A couple years after Schmidt's anti-privacy manifesto, Google launched #GooglePlus, a social network where everyone was required to use their "real name."

This decision - justified as a means of ensuring civility and a transparent ruse to improve ad targeting - kicked off the #NymWars:

https://epeus.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-plus-must-stop-this-identity.html

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@judedoyle good article! To me the activism focus was a key part of what made Twitter so great; Mastodon has a lot of barriers to activism (including its whiteness) but it's not clear that Bluesky is more promising. And invite-only works until it doesn't (Google+'s initial rollout was also great until the #nymwars broke out) so it'll be interesting to see how it evolves -- both with Bluesky, and how the fediverse collectively responds.

@ToddVierling it's pretty amazing how many people I met during the #nymwars on Google Plus I'm reconnecting with here 😎

So, I'm sure it's just to make use dislike #CaptainShaw right away, but in what world does a #Starfleet captain decide by what name a crew member goes?
If #SevenOfNine says her current name is Seven, then he should just call her Commander Seven, and not insist on her going by her birth name of #AnnikaHansen.

When the guy on #BeverlyCrusher's ship said he was her son, I half expected him to say "hi, dad". However, I also feel like the writers only want us to think that way. I'm guessing he might be some kind of clone / genetically engineered person?

Still not fond of #RaffiMusiker, though I can't quite put my finger on it why... Something about the kind of storylines she usually is involved with?
Glad they didn't actually make her an addict who had fallen off the wagon again though.

Nice seeing a reference to the #Enterprise C btw, in the form of Captain #RachelGarrett.

#StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #STPicard #STPicardS03E01 #nymwars

@jrconlin @futurebird

I am seeing a lot of hypothesizing like yours about why Google Search sucks, specifically that Google is *neglecting* Search. There's obviously a lot going for this hypothesis, as you recount: Google's not a culture that supports maintenance, and it neglects a lot.

But in the case of Search I have another hypothesis that is not exclusive of the neglect hypothesis.

The complaints of uselessness: people are now noticing stuff I was starting to see 15, 20 years ago, and which from my perspective got really bad around 10 years ago.

Waypoint in time: 2014 was the launch of Google+ and the related outbreak of #nymwars (in which I was involved).

My theory, based on remembering Google Search from the beginning and watching its evolution is that, to summarize, their initial secret sauce stopped working and they've increasingly desperately been trying to find a replacement, and have never succeeded. Search is bad bc search is *hard*.

You know who else has noticed that this is all about to turn into another episode of #nymwars? @pluralistic, natch.

Please enjoy his thread on the subject, complete with a detour into Eastern European Jewish immigration, a subject near and dear to my heart: https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/02/nonbinary-families/#red-envelopes

@parisba judging by the "required" on both the First and Last Name fields, I guess mononymic people aren't welcome. :(

#nymwars

RT @DiabeticCyborgg@twitter.com

How Facebook’s Real Names policy helps Cambodia’s thin-skinned dictator terrorize dissenters by @doctorow@twitter.com https://link.medium.com/who0WyMQSwb #NymWars #Anonymity #Cambodia #Facebook #HunSen

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/DiabeticCyborgg/status/1618325811349835778

@Tupp_ed The scary part of this round of #NymWars is that it's from Gov, again.

Real name policies, only hurt marginalized people.

@sungo end of an era... but the nymwars will continue the good fight regardless!

(My first introduction to the term #nymwars was during the #GooglePlus era, where mononymic people for a long while had to put a single period in the 'last name' field to sort of get to use thei mononym.)

@technomancy (I am a #nymwars veteran.)

@atomicpoet I will never forget #nymwars and how certain Google was that using real names led to civility despite there being (albeit only a few) studies on it that demonstrated actually in some instances the OPPOSITE. :) Also NFW was I going to scan and email in my PII. That was absolutely absurd. :) I've been NomdeB most of my online social life, and if I suddenly said I was (some name that sounds like a real name) that wouldn't make me any more or less credible. :)

@digitalfox I'm a dyed in the wool #nymwars veteran 🤪

@iramjohn I am actually reminded of Google #nymwars. In early days of wild wild west of Twitter as a follower I appreciated knowing accounts were legit. But now, years later they're established and clearly who they say they are. I did a quick scan of twitter the other day and noted how many "checks" there are, and how I didn't pay attention to that at all. I follow based on content, not name/verification. Like pseudonyms - how is "joe smith" more credible than "jane doe" if content is quality.

@meena Looks like #mononym folx are fucked too.

The #nymwars never end, do they?

google is watching, naughty or nice...

#militaryrobots #googleisevil #fuckgoogle #corporatesurveillance #corporatespying #nymwars #xmasspirit #animatedgif

google is watching, naughty or nice...

#militaryrobots #googleisevil #fuckgoogle #corporatesurveillance #corporatespying #nymwars #xmasspirit #animatedgif

tired of getting kicked off racist corporate social networks...

#facebook #googleplus #realnamespolicy #realname #nymwars #passport #culturalinsensitivity #culruraldifferences #racism, #passportphoto

@polymerwitch I used ostatus for a bit in 2011, on nymmers.status.net (an offshoot of the #nymwars on G+), but that node went down at some point. Status.net seems to be about to relaunch.