Thursday, February 9, 2012

Google Plus snafu!

OK, I was very excited that my appeal (I appealed twice because I didn't hear anything back the first time), of my Bambi CNIRadio account was suspended due to violation of naming policy a while back. I was so angry about it, I removed my business Google Plus account as well after that.

Anyway, after they changed their naming policy that I read about in an article by Violet Blue over at ZDNet entitled, Pseudonyms on Google Plus? Wrong, then I figured, nothing to lose, I will try to change my name based on the info from this public topic on Google+ by Bradley Horowitz.

Now, notice that by Bambi CNIRadio blogger blog, google docs, and GMail for the email associated with this account worked fine before, and work fine still, but ... wait, we'll get to that in an minute.

So anyway, since it they didn't like my Bambi CNIRadio username when all I really wanted was to be able to have Bambi as in "JimmyLee and Bambi Show" on CNIRadio.com Saturday nights and have been since January 2005.

I would also like to say that I have been Bambi since my old CB Radio days. So I have used it for a very long time.

So I figure, what's to lose, I could change my name to first name: Bambi and last name . like they said and submit an email since they had changed the naming policy. Which I did. And as i say, when I heard nothing back, I also appealed again, with same name change.

Anyway, back to my story. I appealed and didn't hear anything back one way or the other, so I appealed again. And yesterday February 8, 2012, I received an email with a subject line of: "Your Google+ Appeal" from a weird numbered-noreply@google.com email, but the interesting part was the body of the email:
Hello,

Thanks for sending us your appeal. You're right: your name does comply with the Google+ Names Policy. Your name has been updated on your Google+ profile. If you submitted the appeal during sign up, your profile has now been restored. Log in to Google+: https://plus.google.com/up/?hl=en_MYINFO.

Sorry for the inconvenience,

The Google+ team.

-- Log in to Google+: https://plus.google.com/up/?hl=en_MYINFO
You can't reply to this message. 
Now I am very excited. My Bambi . name change does comply with their naming policy.

I also want to mention that I had been a BETA Tester of Google + from the first few weeks of Google+ and it really ticked me off to be sure when it all went to hell in a handbasket when my account was suspended for name policy violations. And I had to basically remove the Google+ connection to still be able to use my GMail. Yes, I did, believe me, nothing was working before I did that. So all the work I had done on posts, Friends, conversations, etc. lost since the I started with the Beta Testing of Google+ was gone.

OK, so I click the link, sign in with my GMail email associated with the account and am taken to the Google+ sign on page with a black box on the right hand side saying that I needed to UPGRADE to continue. Huh? OK, so I click on the UPGRADE Button and guess what .... yep, it says my name doesn't comply with the name policy but that I can appeal AGAIN!!!!! SIGH....

So I posted a comment on Violet Blue's article noted above and sent the link in a contact directly to Violet Blue. Then I tweeted on my Twitter account (@CNIRadio_com) about it. Then today, I followed @google and quoted the tweet and now I am going to do a tweet about it again directly to @google.

I am hoping since none of the methods of contacting anyone on Google or Google+ about Google+ issues work and the Q&A self help doesn't match my problem and gives no options that I guess I will first post this on Twitter, than if that doesn't work, then I will appeal again, and post this link so they can read about the hell I have been through about this.

Thank you Google and Google+. You have managed to take someone who was an avid supporter of Google and Google+ and related products, and made them so angry I could spit nickels if I had any and I have a very bad taste in my mouth regarding Google right now. A friend of mine who left Google related anything over all this told me to just give up and join those who have given up entirely on Google.

It may still come to that, but right now...the jury is out. Let's see how they handle this.
 

9 comments:

  1. A friend Corrine said her preview disappeared when she tried to post to this article.

    Here's what she said about it:

    I tried to post a reply on your blog post but when I clicked preview, it disappeared. So, I'll respond here.

    It took M3 Sweatt, a Microsoft Program Manager, six months: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mthree/archive/2012/02/01/names-020112.aspx
    He was very vocal about it, not only blogging but also tweeting.

    Here's his G+ https://plus.google.com/111238458468081184848/posts

    Also note that she said that she's having more fun with Pinterest.com ;)

    Thanks Corrine! I will check out his fight with this mess too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have now posted on M3 Sweatt's MSDN Blog posting here:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mthree/archive/2012/02/01/names-020112.aspx

    Hope it helps, and added Natalie Villalobos via Twitter and posted this article to her as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have also posted an appeal again, pointing to this article.

    And for the first time I see Google+ updates! Says I am suspended but there's progress!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Parts of it are working and other parts not. I guess they are working on it. It still says suspended, but I was able to +1 a posting by M3 Sweatt and was able to add him to follow list and a family member. So there's definitely some progress.

    Let's hope this will be over soon!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can add people to my Circles, add Circles, change profile info, but not post anything since it still says:

    ---

    Bambi
    Cohost of the JimmyLee and Bambi Show on CNI Radio

    Your profile is suspended pending review

    Your profile is currently under review to make sure it is in compliance with the Google+ Names Policy and User Content and Conduct Policy. Reviews are typically completed within a few days.

    During this time, you won’t be able to make full use of Google services that require an active profile, such as Google+, Reader, and Picasa. This will not prevent you from using other Google services, like Gmail.

    If approved, your profile will have normal access. Otherwise, you’ll see an email that your request was denied and your profile will continue to be suspended. At that point, you can still re-edit your profile or name and submit it for review.

    We're sorry for the inconvenience.

    ---

    Sigh...almost there ... but not quite ... still can't post or PM anyone, so still have to wait till they fix it all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. OK, still nothing further at nearly midnight on Friday night, Feb 10, 2012. Still suspended.

    Sigh...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Also today used Twitter to post a tweet to SecurityGarden and M3SWEATT to let them know my comment never showed on M3SWEATT's blog posting about all this. He likely didn't know who it was previously. And SecurityGarden even tried to post here, but the post disappeared after the preview.

    Sometimes you just don't know what to think....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bambi.. can i have problem same with you..but after my google plus has been suspended.. my blog cant login.. error because of google plus.so i decided to deleted..
    after deleted google plus.. my blog still cant open...
    can u give me emel or url to me..
    i wanna emel team google for fix this problem..
    i cant sleep to solve this problem..

    ReplyDelete