Should DU tolerate screenname squatting?

If somebody signed up to DU with a screenname that was nearly identical to yours, especially if differing only by a dot or underscore, would you consider that an unfriendly act? Especially if the individual persisted in using that name after you sent a PM asking them not to?

I would appreciate a response, explaining your vote.

It's damned confusing, and most likely is done intentionally just to cause confusion.

Imagine a TXlib_ posting around here casually mentioning stuff that isn't you. It would be confusing; we'd think it was you posting.

Yes, the mods should do something about it.

I keed, I keed :)

I know there's a "sh0rtbus" somewhere around here, but nobody's ever confused the two of us. I guess "short bus president" and "sh0rtbus" are maybe not so similar, so it's never come up. I'd maybe see it differently, though, if my DU name was "shortbus," as it is on some other sites.

but short_bus president would be, IMHO, a deliberate squatting of your name.

The people who voted for option A, "Who the fuck dies and made TXlib screenname nazi?!"...

You are aware the somebody could attack a DU member by signing on as, say, SO.teric, or SO_teric, or SOteric_, or S0teric (that's a zero, not a capital O), or any number of other variations so close that people may well casually assume it is SOteric, and post in a style that makes people wonder if SOteric blew a gasket. If nothing else, it is likely to be a source of confusion, even if done with no malicious intent.

I assume those who picked option A are either just being evil clowns, or are trolls who do, in fact, want to sow maximum chaos here. If you pick A, and you are neither of those, I would really like to hear your counterargument.

I assume they are evil clowns.

Mine is ABB_04, appropriate when I chose, but soon meaningless..

Can you change it and still keep your bookmarks?

But if you have a star, you can have it transferred.

and avoid all possible confusion.

-- Allen

So tell me... who is this son of a bitch who's pretending to be you? (I know... if you say it out loud, it's "calling out" and against the rules... so just PM me with the info.)

I think the mods are probably going to lock this thread soon. Unless they're all out partying right now.:)

I agree this may be better in Ask The Administrators. But I posed this question there, and there has been no response, so I thought I'd poll random users of DU.

I figured most would agree with me, but if it turned out that I was of the minority opinion, I would have stopped complaining, and changed my screenname to something like Skinner_. :evilgrin:

There is an angry guy who likes to lurk here and send foul languaged emails to people.

Several months ago he had been attacking some people here and I recounted a previous experience I had with him. In that same thread he signed up and used the name of bratcatniok. (He transposed the n and the i in his screen name.) Even though he didn't act like a complete troll in that thread, I still didn't like it especially when a couple of DU'ers got us confused.

I posted a thread in ATA and told the mods about my discomfort. They in turn 'spoke' (not sure if it was a PM or how they contacted him) with him and he agreed not to use the name. I don't know whether he was banned or whether he willingly gave up the screen name and I don't really care.

People who use screen names that are similar are usually up to no good in my opinion. They want to cause confusion and since DU is such a big board, there are times they can be successful.

And I don't think it should involve negotiation. Just outright ban the offending account, and let the person know they can sign up with a different name.

:bounce:

even if it is close to others.

I'm talking about somebody signing up as DS.1, or DSl (that's a lowercase "L"), or DS1_.

Would you assume such a poster had anything but mischief on his mind?

me to differentiate between DS1 and DS1_ , and if necessary alert them.

tx.lib has been here a number of months, there's also I believe a MALib, I'd expect it to be a common variant.

of self is about the only intellectual property we have left; it shdnt be eft/w by some poseur. i'd likely put a curse on some dumbass that did that to me. or maybe leave a sliver of metal somewhere in his/her person.

or ignore the jakov till they got embarrassed & went away.

on edit: oh, i voted for C. mod/zotting. save me the trouble, & hell, they shd do something besides track down sex-threads...

This post really isn't such a good idea.

There are bound to be many similarities. About the same time I started to post here someone else joined with a nearly identical screen name but I never considered it an "unfriendly act" even though we were often confused. If someone is not violating the posting rules then I see no need to sic the moderators on them.