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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] NAFEX list & Google+ opportunity.

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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] NAFEX list & Google+ opportunity.
  • Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:40:22 -0400

I am far from the only person in the world who has this issue, in one form or another: for close to forty years I've gone by a modified version of my middle name. Almost no one even knows my legal name. So which of these, I ask you, is my "real name"?

If I had somehow magically foreseen assorted security issues back in the early 70's, when nobody (including banks) considered this sort of thing a problem, I'd have had it legally changed when I had one bank account, no credit cards, and nothing significant to get messed up during the transition. But for Google, or anyone else, to at this point change the name I go by to the legal name in the contexts in which I use the name I go by would cause massive confusion, as nobody's going to recognize it; and to change the legal name to the one I go by in those few contexts in which I have to use the legal name could cause significant financial problems. I would be furious. Even if the name they used was one of the right ones -- and note that in the example given Google got the name wrong.

Anything else I have to say about discussion groups versus this email list I've already said in previous discussions on the subject.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



On Oct 10, 2011, at 3:03 AM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

In my opinion that is how it should be, i.e. use your real name. I will
not add anyone to any of my circles unless their profile displays their
real name. There are too many spammers using cutesy fake names that I
actually don't want reading my posts or comments. I, of course, will
make exceptions for anyone using a nick who contacts me privately to let
me know who they are or if I already know them. I help run this list,
gardenwriters, marketfarming and permaculture and I must say I hate not
knowing who people are when they only use a silly nick and want to
subscribe. I can't afford to have spammers or crackers (malicious
hackers) in my lists.

I know of at least one
person who had tried to use a nickname. Google+ somehow guessed at
his "real name", got it wrong, but then put that name not only on his
Google+ account but also on some other Google services he used,
(which were already published to other people) without warning him it
would do so.

That wouldn't have bothered me. I am sold on anything and everything
Google does and really appreciate being able to use their excellent
resources for free; they are so reliable and fast and allow real work to
happen (big file size posts, attachments, etc. - you won't find that
anywhere else...and Google docs offers a world class resource for
document collaboration.





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