Google has been trying to force everybody to use their real names for some time now. They screwed it up quite hard with Google+, where you can only have a profile if you use your real, full name. Initially you couldn’t even add a nickname, even if you’ve been called like that since you were 10 years old. No, Google doesn’t like it. They want you to use your passport name, otherwise they won’t allow you to play with them (the cool kids). That changed some time ago but still you can’t use G+ unless you display your real name.
One can understand why they want to do it, but forcing users is not the cleverest way to enforce this rule, specially with 99% of your users are already using their real name.
Today I’ve been asked to link my YouTube account with Google+, so it displays my real name. It makes sense from their perspective of global control but honestly, I don’t care. I don’t want/need to display my real name on YouTube. I use Nordic, my nickname for ages, and don’t want to change it.
So I selected No thanks, and they asked me WHY.
Check the options below, there’s one clearly missing: Because I don’t want to. Period.
It looks like they still don’t get it.