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There’s evidence that Google is deleting or at least suspending accounts of people who aren’t using their real name with Google+, meaning that they lose their associated email, blogs, docs, and other information. I was reluctant to make this post not knowing if there’s enough information to warrant it or to what extent it's happening. In the interest of preventing another rpg blog from disappearing though, or helping someone avoid some serious frustration, here’s some further reading that might be of interest:•Google Profiles and Names Guidelines
•Horror Story
•ZDNet: Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse: No Clear Answers
•William Shatner punted from Google+
(not for a name violation apparently but included here just to show how zealous they've been in their TOS enforcement)
In Google’s defense, I can see why they would want to prevent duplicate accounts, considering that they’re offering many services for free or nearly so (how many Google Voice numbers does one person need anyhow?)… Hopefully they’ll work out a decent system to address complaints and restore accounts in a timely way.
9 comments:
Some other folks have expressed concerns about letting one company control so much of their online life, seems that their concerns are justified.
and I thought yahoo sucked....
Yeah, all the eggs in one basket is a dangerous thing. I try to remember to backup the blog here every once in a while, but the gmail, G+, and Google Voice I consider a more disposable convenience.
@ ze bulette or anyone
- how do you back up your blog?
@Jovial: Go to Settings > Basic and you should see an "Export Blog" option under "Blog Tools" just above the name of your blog.
Thanks for that. I had no idea you could do that.
Just to clarify: the linked Google page discusses what to do if Google has terminated or disallowed creation of a Google profile based on name issues. They don't *require* a real name -- or at least they haven't in the past; I've had the same Google profile for years now. What they require is that you are who you say you are and not (a) a business, or (b) an imposter attempting to defraud people and avoid being tracked down.
Anyways, this might be the easy solution: Add an additional name -- your real name -- to your profile and restrict that information to your circles. I notice there's a "custom" option there, so you can probably restrict it to just family and friends, for example.
Hey thanks ze bulette - that was easy. I suspect reloading a blog won't be so easy but let us hope that's never required.
@Talysman, you might find this of interest:
Google Confirms: Non-Real Name Google Profiles Risk Suspension (I.E., Google Still Doesn’t Get Social)
Now all Google needs to do is make the service worthwhile enough to get kicked off of. ;)
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