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Milkshake Butterfly (m_butterfly) wrote in fandom_lounge,
@ 2011-07-25 04:11:00

Somewhere, Facebook staffers are laughing their asses off.
Hey, did you know that Google+ is deleting the accounts of anyone they suspect of using a pseudonym--anyone who isn't sufficiently famous, that is? And whatsmore, they also seem to be sometimes killing off associated Gmail and Google Doc accounts.

I think this will go really well, don't you? I mean that certainly wouldn't cause half the internet and fandom in particular to jump ship at all, right? I'm sure nobody's already gotten out their cards for another round of pseudonym wank bingo. And I'm positive that by no means at all will there be a panic as people start wondering if Google will do this for anyone who uses pseudonyms for any of their services. Why, we live in a perfectly rational society, so who on earth could get upset about something like that?

(Post a new comment)

rogue
2011-07-25 09:13 am UTC (link)

Interestingly enough, I was planning on deleting my Google+ account soon anyway because I just don't like it/haven't used it at all and even though I have my privacy settings sorted, I still get recommendations to add people I have no desire to speak to at all outside required work emails to my ~circle~. This seems like the prompt to just do it now and... it seems that there's not actually an option to? There's a "Delete your Google+" option and also a "Delete all your Google profile stuff" option and I can't seem to figure out if that would kill your gmail address with it. Has anyone deleted their Google+ account? How did that go?

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	ellensmithee 2011-07-25 11:37 am UTC (link)
	http://www.troublefixers.com/how-to-delete-google-plus-or-google-account-safely-without-deleting-google-or-gmail-account/ I haven't tried it yet, though. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ellensmithee 2011-07-25 02:11 pm UTC (link)
	I tried it and it appears to work. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

rogue, 2011-07-26 10:40 pm UTC

	lied_ohne_worte 2011-07-25 09:37 am UTC (link)
	I suppose I should be grateful to them for giving me an incentive to finally move all my account email addresses anywhere that were still on gmail to one of my own email domains. (Reply to this)

	ellensmithee 2011-07-25 11:18 am UTC (link)
	Crap, I've been putting off downloading my docs from gdocs. I should probably get to it. (Reply to this)

	eleutheria 2011-07-25 11:28 am UTC (link)
	I've always thought this trend toward using real names on the internet was a horrible thing. I tried it on FB for about five months, and then my client put out a "social media policy" that made me take one look at it and change my FB to my middle name. Even that gives me hives. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lied_ohne_worte 2011-07-25 11:40 am UTC (link)
	If I am forced to use a real name, I generally use my mother's birth name instead of my own last name, as it is one of the common last names in my country. My own last name is shared by perhaps 60 people on this planet, and my full name is unique. Even with real names, people who have very common names are a lot more protected online than people with rare ones. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

eleutheria, 2011-07-25 11:44 am UTC

franzen, 2011-07-25 04:39 pm UTC

tinmiss, 2011-07-28 12:38 am UTC

mercutia, 2011-07-28 09:25 pm UTC

full_metal_ox, 2011-07-26 12:01 am UTC

lied_ohne_worte, 2011-07-26 07:00 am UTC

aaron_agonistes, 2011-07-26 04:15 am UTC

bemysty
2011-07-25 01:47 pm UTC (link)

It's kind of similar here - my last name isn't THAT uncommon around here, but it's still comparatively rare. There are maybe a half dozen people with my full first name + last name on Facebook, and my middle name is unique to me because it's essentially a name my mother made up. I use a nickname on it... a nickname that everybody who knows me a bit closer knows, but it's still not something the average HR person etc. would think of searching for. I've LOCKED EVERYTHING from the first day I've been on FB, but I still sometimes feel sick to my stomach about that kind of information being on the internet...

