Hello! I’m new to Connect (though I registered a year ago). Now my Local Guide username seems to grandfather from my real name because that’s my one Google account I use for everything. I realize here in Local Guide Connect, we can change our username at will.
Question: Is it recommended that we keep usernames the same/consistent, so as to avoid any confusion in cross-referencing postings between Connect and Google Maps?
Along the same line, is it possible to set an alias for all my Google reviews much like what YouTube allows us to do? Several times I do feel self conscious using my real name in some reviews.
That’s exactly my concern. But is it possible to create a new alias under the same account and keep all the hundreds of reviews I’ve written? I use my main account to write reviews. My main account is also used for all of my personal emails and I need my real name used as such.
Hola @DavidHou Bienvenido a Connect! Puedes poner un alias ó el nombre con el que te sientas cómodo. Yo al principio usaba mi nombre y apellido y siguiendo buenos consejos de gente más experimentada aquí decidí dejar sólo mi nombre y una inicial. Por más que uno haga sus reseñas a conciencia puede haber gente que no le gusten y no es bueno que puedan identificarnos. Es lo que yo pienso.
It would be really helpful if you would use the tagging tool when replying to someone here on Connect. Type @ followed by the username. Type slowly. Then we get an e-mail notification and you are more likely to get a prompt reply.
You can change your alias/name on your Google account. All your previous reviews will then be shown under the new alias. In your Gmail settings you can still keep your real name.
@DavidHou You’ve had helpful replies above, but I’d like to chime in with my thoughts as well. In the end, it’s really up to you depending on your comfort level. Some people prefer not to be identified (maybe they’re shy, for example) on personal level, so they’ll use pseudo name. In the opposite, some people actually are trying to get their name recognized, in which case it’s easier to keep a consistent naming for all platforms. It really depends on what you’re goal is.
As for using alias, you can click on the following link while signed in to your Google account to change your nickname (alias):
Once you set up your nickname, you’ll get an option if you want to display your nickname across all Google products/services, in addition to your full name. At the moment, it doesn’t seem there’s an option to just display using only the alias/nickname, so you will need to edit your full name if you want it to be shown otherwise.
For more details you can check out the following article:
If you’ve already created a nickname, it’s used if you don’t have a name set. If you delete your nickname, you won’t be able to create another one. This nickname is different from the nickname you can add in your “About me” page. To change that nickname, go to About me.
@MortenCopenhagen So I can change my real name to an alias here. That will change all of my Google accounts. And I think you suggest that I can then override that alias using my real name in gmail. How can I do that in gmail?
@SilvyC (I did use Google Translate to read your helpful input
Thank you all for your collective help! I think I’m good now. I’ve changed my main account name to not use my real name. Somehow without doing anything the recipients of my Gmail messages can still identify with my real name. Some kind of magic I don’t know how. Maybe there’s a linkage with Contacts list?
I did play around with the “alias” in Google account profile, but that’s treated more like a middle name like @iyudhi had mentioned.
I’ve also changed my Connect username to the same new Google username for now and I will evolve as necessary.
For completeness for this thread, the “magic” for why my Gmail still display my real name correctly after the Google account name change, there is a link for Gmail settings that can overwrite the default name.
Thank you for reaching out. You can follow the tips fellow Local Guides kindly shared with you.
In addition to that, I am marking @iyudhi 's reply as a solution, so other Local Guides can refer to it. The purpose of this feature is to help Local Guides find answers when searching on Connect. Please take a look atHow do I mark comments as solutions? article.
