Google+

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Revision as of 02:10, 13 August 2011 by Woozle (talk | contribs) (→‎Reference: Skud explains G+ names policy)
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About

Google+ (pronounced Google Plus and often written as "G+") is a social networking service created and operated by Google. It was in beta (and invitation-only) for much of July, but as of 2011-07-31 the home page and sign-in page showed no signs of any restriction, agreeing with a rumored July 31 release date.

Pages

  • /suspensions: list of users whose accounts have been suspended due to ostensible naming policy violations

Pseudonym Dispute

G+'s policy of requiring users to use only "the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you" has been the source of a large number of user complaints for the following reasons:

  • Google's enforcement of this policy has been somewhat arbitrary.
  • Google's enforcement of this policy has not always been consistent with the policy as written. The policy says you can use a name that people "usually call you", but enforcers seem to be interpreting this to mean "legal name (or variant thereof)"... unless that name sounds too unusual (to their ears) to be a "real" name.
  • Towards enforcement of the policy on G+, Google often cut users off from access to all other Google services such as Gmail.
  • There does not appear to be a formal appeal process after having your account (either G+ or Google in general) disabled.
  • Many users are known better by their online handles than by their legal names.
  • Many users have valid reasons not to use their legal names in public or semi-public spaces online, ranging from personal protection to aesthetic preference.
  • It is not clear what the purpose of this policy is, as Google's explanations so far have not correlated with reality.
    • One explanation Google has offered is that they want to make it easier for people to find each other by name. However, in some cases an alias works better for this, e.g. an author known mainly by her pen-name, or a user with a very common legal name who prefers to go by her unusual alias because it is more recognizable and unique than her legal name.

Staff

as of 2011-08-03

Links

Official

Reference

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