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	tangentialone 2011-07-26 09:54 am UTC (link)
	Yeah. The whole thing makes me want to get my name legally changed to... whatever the most common name possible is. Just so that anything actually about me would be lost in a sea of unrelated stuff. (Reply to this)(Parent)

janegraddell, 2011-07-27 12:53 am UTC

ladybirdsleeps
2011-07-25 12:39 pm UTC (link)

This is precisely why I never bothered to sign up for Google+ in the first place.

On one hand, we have people who insist that anonymity is what's destroying the internet, and that if you make people use their real names they'll be more accountable. But on the other, if you're applying for anything more than a burger-flipping job, it's totally expected that your potential employers will look you up and you're told not to put anything on your Facebook/Google/Blog that could look bad.

Do these people not get how this combination shuts down freedom of expression on the internet?

Arrrrrrrrrgh.

One possible solution: Use a real-sounding pseudonym.

(Unfortunately, my actual real name, which I try to keep away from my fandom identity, is being used--either pseudonymously or "legitimately"--by a writer of original gay erotic romance novels. This is either a good thing, because it means most results will be for someone else, or a bad thing, because people might assume it's me.)

(Reply to this)

"Don't be evil?"

mcity
2011-07-25 01:02 pm UTC (link)

Well, I'm glad I held off.

I've been hearing some worrying things about stuff like this lately. I have a lot of stuff on GDocs, have already had something "Unpublished" from the web for no good reason, and some guy recently got his account shutdown for unknown reasons, only for Google to refuse to reconsider, or even say what he did wrong, even when one of their own employees asked. Problem is, I have so much stuff on there, the "Download Everything" option takes forever.

Welp, time to roll up my sleeves and start downloading dozens of files individually.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: "Don't be evil?" -

mcity, 2011-07-25 01:03 pm UTC

Re: "Don't be evil?" -

sepiamagpie, 2011-07-25 01:41 pm UTC

Re: "Don't be evil?" -

wolfshark, 2011-07-25 01:37 pm UTC

Re: "Don't be evil?" -

insanitys_place, 2011-07-25 07:15 pm UTC

Re: "Don't be evil?" -

mcity, 2011-07-26 12:35 am UTC

	alya1989262 2011-07-25 02:24 pm UTC (link)
	It's not like a lot of people can't safely use their real names online for political reasons. :( (Reply to this)(Thread)

cmdr_zoom, 2011-07-25 02:55 pm UTC

sneer, 2011-07-25 03:28 pm UTC

notjo
2011-07-25 03:03 pm UTC (link)

My understanding is the people losing their access to Gmail and related things are not losing them for the "real name" policy but because of TOS violations. Unfortunately as everything is happening at the same time and very few people are getting their questions answered, it all gets jumbled together.

Skud talks about it here.

I read some long whine about how G+ just wants to make everyone feel safe and comfortable talking to everyone else! And then I screamed.

(Reply to this)

Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear

cmdr_zoom
2011-07-25 03:56 pm UTC (link)

Welcome to the Fishbowl Future, where anything you say or do, anywhere and anytime, can be held against you forever, and where only Sufficiently Large Entities (corporations, governments, etc) retain any right to privacy due to their ability to aggressively defend it; individuals are just screwed.

Some were imagining this at least as far back as the middle of last century. Asimov's "The Dead Past" posits a time viewer which turns out to be rubbish for observing history, but just fine for the almost-present. And "O.B.I.T.", an episode of the original Outer Limits, has aliens giving us the technology to constantly watch each other knowing that we'll destroy ourselves, leaving the Earth to them.

