Google+, I hardly knew (anybody on) you...

If you haven't been following the #nymwars kerfuffle over Google+, you might not realize how useless the service is getting. Unlike every other social network, which allows users to decide what name they'd like to be called, Google+ requires you to use your legal name. This is fine for a lot of people, just not me.

Most people know me as Hephaestus, or Heph. I use my birth name for business, but prefer to use my pseudonym for my public profiles. As a public persona, most people know me as "Oh, the 5MoF guy, Heph", or "You mean the dildo guy, Hephaestus?" Google+ was an exception. I used my legal name, and never had any problems (except for friends not being able to figure out who I was until I posted more identifiable profile pictures... most people, friends included, have no idea that my legal name maps to me).

The problem was with my friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and other people I would normally interact with on a social networking site. Google+ started suspending their accounts, and suddenly it became useless. Fox Circe, Sai, Skud, Doctor Popular, Aestetix, to name a few, all had their accounts suspended from G+ due to their names. These aren't people trying to hide their identity, these names are their identities. This isn't a case of someone making spam accounts, or troll accounts, or trying to be anonymous. These are their names. This is how they do business. They have as much accountability tied to their pseudonyms as any of us have to our birth names.

I can't imagine ever calling my good friend Aestetix by his birth name, it doesn't feel right, it's not who he is. Several of my very closest friends have never told me their birth names, and others I just use their pseudonym because any other name is too hard to pronounce. This is the new social dynamic. We're hackers, we chose our names and imbued them with more power than any 'John Doe' our parents could have stuck us with.

Most of my friends have gotten the boot for the audacity of trying to be identifiable. Now my G+ feed consists of strangers. Maybe they're people I know, but if I don't know them by their birth name, I don't really know who they are. I don't know if this is a close friend or a complete stranger. Forcing birth names has created more anonymity than allowing people to use their pseudonyms ever could.