« Since Few Want a Second Life, Stop Calling Second Life Second Life: My New Post on Rebranding SL on The CMO Site | Main | Virtual Economy Pioneer Edward Castronova Skeptical of Bitcoin (So, So Am I) »

Monday, July 18, 2011

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Shug Maitland

or you could just take a look at http://dwellonit-comic.taterunino.net/archive/110

:)

Cisop Sixpence

I'll follow Google's policy which is to use a name that I am known by online. For me to pick another pseudonym would really be a fake name, as know one would know me.

One the other hand, nice to know they are not checking Drivers License. If they doubt my name, they can easily 'google' it and see that I do exists. ;)

Paypabak Writer

I wonder if I've survived Google purges because I use Google apps in regards to SL business in which I am involved? I make no bones about being virtual, but I'm going about actual business.

Arcadia Codesmith

I think it's poor policy to say, "this is the rule, but we're not going to enforce it".

Either allow it, or don't. I'd vote to allow.

Adeon Writer

One week and my G+ account is still around. Although, if reported, I most likely will not go so far as to prove that I go by the name.

Ciaran Laval

I won't be opening a google + profile whilst they have this ambiguous nonsense going on, they simply need to say pseudonyms are ok or not, the idea of spending time creating another profile and then having the plug pulled is absurd.

Ananda

In case it wasn't clear in the story, this man is an engineer at Googly but not an official policy maker. Among the things that *have* happened to fellow Second Lifers on the Google+ service include:

-Getting their G+ accounts suspendend and then being asked, yes, to provide photo ID and/or phone numbers to verify their identity.
-Not being reinstated under their chosen name no matter what info they provided.
-Having their long-standing Gmail accounts locked at the same time the G+ accounts were suspended.

This last one is why I and many others quit the service pre-emptively. As far as I'm concerned, I *am* Ananda, and my friends know me as that, so preserving my identity and my Gmail account was far more important to me than to play in another land of social-network Real People.

Foxxe Wilder

The thing with Facebook is unless the Identification they ask for is from the USA, there is very little to NO chance that any government office will share that information with non-legal offices (such as InterPol etc). I know for SURE that Canadian Authorities do not bother with US based online companies such as Facebook or SL. (I tested them both over the past 3 years and both came up wanting)

Ann Otoole InSL

Google+ banned William Shatner. The wrath of Kahn is coming.

Danielle

The William Shatner incident is an example of profile griefing. There is a "report this profile" button on the lower left side of the profile page, and apparently a lot of people thought it was a fake profile. The g+ software kicked that profile offline because it got a lot of reports. As it turns out, it actually did belong to a celebrity.

Google can fix this issue by doing two things: (1) provide a checkbox so the account owner can flag it as a pseudonym, and (2) provide a "verified account" status when the account owner has provided some real life ID. But the account owner's name does not have to be displayed if they choose a pseudonym.

Then people can happily choose whatever visible name they want for the account, and Google can do all the demographics and ad selling they need to cover expenses based on the verified identity of the account owner.

Aeonix Aeon

*shrugs* I choose what is behind door number 3. Instead of trying to get Google+ or Facebook to change, just use a social media network that doesn't make you beg for privacy or pretend to be somebody else that is "acceptable" to them. There's a reason I like diaspora, or at least everything it represents.

Singularity Utopia

Here's my blog-post about Google #plusgate

http://singularity-utopia.blogspot.com/2011/07/should-transhumans-be-purged_22.html

I'm glad some people are outraged by the G+ censorship, but mainly the outrage is limited to people who've directly suffered Google-censorship. To really make a difference this issue needs to be taken up by everyone. People should not underestimate the importance of this issue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Your Information

(Name is required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)

Making a Metaverse That Matters Wagner James Au ad
Please buy my book!
Thumb Wagner James Au Metaverse book
Wagner James "Hamlet" Au
Wagner James Au AAE Speakers Metaverse
Request me as a speaker!
VirtualWorldsMuseum_New_World_Notes
Bad-Unicorn Funny Second Life items
Dutchie Waterland House slideshow 01112023
Juicybomb_EEP ad
Making of Second Life 20th anniversary Wagner James Au Thumb
my site ... ... ...

PC/Mac readers recommend for SL:

Classic New World Notes stories:

Sander's Villa: The Man Who Gave His Father A Second Life (2011)

What Rebecca Learned By Being A Second Life Man (2010)

Charles Bristol's Metaverse Blues: 87 Year Old Bluesman Becomes Avatar-Based Musician In Second Life (2009)

Linden Limit Libertarianism: Metaverse community management illustrates the problems with laissez faire governance (2008)

The Husband That Eshi Made: Metaverse artist, grieving for her dead husband, recreates him as an avatar (2008)

Labor Union Protesters Converge On IBM's Metaverse Campus: Leaders Claim Success, 1850 Total Attendees (Including Giant Banana & Talking Triangle) (2007)

All About My Avatar: The story behind amazing strange avatars (2007)

Fighting the Front: When fascists open an HQ in Second Life, chaos and exploding pigs ensue (2007)

Copying a Controversy: Copyright concerns come to the Metaverse via... the CopyBot! (2006)

The Penguin & the Zookeeper: Just another unlikely friendship formed in The Metaverse (2006)

"—And He Rezzed a Crooked House—": Mathematician makes a tesseract in the Metaverse — watch the videos! (2006)

Guarding Darfur: Virtual super heroes rally to protect a real world activist site (2006)

The Skin You're In: How virtual world avatar options expose real world racism (2006)

Making Love: When virtual sex gets real (2005)

Watching the Detectives: How to honeytrap a cheater in the Metaverse (2005)

The Freeform Identity of Eboni Khan: First-hand account of the Black user experience in virtual worlds (2005)

Man on Man and Woman on Woman: Just another gender-bending avatar love story, with a twist (2005)

The Nine Souls of Wilde Cunningham: A collective of severely disabled people share the same avatar (2004)

Falling for Eddie: Two shy artists divided by an ocean literally create a new life for each other (2004)

War of the Jessie Wall: Battle over virtual borders -- and real war in Iraq (2003)

Home for the Homeless: Creating a virtual mansion despite the most challenging circumstances (2003)

Newstex_Author_Badge-Color 240px
JuicyBomb_NWN5 SL blog
Ava Delaney SL Blog
Ava