Optimists predict that the advent of the panoptikon society will force a long-overdue adjustment of attitudes and expectations; essentially, an acknowledgment that Everyone Does It and the accompanying Getting Over It. I am more pessimistic about the human capacity for (moral) hypocrisy, especially in situations where the dynamic of power (== information) is already asymmetric (e.g., employment) and where those old attitudes are institutionally entrenched and slow to change - often much slower than reality does.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear -

countess_baltar, 2011-07-26 07:34 am UTC

Re: Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear -

cmdr_zoom, 2011-07-26 09:32 am UTC

Re: Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear -

dreamer_marie, 2011-07-27 07:51 am UTC

	keri 2011-07-25 04:55 pm UTC (link)
	http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=40356d87de8509c0&hl=en This is from a Hong Kong user who points out how G+ is basically keeping all Chinese people from using the service at all. (Reply to this)(Thread)

finchbird, 2011-07-26 02:59 pm UTC

	edelweiss 2011-07-25 06:35 pm UTC (link)
	Wait... I get why this is a problem but why "Facebook staffers laughing their asses off?" You aren't allowed to use pseudonyms on Facebook either, as far as I understand. (Sorry to be dense, but I feel like I'm missing a joke or something.) (Reply to this)(Thread)

cmdr_zoom, 2011-07-25 07:31 pm UTC

full_metal_ox, 2011-07-25 11:52 pm UTC

silrana, 2011-07-26 11:52 pm UTC

feenix, 2011-07-28 03:29 am UTC

	ashenmote 2011-07-25 07:33 pm UTC (link)
	I applaud them for this sensible policy! And I would happily use their service, but really...'Google'? That doesn't sound like a real name to me at all and it strongly suggests this is a shady business with something to hide. (Reply to this)(Thread)

full_metal_ox, 2011-07-25 11:43 pm UTC

	ekaterinv 2011-07-25 11:45 pm UTC (link)
	WHAT. Oh yes, I really want my real name associated with the Google account for my sex blog! What a brilliant idea! (Reply to this)

	finchbird 2011-07-26 01:02 am UTC (link)
	I am so happy I held back on getting Google+ when someone on my FL was offering invites. (Reply to this)(Thread)

quantumreality, 2011-07-26 06:37 am UTC

	librarianmouse 2011-07-26 02:53 am UTC (link)
	I kinda don't think Google staffers have noticed the irony here yet. (Reply to this)

	sisterelwood 2011-07-26 04:23 am UTC (link)
	Well... Looks like I'll be changing my business cards because the e-mail listed on there now is a gmail account. Last thing I want is to have work e-mails lost because someone deems me not to be real. I don't even HAVE a Google+ account and this behavior has me worried. (Reply to this)

	adverb 2011-07-26 05:30 am UTC (link)
	Heh, my gmail is actually the only one of my seven emails that is my actual name. I got it for the express purpose of legitimate reasons. Still, that's fail policy. And apparently googling my full name just gets people search results, and just my first + last implies that I am on the board of directors for a trust, so that's always good to know! (Reply to this)(Thread)

kookaburra, 2011-07-26 08:26 pm UTC

sistercoyote, 2011-07-26 11:34 pm UTC

dragonscrawl, 2011-07-27 02:43 am UTC

digigirl132
2011-07-26 11:25 am UTC (link)

You know, I've always been of the mind that the people pushing for measures like this (forcing people to use real names on the internet, saying that if you're innocent you have nothing to hide, etc.) have never had a stalker or been on the receiving end of harassment on the internet. Does nobody remember the incident with WoW, where a mod posted his real name and someone had a picture of themselves in front of his house within hours of the name being posted?

I don't have anything to hide, but I do know that there are people out there on the internet that I don't want to have my personal information.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

tofuknight, 2011-07-26 01:37 pm UTC

finchbird, 2011-07-26 02:58 pm UTC

cmdr_zoom, 2011-07-26 03:07 pm UTC

platedlizard
2011-07-30 01:43 am UTC (link)

Well, of course they're requiring real names, how else are they going to personalize their advertising and monetize their free users even more?

I'm not sure I'm going to refuse to use Google+ over this, but I might start using a realish pseudonyme. Andrew Brevits sounds like a good name to me. And it's in line with the gender Google Adsense thinks I am*, too! Yay!

*apparently being a light gamer and interested in manga and anime makes me a guy. who knew?

(Reply to this)

(Reply from suspended user)

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