

G+ wasn't that bad, technically speaking. They just failed at managing the political aspects of it, focusing too brutally on their own requirements, to the detriment of users' own: "we want your real names, so we can be the authority of record for everything! And we won't let you hack anything of importance on top of the platform, because we want our content clean!"... Compare with the free-for-all hacking bonanza that early twitter was, or the spam machine that Facebook is - social networks are powered by oversharing, an activity that G+ actively resisted in many different ways.

But technically speaking, they had the best support for high-quality photos, good features for private groups, and a few other wins on features like Hangouts.

RealNameGate was the tipping point from OK to bad IMHO. When they forced the issue, they lost a lot of goodwill. They should have done something similar to the optimal implementation of Twitter verified, merely to authenticate identity if the user desires (without bungling it as badly as Twitter has done).

doesn’t facebook require real name? that was g+ competition, and everything was referenced to that.

Not really. I think it was policy back when it was for colleges, when they exploded they basically renounced it because it was a hassle to check. Most people simply kept doing it, because if your friends use their name why should you hide?
