So I've just ditched Plus

[shiyiya]

Because I'm seeing reports of people being locked out of *all* of their google services and it is so not worth that. So I downloaded out my data and closed the account, and then there was this handy 'Please tell us why you're leaving' box. This is what I put in it:

You say you want people to use the name they are known by so people can find them, and then demand government identification. My friends are online. Virtually none of them even know what the name on my government identification *is*, because I am a young woman on the internet and justifiably paranoid - I've had two internet-only stalkers so far, and I'd rather not hand them information to find where I live on a silver platter. Or anyone else. If I can't use Plus pseudonymously, with the name people actually know me by, I won't use it. Which is a dreadful pity, because I was loving it. But there are all these reports I'm seeing of people being locked out of their entire Google accounts and all services, not just Plus, and I'm not risking losing my Gmail and my Google Reader and my Google Docs and my Picasa and my Google Bookmarks and everything else. Plus isn't worth the chance of that.