Real names, please
We’ve decided to enforce a policy that requires all Biznik members to use their real name on their profile. The motivation behind this is simple: if you’re going to do business with someone, you are going to want to know their name. Simple. Our secondary motivation is to ensure a high degree of trust in the Biznik community. It’s pretty difficult to develop trust for someone who won’t even tell you their name. Many other social networks allow made-up usernames and pretty much anything goes, and as a result, trust suffers. You have no idea whether the person you’re interacting with is actually the person you think they are. Facebook is a notable exception - they require real names, and as a result the integrity of the network is much higher.
I’ve begun asking members who have put things like their business name into their name field to change it, so this is a head’s up to everyone to be sure your profile first and last name fields list your real first and last name, and nothing else (no keyword stuffing allowed here - that is a violation of our Code of Conduct). In some cases I will be editing profile names directly to ensure compliance.
We will make exceptions from time to time, where appropriate. Same thing for stage names like Xakary - http://biznik.com/members/xakary- we will accept those as valid. Some members have expressed a desire to use only an initial, and we will accept that for your first names, but not your last name.
