Infamous iPhone Dev Team member MuscleNerd has recently found his Google+ account suspended – for not using his real name. Oh Internets, how our anonymity has always been a respected and an allowed idea. Google on the other hand slaps the hands of those that wish to be recognized, how they have always been recognized – by their internet handles.

Up until the suspension, MuscleNerd had around 3k people in his Circles, so obviously Google’s claims of it’s new attempt at Social Networking “working best” if used with real names is false. If his real name was Charles McDynasty, I would have never found him – but searching MuscleNerd would grant me access to his + feeds.

Jay Freeman (aka @Saurik) wrote up a nice little piece at his Google+ account expressing his thoughts on the current wave of account suspensions. He explains how many people on the interwebs or in real life are known by their handles.

One specific person I know in this situation is not a writer, but is instead a hacker (of course in the good sense of “making things possible”): MuscleNerd, a very famous member of the iPhone Dev Team (with almost 230,000 followers on Twitter). MuscleNerd is an example of someone who is almost entirely known by his handle, a situation quite unlike the oft cited Lady Gaga: despite most people not recognizing her real name, we at least know that it is “Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta”.

What are your thoughts on this way of controlling your social network? Does it make sense to limit it with your real name? Did you keep from joining the + network because of this?

Source: MuscleNerd Twitter