This is going to be kind of a quick one.
I've been on Facebook for many years. I have the account I use - Moody Loner - and an account in my "real name" that my brothers insisted I get as an emergency point of contact shortly before they stopped speaking to me.
Well, this morning I noticed I was logged out, and when I went to log in they told me I needed to provide a phone number and/or a government issued ID to log in.
I knew this was coming and that due to their insistence on using "real names" I'd be here at some point. Looks like some point is today.
What's the big deal, you ask? I'm certain that there are people who have a bigger deal than I do with it - looking over at the Ts in the LBGT community for one - but what it comes down to is who is allowed to determine who I get to portray myself as online.
It's funny because I spent years trying to straighten out my birth certificate, and when I present it I usually have to provide a stack of documentation from Social Security saying yes, this is him and this is his name. This is what happens when you have a gun-runner as a father, kids.
That's not the point. My mother and the Department of Defense know who Moody Loner is, and that isn't the point either. Hell, I've been writing my real name in letters of fire for twenty years for anyone who cares to Google.
The point is that I'm the one who gets to determine who I am. Not Zuckerberg, not Microsoft, not Kos, no one else. My persona, my identity, the way I portray myself to you is up to me.
So, I guess I'll be over at Ello. I won't be able to post the link to the weekly World of Warcraft diary to the Facebook group any more. I'll have to come up with some other way for Ms. Korobase to advertise the weekly Cafe Wellstone dance in Second Life.
Just figured y'all should know.