So… Google+. It’s been around a week or two, right? I ain’t keeping track. (O.o)
Way back when, Facebook decided they only wanted “real” people. Pseudonymous names need not apply. Recently, they had a mass-deletion of accounts while in the process of creating some sort of face matching service. So, bleh. The place was no good for the “real” me anyway. (>_<)
Google had been trying in the past. Wave, Lively, Buzz, Profiles, Gtalk, and now Google+. I saw a bunch of SL avatar friends tossing around invites and I got mine too. (^_^)
Then… Opensource Obscure get’s his profile and timeline deleted… (._.)
Thus begins #plusgate. (>_<)
Google has pretty much determined that non-“real” people need not apply. Much of the SL blogosphere is going on about it. Heh, myself included. =^-^=
I did mention that I have a G+ profile, right? (O.o)
Well… I’m surely counting the days for my account. I mean… ‘Imnotgoing Sideways’ is hardly a traditional name and that cute redhead porn actress I used for my profile picture should raise some flags… That is, if anyone from Google has seen one of her scenes. =^-^=
For now, it’s there and I’m there. We’ll see what happens. (=_=)
But, why? What’s so “real” about my family given name and nature given face? This “real” me is a cover up by default. Because of my appearance and physique, I have had to shoehorn myself into a boxy little compromise of my personality. If I dare step out of this act, I’d probably be deemed insane. Or, at the least, have much cooler shoes. (>_<)
The “real” me is shut in, isolated, fearful, somewhat agoraphobic, and a bit of a wreck. (._.)
The “Immy” me is an outgoing volunteer and educator with an obvious case of the bizarre. (^_^)
Sure, some of my RL trappings land on “Immy” sometimes. But, that’s currently between me and my therapist. (>_<)
“Immy” is far more commercially viable. (^_^)
pls link photo of prnstar xthkxbai
:)
Yet another case of people with a bad case of self-entitlement I’d say.
They aren’t paying for the service, and sure this will apply to ad-sense in plenty of ways, but anyone with their own sense will have AdBlock Plus and probably some form of cookie-removing add-on (like ghostery) installed that will undo all that nonsense.
It’s Google’s service and they have every possible right to run it however they like. If you don’t like that? Don’t use their service. Go make the next Avatars United or what have you, and then you can even block any not-avatar accounts if you like. Why? Because it’ll be your service and you’ll get to decide how to run it.
Well… Being pressured into using my “real” name was the problem I had with Facebook. Everyone I know is in SL, so the only adds I could get were SL people and random whatevers. And, of course, I had to find them because very very few knew my RL name at the time. (>___<)
That’s fine but what you don’t seem to be getting is that these services aren’t targeted at you, then. They’re not meant for pseudonyms or avatars or what have you. Yes, Immy might be you, but the you sitting at the computer is who they’re interested in. The sort of you that employers or your family or friends might be looking for, the you that’s on your social security card.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s not a shitty policy, in fact I’d very much like to have an account for both my “real” me and my Second Life me, but I’m not going to complain, because it’s Google’s service and therefore their decision about how they want to run it.
I think “if you don’t like it, don’t use it” is sort of silly advice in this case. This is a brand-new internet service, and it’s the 21st century. Presumably Google *wants to know* what potential users don’t like about it, so they can fix it and get more users. So complaining about it when they do stupid stuff like this is the right thing to do from pretty much everyone’s pov…
I like Google. I’ve had a Gmail, Profile, Buzz, Youtube, and so on pretty much since the early adoption phase of each. G+ was practically a default action for me. As a result my profile and Buzz, services I’ve used for a year or more, have been taken away. For what? A misinterpreted rule that’s been feeding the egos of self righteous holier-than-thou types floating their superiority complexes over those who so rarely fit into the physical world.
I’m not “Immy” for the sake of anonymity. I have practically branded the name and ingrained the identity into my way of being. While the “real” me is still a necessary part of my self, “Immy” is my self released. Here, I’m released from the prison of things I just can’t change about myself.
UPDATE! Backpedalling douchebag alert! =^-^=
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https://plus.google.com/103429767916333774260/posts/GiYKZop6Wtu
[Update]
Holy cow. I was offline most of yesterday and it looks like I started a firestorm by accident.
+Kevin McCurley’s comment sums up the spirit of my post better than I did: “In the meantime please interpret this post in the loosest possible sense – only flag things that are clearly not representations of a real person. We’re not out to ostracize people or enforce unreasonable conditions. Businesses and organizations will have their own profiles in the future”
The policy page (http://www.google.com/support/profiles/bin/answer.py?answer=1228271) leaves some room for interpretation and says: “For this reason, Google Profiles requires you to use the name that you commonly go by in daily life”
It doesn’t say anything about your legal name.
I’d better not say anything more about this since: a) I’m an engineer and b) there are plenty of edge cases you all have pointed out that feel legitimate and not explicitly covered in the ToS.
[/Update]