Well, Google may be hung up on having real names and addresses so they can send advertising. Opensource Obscure’s account was just suspended. I understand he has appealed.
Tateru Nino has written a good article on what is happening. See: Google seemingly split on pseudonymous Google+ accounts and Google Profiles – It’s okay until it isn’t. She makes many good points in the article.
What Next?
There are social networks forming for gaming communities. So, we may have avatars registering with those. This would mean a movement away from Facebook and Google+.
The Lab has made some hints that they may be using the folks from Avatars United to create a social network of their own. It may be more accurate to say I’ve taken some of their comments as hints and wildly speculated. But, I think it is a reasonable idea.
Social networks bring people in, which is what the Lab needs to grow. Having a network with RL and SL people together for a gaming network seems reasonable to me.
Whatever, we’ll see in time. In the meantime this development takes the edge off Google+ for me.
As someone who frequents more than one grid, relying on any social networking platform LL puts up would be problematic for me. Already we have plurk, twitter and 2ndhub [though that doesn’t have the uptake I’d like to see], so we don’t really lack for options. I think what google has to offer mostly is integration with search and gmail and a few bells and whistles that are either not present or not done properly on other networks [I’m thinking circles here].
So while losing that is a shame, virtual world users are not left high and dry. What is more alarming to me is that this is essentially a statement of intent that are going to datamine and sell off anything about our real lives that we’re willing to give them. This is a blip in terms of VR issues, but the direction that they are indicating that they want to take has chilling privacy ramifications -and that’s why I’ll be very, very hesitant to add any RL info onto G+
After reviewing my appeal, the Google Profiles Support Team determined that “Opensource Obscure” name violates their Community Standards and told me “Google Profiles requires you to use the name that you commonly go by in daily life”.
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http://my-demo.secondlife.com/
Honestly, I haven’t really found avatar only networks that helpful on my second life identity I mix with a number of real life people too. It’s just how we met and how they identify with me. I want to be in a more general community where the topics of conversation are as diverse as the people in them… and I want to be in those communities using the name or names that I identify with and that the communities I want to bond with recognise.
My second life identity isn’t a secret (and I know many of you interchange your real life name or have at least revealed it to some even it’s not used). It’s about being recognised and identified by those I want to communicate with and those who want to communicate with me.
I have three online identities or user names or pseudonyms. None of them use my full real life name and only the work one displays an actual photo. I don’t use my full name in real life and actually, depending on my social circles, you’ll hear people refer to me by different names.
This debate isn’t simply about second life or gaming or virtual worlds but it’s about my real world too.
At work, I have a friend who is roller derby whose preferred name is her Derby name… which I happily call her by. Sometimes I use her actual name.
A name tells me nothing about what a person is like, how they’ll treat othersand it offers no level of credibility on its own – a name whether it’s real/pseudonym or whether it’s a single word online handle/ nickname only has credibility and reputation once it’s existed for a while because credibility is based on words and actions – the name is just a quick and convenient way to identify someone or something. It has zero value on it’s own as a tool for measuring credibilty, a name given to of someone or something only has value in context. On it’s own, it’s just a word.
In real life we get nickname and pet names and sometimes our birth name is something that requires a pause for thought while someone recalls it as it’s not what they are used to calling us.
I think the issue of identity is important – and has been since early days of human history. People have been using anon and pseudonyms to have their voice/opinion heards; for protection/safety against those who would do them harm and out of sheer preference.
I really wonder how some of the people who have been given creative names or creatively spelled names will fare in the future when networks insist they use a real name. Will they be forced to show their birth certificate to prove that indeed their parents were indeed that screwy?… err… I meant to say creative. OR will this how silly debate have disappeared into some lost corner of the world or cyber space having be laughed out ot town because it’s such a stupid concept?
I’m stunned that letting pepole use how they identify online has even become an issue.