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Comment by Terretta | Hacker News Reader

> "Using real names is useful," Cerf said. "But I don't think it should be forced on people, and I don't think we do."

I guess he hasn't seen YouTube's argumentative 'give us your real name and link our accounts' wizard, then. While you can find a way to answer the questions to keep your handle, you may have to lie to do so.

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What? Just say no when prompted by the dialog. It then says they are considering other options and asks you which you'd prefer. There is no lying involved.

Edit: To clarify, I'm not saying Youtube's dialog is a good thing. I'm just saying there is no lying involved and it's rather trivial (albeit annoying) to dismiss it without having to lie or use your real name.

It's a dialog that shows up every time I log into youtube, and requires (as of the last time I went through it) clicking about 5 different buttons to keep my real name off the service. I didn't have to lie, but it DEMANDED that I select a reason for not wanting my name on the service, and you can tell they're trying to get users to cave and just click "yes" once. It's shitty, argumentative, and unpleasant to use.

There are 2 buttons that I counted when I tried to manually link it (which looks like the same process as when it's automatically popped up for me before). I said I don't want to use my full name, and then tried both "Ask me later" and "I want to use 2 different names" and that was it.

I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea but can we tone down the hyperbole a bit? It's not constructive at all.

YouTube has evolved its UI for this, in response to user outrage. It has had more than 2 buttons at some point.

I see this all the time too.

This, despite the fact that my audience knows me by my pseudonym and not my real name.

And, it's only a matter of time before they force us to use a real name, IMO.

If it asks you more than once after selecting a reason for picking no, then its a bug. I hear your complaint a lot, but I've never seen it happen in person to anyone I know personally.

My anecdote beats yours. I've never seen it do anything other than ask on every login.

I just tested (logged out, logged back in) and did not get the real name prompt after selecting to keep my username back when the change was first announced. That seems to confirm it's not something everyone encounters.

It would show it for me over and over, but suddenly stopped. Maybe installing Ghostery and ABP helped?

It doesn't happen every time, but I see it multiple times a day. You shouldn't assume that just because one login attempt didn't get the dialog that it's not appearing.

Google recently changed YouTube so you get the prompt multiple times a day asking you to opt into having your real name displayed on your account. I've heard from probably a dozen people with the same issue.

Furthermore, they removed the 'No'/'Cancel' options from the modal dialog; the only way to dismiss it is to go all the way through it and try and figure out which of the confusingly worded options is the one to make it go away.

I get that one every once in a while when browsing youtube. I just hit reload to get rid of it.

I just hit reload when I get that dialog, it doesn't show up every time, 1 out of 10 maybe.

For new signups, youtube doesn't even offer the option of using a handle. A few years down the road, the comment sections will be dominated by real names (or "real names" at least).

Same goes for reviews on Google Play. No reviews for anyone, then.

Even if your real name is not displayed on Youtube, Google still links your Youtube handle to all the other information it has about you, so it's sort of a moot point - anyone who wants to can find out that "deathmaster1701" is really Reginald Brown of 132 North Hanover Street.

Sounds like a good reason never to give Google any other information about yourself.

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