You're sorry for the inconvenience.

Pals,
Google's anti-anonymity naming policy on Google+ recently led to them telling me that I had to start using another name or they would remove me. So I saved them the trouble. What they did not make clear, but I have since discovered, is that I can no longer use Google Buzz.

Now I don't claim to know what Google's supposed rationale is for their policy. But whatever it is, I do not agree with it. I have been using this identity online for more than ten years and I am not anonymous to anyone who is capable of doing a Google search. But that is not the point. In this day and age the need for anonymity is essential to free expression regardless of whether anyone chooses to use it.

Google is on the wrong side here.

So: though it will be a pain in my ass of major proportions I will be transitioning myself away from Google. Entirely. I have used their products for years so this may take a few days or weeks. If I seem to have fallen off the face of the virtual earth you will know why.

I am still available in meat-form in the meantime.

Thanks.

Christian Noble

p.s. I just received this friendly little note from Google.

Your profile is suspended

After reviewing your profile, we determined that the name provided violates the Google+ Names Policy.

While suspended, you will not be able to make full use of Google services that require an active profile, such as Google+, Buzz, Reader, and Picasa. This will not prevent you from using other Google services, like Gmail.

If you changed your name in accordance with our policies, please submit an appeal and we will review your profile again.

If you believe that your profile has been suspended in error, please submit your profile for reconsideration.

Your profile will be reviewed again and re-enabled if it complies with the Google+ Names Policy. Reviews are usually completed within a few days.

We're sorry for the inconvenience.

sign, no wonder

The usual meeting
is extra-odious today
imaginary reveries
assert themselves with clarity
such that I find myself
at a table ringed with children
ridiculous in adult clothing
discussing open-source report modules
and their shortcomings 

when a spiral-bound notebook
insists I notice it is
bound with a hebrew letter
whose name I can’t remember
doubled and repeated
a keystroke held too long
sign? or wonder?



Resolving then into the coiled razor wire
atop fences damning those
whose names will be forgotten.
Failing to impart its message
this mark, this letter, this ugly tool
of punishment,
this binding
casts itself finally
as the acromion process
source of impingement
and sore shoulders since always
A design flaw suggesting no designer
or perhaps a God of meetings?



Perhaps not, as this theodicy
will cease entertaining objections
promptly at noon

by prior agreement
Surely no theology so tidy
is worthy of the name.
Only later via more letters
do these things seem to reveal
themselves as signs less than wondrous

banal on the order of the functionary
little more than mirrors
of the ridiculous kid
resentful of meetings
and poorly implemented open-source reporting systems.



sign, no wonder by Christian Noble is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.trickgnosis.com.