North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

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.