Tweet
Hello,
Some of you were following "Defcon Forums" on google+ and receiving announcements about Defcon before and after Defcon. Obviously, "Defcon Forums," is not a human name, and in the profile it was claimed that, "Defcon Forums" was "software first created when Nulltone installed it onto a server." Since Software has no gender, the gender was also set to, "other." This is a violation of their terms of service; "Defcon Forums," is not a proper noun for a person. Google+ is their service, and they get to decide what rules people must follow to use it. (Never use a free service unless you are ready and willing to walk away from using it at any time for any reason. I understood and still understand this when using gmail, and google+. :-)
The day before yesterday, in the evening, Google+ warned, "Defcon Forums," that the name was not human and several options were provided. This notice and these options appeared as an overlay on top of the google+ event updates provided by people I follow. This notice had to be dismissed or obeyed before I could get access (using the expected workflow) to the google+ content.
1) Give google+ a real name, and petition for re-examination after a real name was submitted.
2) Petition for a review of my unchanged name, in hope that they encountered an error
3) "Downgrade," my google account: strip out the profile, and by doing so lose access to almost every google service except for gmail and google-chat (Google Instant Messaging.)
4) Do nothing, and then on August 20, 2011, they would freeze the account, denying access to not only google+, but also Gmail and google chat.
With any of these options, they also encouraged use of their, "download a backup of your profile and junk."
I chose the downgrade option, and here is what was done.
1) Posted a public notice that, "Defcon Forums," was going to be closing its google+ account in 24 hours.
2) Waited 24 hours (or more) and then chose the, "Downgrade," option.
3) During this downgrade process, google+ warned about which services with google would be lost, and was again encouraged to backup my content.
4) At no point did I choose to backup anything. A decision has been made to leave with no plan or interest to return.
5) Next it asked why, "Defcon Forums," was downgrading, and a long answer was provided.
6) Finally the deed was complete.
At this time, gmail and google-chat still works. I am waiting to see if they still work after August 20, or if the timer closes these accounts as well. The tinfoil-hat-wearing-conspiracy-nut in my brain says, "they will close these account services too, but offer to open them up again if valid identification with government ID is provided," but the realistic side says, "it will all work, or it won't. and if it doesn't, it is probably programmer fail at google, NOT a conspiracy." (The realistic side of me almost always wins.)
What remains on google+ to show, "Defcon Forums," was ever there?
* The custom profile image is still present.
* Posts made by, "Defcon Forums," and then re-shared by others are still present.
What appears to be missing:
* All posts by, "Defcon Forums," and the replies made by other people to those posts.
* The URL to, "Defcon Forums," is broken, leading to a 404.
* Posts from, "Defcon Forums," shared by other users presently have links to the author which claim they were from google+ user, "Defcon Forums," but clicking this link also yields a 404.
Hopefully, someone else will provide announcements on google+ like people on Facebook see. Until then, I'm still providing tweets on updates, and re-tweeting Defcon information about contests and events and publishing information on the forums.
Additionally, I've swapped out the google search at the top with a bing search, to give it a test drive. You might think these are related, and I guess they are, in so much as I am trying to evaluate alternatives to google if there are other problems and we find we need to walk away from google search. (Be ready to drop use of any free service at any time for any reason.)
When I received the notice, there was a modest number of 210 people, "following," the google+ user, "Defcon Forums," for updates and information related to Defcon.
This content is not provided for pity. it is not provided because I want anyone to jump to any kind of action. This is provided as a description of what happened, what was offered, the path I chose, and how the process worked. It is purely informational. :-)
Some of you were following "Defcon Forums" on google+ and receiving announcements about Defcon before and after Defcon. Obviously, "Defcon Forums," is not a human name, and in the profile it was claimed that, "Defcon Forums" was "software first created when Nulltone installed it onto a server." Since Software has no gender, the gender was also set to, "other." This is a violation of their terms of service; "Defcon Forums," is not a proper noun for a person. Google+ is their service, and they get to decide what rules people must follow to use it. (Never use a free service unless you are ready and willing to walk away from using it at any time for any reason. I understood and still understand this when using gmail, and google+. :-)
The day before yesterday, in the evening, Google+ warned, "Defcon Forums," that the name was not human and several options were provided. This notice and these options appeared as an overlay on top of the google+ event updates provided by people I follow. This notice had to be dismissed or obeyed before I could get access (using the expected workflow) to the google+ content.
1) Give google+ a real name, and petition for re-examination after a real name was submitted.
2) Petition for a review of my unchanged name, in hope that they encountered an error
3) "Downgrade," my google account: strip out the profile, and by doing so lose access to almost every google service except for gmail and google-chat (Google Instant Messaging.)
4) Do nothing, and then on August 20, 2011, they would freeze the account, denying access to not only google+, but also Gmail and google chat.
With any of these options, they also encouraged use of their, "download a backup of your profile and junk."
I chose the downgrade option, and here is what was done.
1) Posted a public notice that, "Defcon Forums," was going to be closing its google+ account in 24 hours.
2) Waited 24 hours (or more) and then chose the, "Downgrade," option.
3) During this downgrade process, google+ warned about which services with google would be lost, and was again encouraged to backup my content.
4) At no point did I choose to backup anything. A decision has been made to leave with no plan or interest to return.
5) Next it asked why, "Defcon Forums," was downgrading, and a long answer was provided.
6) Finally the deed was complete.
At this time, gmail and google-chat still works. I am waiting to see if they still work after August 20, or if the timer closes these accounts as well. The tinfoil-hat-wearing-conspiracy-nut in my brain says, "they will close these account services too, but offer to open them up again if valid identification with government ID is provided," but the realistic side says, "it will all work, or it won't. and if it doesn't, it is probably programmer fail at google, NOT a conspiracy." (The realistic side of me almost always wins.)
What remains on google+ to show, "Defcon Forums," was ever there?
* The custom profile image is still present.
* Posts made by, "Defcon Forums," and then re-shared by others are still present.
What appears to be missing:
* All posts by, "Defcon Forums," and the replies made by other people to those posts.
* The URL to, "Defcon Forums," is broken, leading to a 404.
* Posts from, "Defcon Forums," shared by other users presently have links to the author which claim they were from google+ user, "Defcon Forums," but clicking this link also yields a 404.
Hopefully, someone else will provide announcements on google+ like people on Facebook see. Until then, I'm still providing tweets on updates, and re-tweeting Defcon information about contests and events and publishing information on the forums.
Additionally, I've swapped out the google search at the top with a bing search, to give it a test drive. You might think these are related, and I guess they are, in so much as I am trying to evaluate alternatives to google if there are other problems and we find we need to walk away from google search. (Be ready to drop use of any free service at any time for any reason.)
When I received the notice, there was a modest number of 210 people, "following," the google+ user, "Defcon Forums," for updates and information related to Defcon.
This content is not provided for pity. it is not provided because I want anyone to jump to any kind of action. This is provided as a description of what happened, what was offered, the path I chose, and how the process worked. It is purely informational. :-)
Comment