Nymwars

Key takeaways

Nymwars belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nymwars to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nymwars from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nymwars was a series of conflicts over policies that mandate that all users of certain social media platforms identify themselves using their legal names. The term is mostly associated with Google's name policies on Google+ and YouTube. Nymwars is a blend word composed from (pseudo)nym and wars. The name appears to have gained prominence as the hashtag "#nymwars" on Twitter. Conflicts regarding Google+ began by July 2011 when the social networking site began enforcing its real-name-only policy by suspending the accounts of users it felt were not following the policy. Pseudonyms, nicknames, and non-standard real names (for example, mononyms or names that include scripts from multiple languages) were suspended. The issue was settled in 2014 when Google announced that it was ending its real-name-only policy. A predecessor to the Google+ conflict was Blizzard's RealID which, starting in 2010, exposes the name on the player's credit card, and is mandatory to use some game features (cross-game chat) and was nearly made mandatory to post on discussion forums. These issues have existed since the beginning of online identity, and are related to the alleged online disinhibition effect. The resulting discussions have raised many issues regarding naming, cultural sensitivity, public and private identity, privacy, and the role of social media in modern discourse. The debate has been covered widely in the press including Wired, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.

Google Google Plus was launched in late June 2011. At the time of launch, the site's user content and conduct policy stated, "To help fight spam and prevent fake profiles, use the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you." Many users signed up using nicknames, handles, stage names, or other names by which they were commonly known, but which did not necessarily match the name on their government-issued ID. The first suspensions for name-related reasons occurred in July 2011, and included Limor Fried's account, which included the name "LadyAda" (by which she is widely known), nerdcore rapper Doctor Popular, and LA Weekly and Los Angeles Times columnist A.V. Flox. Account suspensions over the following weeks included those who were using nicknames, handles, and pseudonyms; those whose legal names were unusual, including mononymous users; and some users who Google mistakenly believed were impersonating famous individuals, such as Facebook employee and Mozilla founder Blake Ross, and actor William Shatner. Awareness of the issue grew rapidly, via Twitter, Google+ itself, and a variety of media outlets. By early August, the Electronic Frontier Foundation had posted "A Case for Pseudonymity" in response to the issue. Google initially responded on 25 July when vice president Bradley Horowitz promised improvements to the suspension and enforcement process. On 17 August, Google implemented a "grace period" before suspension, and on 19 August, a "verified account" program for celebrities and high-profile users. On 19 October 2011, at the Web 2.0 Summit, Google executive Vic Gundotra revealed that Google+ would begin supporting pseudonyms and other types of identity within a few months. However, as of the 16 October 2012 policy documents, Google still required that participants "Use your common first and last name" adding "our Name Policy may not be for everyone at this time." On 15 July 2014, Google indicated that the real-name policy was being ended, announcing that "Over the years, as Google+ grew and its community became established, we steadily opened up this policy, from allowing +Page owners to use any name of their choosing to letting YouTube users bring their usernames into Google+. Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use."

Expired Google policy Google's official support page described their real-names policy, which has since been abandoned:

Google+ makes connecting with people on the web more like connecting with people in the real world. Because of this, it's important to use your common name so that the people you want to connect with can find you. Your common name is the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you. For example, if your legal name is Charles Jones Jr. but you normally use Chuck Jones or Junior Jones, any of these would be acceptable. Google offers support and assistance to anyone whose profile has been suspended, including an appeal process, and a referral to their Content Policy. If an account is suspended, users will not be able to access Google services that require active profiles, such as Buzz, Reader, and Picasa. They will, however, be able to access other Google services such as Gmail. Google suggested that their naming policy may not have been for everyone, and recommended if a user chooses not to comply, to make a copy of their Google+ data, and leave.

Google's previous stance A Google support worker has stated:

Google Profiles is a product that works best in the identified state. This way you can be certain you're connecting with the right person, and others will have confidence knowing that there is someone real behind the profile they're checking out. For this reason, Google Profiles requires you to use the name that you commonly go by in daily life. In August 2011, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted as stating that Google+ was intended as an identity management service more than as a social network, and that the use of real names would be necessary for other planned Google products based on this service. He also asserted that "the Internet will work better if people know that you're a real person rather than a fake person". Google vice president Bradley Horowitz (in a Google+ post on 24 January 2012) announced that Google is updating its policy "to broaden support for established pseudonyms". However, the updated policy has been criticized for being too vague concerning what is an "established" pseudonym, and insufficiently flexible to protect online privacy.

Criticism A number of high-profile commentators have publicly criticized Google's policies, including technologists Violet Blue, Jamie Zawinski, Kevin Marks, and Robert Scoble and organisations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Criticisms have been wide-ranging, for example:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nymwars

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nymwars claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nymwars before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nymwars ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nymwars

In research: Nymwars appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nymwars in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nymwars is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century controversies, Identity management, Internet-related controversies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nymwars outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Nymwars in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nymwars means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nymwars out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nymwars in simple terms?

Nymwars was a series of conflicts over policies that mandate that all users of certain social media platforms identify themselves using their legal names. The term is mostly associated with Google's name policies on Google+ and YouTube.

Why does Nymwars matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nymwars?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nymwars.