Over a year ago I had a Facebook account and was building a nice little community of friends there. I was having a good time chatting with my friends, playing with the various modules I could add to make my profile more informative, and more. One day something went wrong, so I reported the problem to them. The next day I could not log into my account without any warning. I contacted them to find out what the problem was and was told that my account had been disabled because I did not use my real name. I was aghast, how could any site require my real name, especially a site like Facebook? I was not buying anything from them where they needed to know that kind of information. I tried to explain to them that my friends only know me as Lady Aleena, so using my real name would be a waste of time. I even linked them to the search results for Lady Aleena to prove it. They would not budge. I had to reveal my real name to them or not get my account back. I chose to protect my privacy and not give them my real name.

When I see a link to Facebook, I sigh and move on without giving it a look since I can not support a site that requires it’s users to reveal their real names. I am Lady Aleena online unless I need you to ship something to me, and even then I require that you hide that information in as deep and dark hole as possible.

So, as Obi-Wan Kenobi might say to Facebook, “You don’t need to see my real name”.