Google+ revises "real names" policy

It has been a constant complaint about Google+.
"Why do we need to use our real names?"
Several stories were made public about people who got banned because they were not using their real names. One of the most known stories is Star Trek's William Shatner, who was banned due to "violation of Google+ standards". But there are several other examples of people with accounts supended due to the use of nicknames, mononyms, etc.

In 2012, Google started to accept pseudonyms. Some state it was already too late, the damage was already done.

And now, Google announced a radical change. They state that they have been excluding many people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names.

Quoting the announcement:
"When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people, but it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names. 
Over the years, as Google+ grew and its community became established, we steadily opened up this policy, from allowing +Page owners to use any name of their choosing to letting YouTube users bring their usernames into Google+. Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use. 
We know you've been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be. Thank you for expressing your opinions so passionately, and thanks for continuing to make Google+ the thoughtful community that it is."

Sources & additional information:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/15/3-years-later-google-drops-its-dumb-real-name-rule-and-apologizes/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2356009/Google-Drops-Controversial-Real-Name-Policy-After-3-Years
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/google-plus-real-names-policy_n_1224970.html
http://lifehacker.com/google-drops-real-name-requirements-from-google-1605928371