Even before the initial #nymwars debacle sparked off over at Google+, I’ve known Facebooks’s “real” names policy. I always found it amusing that people were getting so upset at G+, but saying nothing about FB whose policies were worse. I didn’t say much about it at the time because I wasn’t a prominent member of the protests/complaints.

Throughout #nymwars I refused to change from my nym, even if it meant not using G+ – a service I was at the time very excited about. Now it’s over, Google relented about 9 months later and allowed nyms, but I still don’t use it. It’s too late.

And now I’ve fallen victim to FB’s “real” names policy for a second time.

The first time I was using “Bastard Sheep” as my FB name. Because I’m not ignorant to their “real” names policy I just accepted it and asked around on twitter for a suggested “real” sounding alternate to use. That’s when my mate @elronxenu came up with Byorgen Druffeldroff. I liked it, I ran with it, and I’ve used it exclusively everywhere ever since.

But now “Byorgen Druffeldroff” has fallen victim to FB’s “real” names policy too. I’m not going to do this song and dance again. I’m not creating yet another account. For reasons I’ve outlined in my About page and in this post from 2011, I’m not going to use my wallet name either.

I’ve tried to recover Byorgen Druffeldroff, and not succeeded. I am now no longer on FB.

I’m not fussed. I only used to use it every other week until Whoobie and I got together.  Because it was initially the best way to keep in contact with her I found myself almost always on there so started using more and more of its features.

I can keep in touch with her via other methods, so as far as I’m concerned nothing is lost. I’d like to ask everyone to try not to be a stranger via other methods too.

My preferred points of contact are twitter (@bastardsheep), Skype (bastardsheep), or iMessages (any of my emails or mobile number). If you have another form of communication you’d like to use, let me know and I’ll consider it.  All of my public contact methods can be found on my About page.

There will probably be a lot more blog posts from me now that I can’t rant and rave on FB. For that I apologise in advance.