Why I Won't Be Joining Google+

I've been a presence on the internet as Deoridhe since 2006. Before then I was briefly Aesdana, but Deoridhe has been a stable pseudonym for fifteen years - and I have the google footprint to prove it.

Deoridhe started on ISCABBS (anyone remember BBSes now?) and moved to several different MOOs, spent a long while on the various online journals, sent out feelers on Gaia Online (including a stint as a Moderator), and now runs two blogs as well as having a presence in Second Life.

Deoridhe has accounts on just about everything I've run across, even sites I don't use often. Offline friends know me through my gmail account, which I've had since the Google beta (I got an invite through someone on JournalFen, in FandomWank). Deoridhe predates Facebook by a long while, and when I signed up for Facebook it honestly never occurred to me to use anything other than my name - Deoridhe.

Deoridhe's last name is Grimsdottir (it was ones Faelis-Tiene; I have history as a Fluffy Pagan which you can find on the 'net if you look hard enough). I remember some people from Second Life being confused, since I'm Quandry on Second Life, but Deoridhe's last name has been Grimsdottir for a very long time - probably as long as ten years. When I legally changed my name, I put serious thought into adding "Deoridhe Grimsdottir" as more middle names. I'm called Deoridhe offline, or Deo, and I answer to it as easily as I answer to my other, offline name. I'm in several peoples' phones as Deoridhe, and once roleplayed out a character having "two" names to reflect my actual situation, where people get confused about what name to call me when we're face-to-face but I don't much care.

Google+, however, seems determined to make it clear that they want some sort of "regularly used identity" which is somehow different from an online pseudonym or nickname. That this is a stable nickname for me for over a decade, that I have significant history, that people call me Deoridhe offline, none of that matters - or maybe it does matter; Google+ seems determined to be unclear.

But I have two blogs through Deoridhe, and my email, and I don't want either to get caught up in Google+ if they decide Deoridhe isn't a good enough ID and suspend my account.

So no, I won't be signing up with Google+ until it's clear that being myself won't get my account suspended.

Credits:

My Avatar from Bronyville, inspired by My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Wings: Modified from Illusion
Chelle's Avatar Awesome, but I have no idea what it's made up of
Location: Imagine Isla
Textures: Fortunas