Google Plus: Deleted, not suspended
Jul. 25th, 2011 12:49 amGoogle Plus accounts are supposed to be under an identifiable name, so people who know you know who they're talking to. It doesn't necessarily have to be the name on your ID -- there are examples like someone whose ID says Thomas going by Tom instead -- but it should be the name that family, friends, co-workers, know you by.
Since 2001, I've been azurelunatic on the internet. It's the name I use with everyone I'm approaching with the intent of friendship (as opposed to co-workers, who I have to work with whether or not I actually become friends with them, so I'm rather more careful there), and the name I most often use when I don't need to produce ID to say who I am.
I'm not as uncomplicated as people like![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skud (who links legal name and common name, and answers to Skud from friends and co-workers alike) and rising (who is Rowan Thunder just about everywhere but on his ID). There are places that I use my legal name, since I have neither cut ties with all the people who met me in high school, nor invited all of my co-workers into my real social life, nor scrounged up the cash for a legal name change and then tried to get hired with the last name "Lunatic". My best friend still calls me by my legal name, despite my best efforts to get him to at least use the diminutive.
Regardless of the complications, this is the name I answer to best, and the name I plan on answering to in my future on the internet in all of the places that matter. It's the name I get books autographed to, which is about as real as it gets.
I started hearing tell of people with non-standard names getting suspended.rising. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
metaphorge. skud. cz_unit.
Some of my friends told me that I should lie low on Google Plus until they figured out what they were doing, and change my last name as displayed there from "Lunatic" to "L" (no period, to avoid that known means of triggering the automated account flagging system) to make it less likely that if someone reported me as having an unreal name, I'd be less likely to get suspended. They said that even though I didn't have either a Facebook or a LinkedIn under this name, that my ten years on LiveJournal ought to count for something.
Various people have also suggested, although not directly to me, that people whose names of choice are not consistent with Google Plus flagging algorithms should simply pick a completely false, but authentic-sounding, name, and fly under the radar of the Real Name Police and whatever stalkers and griefers they might have. That suggestion is deeply offensive to me, and goes entirely contrary to the intent of that section of the terms of service, which emphasizes actual identity, even as it equates actual identity to something at least vaguely related to the ID.
I did eventually change my last name from "Lunatic" to "L" and lie low for a while, but the joy went out of it. I didn't feel like putting effort into sorting my friends into circles or sharing things if I wasn't going to be there long-term.
It was the combination of a conversation between some of my friends, coming to the consensus that (at least in the groups they knew) the pseudonymous web had been fun while it lasted, but the day of the legal name web was at hand, and that no few of the people who had been suspended were behaving unethically as they had known that Google Plus did not accept fake names when they signed up, andcz_unit's experience, where years of LJ presence under his name of choice was not sufficient to get his account reinstated that decided me. (I remember him fondly from my early days at LJ, so I don't have to take his word for it that he's been consistently using that name. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
megazone apparently also had trouble, another name I remember.)
Google Plus, at least at this point in time, is making it clear that it is not friendly to names that are not in some way derived from or publicly associated with people's legal names. They may be in the process of changing this. I did see some encouraging-sounding discussion. But at this time I do not feel like my presence on the site is in keeping with the Terms of Service. My real name is not in keeping with the letter of the ToS, as it is unrelated to my legal name, and my co-workers do not know it. My legal name is not in keeping with the intent of that portion, as it is not a name that the majority of the people I would interact with would recognize, and is not my real name. Accordingly, I have (voluntarily and without first being suspended) deleted my Google Plus account, at least for the time being.
Since 2001, I've been azurelunatic on the internet. It's the name I use with everyone I'm approaching with the intent of friendship (as opposed to co-workers, who I have to work with whether or not I actually become friends with them, so I'm rather more careful there), and the name I most often use when I don't need to produce ID to say who I am.
I'm not as uncomplicated as people like
skud (who links legal name and common name, and answers to Skud from friends and co-workers alike) and rising (who is Rowan Thunder just about everywhere but on his ID). There are places that I use my legal name, since I have neither cut ties with all the people who met me in high school, nor invited all of my co-workers into my real social life, nor scrounged up the cash for a legal name change and then tried to get hired with the last name "Lunatic". My best friend still calls me by my legal name, despite my best efforts to get him to at least use the diminutive. Regardless of the complications, this is the name I answer to best, and the name I plan on answering to in my future on the internet in all of the places that matter. It's the name I get books autographed to, which is about as real as it gets.
I started hearing tell of people with non-standard names getting suspended.
rising. metaphorge. skud. cz_unit. Some of my friends told me that I should lie low on Google Plus until they figured out what they were doing, and change my last name as displayed there from "Lunatic" to "L" (no period, to avoid that known means of triggering the automated account flagging system) to make it less likely that if someone reported me as having an unreal name, I'd be less likely to get suspended. They said that even though I didn't have either a Facebook or a LinkedIn under this name, that my ten years on LiveJournal ought to count for something.
Various people have also suggested, although not directly to me, that people whose names of choice are not consistent with Google Plus flagging algorithms should simply pick a completely false, but authentic-sounding, name, and fly under the radar of the Real Name Police and whatever stalkers and griefers they might have. That suggestion is deeply offensive to me, and goes entirely contrary to the intent of that section of the terms of service, which emphasizes actual identity, even as it equates actual identity to something at least vaguely related to the ID.
I did eventually change my last name from "Lunatic" to "L" and lie low for a while, but the joy went out of it. I didn't feel like putting effort into sorting my friends into circles or sharing things if I wasn't going to be there long-term.
It was the combination of a conversation between some of my friends, coming to the consensus that (at least in the groups they knew) the pseudonymous web had been fun while it lasted, but the day of the legal name web was at hand, and that no few of the people who had been suspended were behaving unethically as they had known that Google Plus did not accept fake names when they signed up, and
cz_unit's experience, where years of LJ presence under his name of choice was not sufficient to get his account reinstated that decided me. (I remember him fondly from my early days at LJ, so I don't have to take his word for it that he's been consistently using that name. megazone apparently also had trouble, another name I remember.) Google Plus, at least at this point in time, is making it clear that it is not friendly to names that are not in some way derived from or publicly associated with people's legal names. They may be in the process of changing this. I did see some encouraging-sounding discussion. But at this time I do not feel like my presence on the site is in keeping with the Terms of Service. My real name is not in keeping with the letter of the ToS, as it is unrelated to my legal name, and my co-workers do not know it. My legal name is not in keeping with the intent of that portion, as it is not a name that the majority of the people I would interact with would recognize, and is not my real name. Accordingly, I have (voluntarily and without first being suspended) deleted my Google Plus account, at least for the time being.
