didn't we...*cough* discuss names that might be confused with certain *cough* VIPs?

It's in the Cheesebutt document, but nowhere else except Bureaucracy 1. Here we go:

Choose your user name at your own risk. Excessive cheekiness will be kept in check. Betsy: "I think an appropriate policy would be "If you claim to be somebody famous, we'll ask you to prove it." Betsy: "Parodying other people's names (whether real or adopted) is tacky. We ask that you don't do it." ita: "Stompy Feet reserve the rights to pooh pooh any name, but we'll explain why [in private email, and ask you to choose another name]." This policy also covers potentially offensive names, like "fuckface", and names too similar to real famous people, current users, and former users.

removed as it is redundant

I remember the discussion, but not where it happened, or if it ever got formalized.

I'm not even sure if it was discussed here, or back at WX. t /no help

[also t /too slow

Yeah, I don't think it's malicious, and I also think it's distinguishable from JohnSweden, say, because one has the potential for confusion, and I don't think John's pseud does.

Stompy Feet reserve the rights to pooh pooh any name, but we'll explain why [in private email, and ask you to choose another name]." This policy also covers potentially offensive names, like "fuckface", and names too similar to real famous people, current users, and former users.

This looks like a good policy to me.

Two questions:

1. What is the "Cheesebutt document?"

2. How will we decide "too similar"/potential for confusion? I would be bummed if someone registered as Lysa Jane or Lyra J., or Lyra Jeanne, but if she thought of it on her own I wouldn't want to take it away from her. I'd just start posting entirely in ASSCAPS, or something.

We have Kat and KatG, and that's okay. Tim falls into the "famous citizen" category, though.

If there were an ita a, it would grate. Porn argument? Know it when I see it?

It would have to be on a case-by-case basis, but I'd say we'd ask the poster if they'd like a less confusing pseud. In many cases we will be able to tell something similar (Shawn vs. Sean) from something deliberately confusing (Betty Jane Sherry). (It's like trademarks...we just have to apply the Polaroid 12 step analysis.)

(Kidding)

Considering all the similar names we do have already (like all the variations on Jess, and I think we've got several Jens), I think it would have to be something really similar, and potentially more confusing than what we've got now. Something like someone registering as Al!yson, or registering under the full name of someone whose full name most of us know, even though the poster currently uses just a last initial.

There are a couple of good questions here. First of all, what if someone does register using an actor's or writer's name, how do we determine if it is, in fact, the actor or writer, or someone else? Second, as LJ asks, how close is too close to another user's name?