quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
If you don't want someone knowing your name, why do you have them as a contact?
hu??? Welcome to the internet I'd say.
It is certainly absolutely not uncommon for people to chat with strangers or have 'anonymous' contacts where one only knows the handle/nickname of the contact.
Many people consider their real name as part of their private information, which they only want to share with very close friends and family. And that certainly does not mean you can't chat with other people, which might be your friends but not very close ones.
This has always been so, and will always be so on the internet. If you find that a strange concept, then take a look at every single forum which exists and ask that very same question to every member who didn't fill in their real name in their profile, then do the same for every Twitter member, and any other social network (except for Facebook).
quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
It's the same thing for Facebook, that has your real name.. so what?
Nope. Sorry, but it is not the same, see my first post in this thread.
The concept of Facebook is actually very different and unique in that regards. Facebook has been designed from the beginning around the concept to use your real name (it is against their policies to use fake names btw). This is a quite different concept than any other social network or forum on the internet where it is common to use a handle/nickname and keep your real name private. You can view some very interesting papers, studies and videos in regards to this.
quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
Messenger wanted to be connected with social networks such as Facebook chat, and with that it makes sense to use the same name for each.
Absolutely not! There is no technical reason at all why people wouldn't be able to still use a display name on Messenger or other Windows Live services. The only reason they did what they did is to make things 'simple'.
Also, and that is repeated over and over again too all over the internet in blogs comments and forums, not everybody uses Facebook. The argument of "
on facebook you see the real name too" is very mute in regards to this particular discussion as it assumes everybody uses Facebook and (important too) connects their Windows Live account with their Facebook account (which is again something not everybody does, exactly to keep things seperate. eg: business/pleasure).
quote:
Originally posted by Chris4
It's something you've got to live with and get used to. Same thing happens with every new release and every time we have to say "you'll get used to it" and they do without realising it. It's for the best, I ensure you. 
This is so not the same as a change in some usebility feature or layout change!!! This is fundamentally and completely very very different, and has nothing to do with "
getting used to it".
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