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Identity is not the same as "name on your birth certificate". Skud's identity is Skud, not Kirrily Roberts.

I'm all for having stable identities on social networking services, but that has nothing to do with legal names vs pseudonyms.

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I agree that effective identity is about who you can become on the Internet. But there really isn't any middle ground between imposing the name on one's birth certificate and letting people create whatever identity they want - after all, every pseudonym has to begin as anonymous pseudonym and gain connections.

The G+ names policy doesn't say "name on your birth certificate". It says "the name you commonly go by in real life", see: http://www.google.com/support/+/bin/answer.py?answer=1228271

Even if Skud does go by that name in daily life, I don't see how it comes as any surprise that he is suspended pending review for that name. He even says it himself:

> I knew I was at risk of my account (under the name of “Skud .”) being suspended

The policy that they are enforcing is that you must use your legal name, leading many people to the obvious conclusion that the policy is bullshit.

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