish then other places.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Whistleblowing, witness protection, for example. For most other cases anonymity degenerates into a cesspool of behavior that is not accepted in normal society. See every unmoderated anonymous internet forum ever.
Using real identities can vastly improve internet behavior. For example, a forum I frequent recently switched from anonymous posting to Facebook accounts. Overnoght the forum changed from endless spam and trolling to respectful discourse between actual people.
Restore the glory of the Internet? You mean to go back to a time when most people posted on Usenet with their real name and email address as their signature? The time when even political discussions were civilized?
From my point of view, anonymity was the worst thing that happened to the Internet.
When I attempt to go to Plus, it still says my account is flagged for name violation...apparently, it's not fixed for those already so-flagged.
The Digital Sorceress
No... No... No... No! Those are his clones. The REAL Adolph Hitler lives in Argentina...
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
How horrible it is when people can say controversial things without people and employers holding it against them for all time. Privacy and anonymity are awful!
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Everyone is chatting about it on Twitter and Facebook!
#DeleteChrome
What they really banned wasn't "names which aren't yours" but "names which don't look like they are real names". There was no effort at all to enforce the accuracy of names unless they thought you were impersonating someone. But if you had a not-very-Western name, well, that was a possible problem. And once you got into the "we don't think that looks like a name" thing, they wanted real documentation of some sort.
I never did find a way to make that happen, but eventually I talked to someone who knew someone who could put me in touch with a guy who could fix my account.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
How do you know whether those were their "real name"? I knew a guy who once got interviewed for a newspaper, and they reported his name exactly as written; Tsu Dho Nimh.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
With "say controversial things" you mean trolling?
Is that seriously the only thing you can think of? Take controversial topics like child porn, pedophilia, etc. Get on the 'wrong' side of an argument and you may find yourself the target of an angry mob - perhaps literally.
Don't you think life would be better for you if you could assume who you are and what you think instead of having to hide and having to be a hypocrite?
Don't you think life would be better if the world was perfect? Well, it isn't. You risk not being hired, being fired, losing many opportunities, and being harassed by the government. You also chase away people who don't want any of the things I just listed to happen to them. Maybe you expect people to just ignore all that, but the fact is, people don't. Some people change and convince themselves that they're being themselves, even when they're not. I don't want to hang out with fake people.
Besides, I like my privacy. I like knowing that it's difficult to tie many things to me.
Do you like it when people lie to you in order to obtain some kind of friendship from you?
No, that's why I like anonymity.
But my guess is you never posted anything which could justify it.
You base this on nothing. And since when is this just about me? I'm more afraid of others ceasing to produce insightful and thought provoking content, all in the name of stopping "trolling," something that only thin-skinned people have trouble dealing with anyway.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Google+ was trying to be a social network, and one of Google's execs (I think Eric?) also described it as an "identity service", which is something advertisers may want but slightly fewer than zero readers and writers actually wanted. No Facebook kill here, even if it does stick around longer than Orkut (which mainly took off because John Perry Barlow gave a bunch of invites to friends in Brazil, and Brazilians thought it was a great service for gossip.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
My problem with the real name policy wasn't using my real name on Google+. When I had a Facebook account, I used my real name there.
My problem with the real name policy was that if you used Google+, it would retroactively change all your OTHER Google services to use your real name. Half of the people I use my GMail account to communicate with don't actually know my real name. Now, of course, I could get a Google+ account and continue using the same name I've been using on my GMail account for years.
Except that I don't actually use GMail anymore.
At the time, Google+ was sucking up other Google services and forcibly integrating them. I didn't see why GMail would be an exception to that in the long run and I wanted nothing to do with it.
So it's great that they've removed the real name policy and are no longer agressively integrating their other services into it, but...
Too little, too late. I've already left.
Early-on, they banned quite a few users who had used names which Google's algorithms thought weren't really names. This was especially annoying for people who had decidedly non-English names. It's easy enough to find a number of articles from soon after the launch of Google+ that revolve around this issue.