[pilif]

In the last step of the assistant (by looking at the screenshots - not really using my youtube account, so I can't say), they ask for possible reasons why not to use the real name and the reasons they list are pretty valid and cover about the extent of reasons why I would not want to use my real name.

As such this leaves me with hope that they at least understand that real-name-for-everything is not a good idea.

Speaking of nicknames though:

Being able to use a nickname as the main identification handle on twitter is one of the main reasons why I'm not using Google+. Finishing a talk or a discussion with a quick "hey - follow me on twitter: @pilif" is so much easier than "Please search me on Google+ under the name Philip Hofstetter".

The last name is very difficult to type and in addition there are still a ton of Philip Hofstetter's around for people to confuse me with.

By enforcing the unique nickname and allowing users to use them as handles (and in URLs), twitter makes it much easier for people to bridge the gap between the real and the virtual world to the point where I know many people by their twitter handle instead of their real names.

With Google+ I'd have to make people spell my long name ("how many t's again?") or to give them an absurdly long number as my ID - neither of which is at all appealing (or producing "conversions" - if you want to call acquiring followers that)

[darklajid]

As some one further down in this thread already noticed: The one reason that they didn't list is "I don't _want_ that, period".

The closest thing is "I _cannot_ use my real name". Which I'd probably click if I'd ever be in that situation. But that's not the same thing.