This is a bit of a detour for Che Underground: The Blog. I started the site back in 2008 with some friends to revive and preserve our memories of our San Diego music scene from the early ’80s … And while it’s slowed down in recent years, I intend to honor that mission for the long run.
For the short term, however, I’d like to offer this platform as a halfway house for people who are disturbed about how Facebook’s recent enforcement of its “real names” policy is likely to eliminate many friends who live under names other than the ones on their birth certificates. Whether it’s noms de punk, drag names or other pseudonyms, people have a right to identify themselves as they want. (Meanwhile, Facebook has a right to make its own rules — but it will have to assess how those rules affect participation among those of us who don’t like those rules.)
So here’s the deal: If you’d like another place to congregate, this door’s open. Register and leave a message on this thread telling me what you’d like to do next. We can restore the dormant Facebook discussion boards … We can build another blog that includes opportunities to discuss other topics.
I don’t like to see people ostracized for being themselves, whether or not those “selves” have made up their own names. So please sound off, and maybe we can do something cool!
Hi Matt. You have always been such a welcoming person, and you apparently continue to be a welcoming person. Thank you. My new email is Tobygibson002@gmail.com. Facebook did not touch my “Nero Savage” persona- but they did deactivate many native American indigenous people who actually had used their real names. I find that unfair and more than a little mean spirited (as they have done that repeatedly.) No idea what the impetus was for them to do that, but the fact that they did that repeatedly tells me that they had some kind of personal agenda against the people they deleted. I think they might leave Hawaii alone because they have no idea what Hawaiian names mean- Hawaiian names arent interpreted in western ways- there are 12 letters in the alphabet and it makes no sense to western scholars- it’s mostly K’s, L’s and M’s and a couple vowels. 😉 Anyhow- Thanks for providing the venue that you do- I was just going back over conversations from five years ago and you had them very precisely documented. Hope you and your family are well. Aloha- Toby.