Originally shared by Catherine Devlin

Originally shared by Catherine Devlin

I'll be posting mostly on Diaspora (https://diasp.org/u/catherinedevlin) rather than g+ from now on. I expected my semi-boycott of g+ to be temporary, but Google has entrenched its "real names" policy, and all that remains is to comply or leave. Fortunately, Diaspora is a really good alternative, lacking only, um. Users. Hey, you can't have everything.

I would never refuse to call a friend the name she wanted to be called, whether that was for her privacy or safety or self-expression or whatever else. It's her name, and respecting that is part of friendship - or common courtesy. I don't want g+ imposing rules on my friends that I would never impose. A social tool that is unfriendly to my friends is a broken social tool.

I know I'm walking away from a lot of conversations my friends are having on g+, and that's a high price. My consolation is that I'll have more time for your tweets and blogs. See you there, or on Diaspora, or (gasp) in real life.
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columms/why_you_should_join_diaspora_now_your_freedom_depends_it