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?

If it's a whedonverse or minearverse person, it's easy enough to verify.

In the quote above, Betsy says, "If you claim to be someone famous, we reserve the right to ask you to prove it." I think that's fair, as famous people go. (Also, with few exceptions, famous people seem to prefer to be handheld into the posting board process, and then run with it themselves, rather than leaping up on us when we're all unawares.)

As unfamous people go, I suspect it's not hard to tell when there's an unpleassantly intentional similarity involved. The name-chooser would be basically trying to provoke, when choosing an intentionally similar name, so it doesn't work unless people can recognize it. Unintentionally similar names are just that -- it's wise to pick something that won't be confusing, but I don't think it warrants Stompy intervention unless it causes a real mess.

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.

Exactly. When amyth first showed up, I was a little "WHA??!!", but it obviously wasn't meant as a spoof -- my boardname is my first name and last two initials; hers is her first name and pseud initials that she'd used for years before ever coming to this board. Neither of has any more right to it than the other, and aside from BITCH STOLE MY NAME! occasional reading mixups, we've all gotten used to it.

When Astarte came on board as Ro, a bunch of people mixed her up with Rio; she was the one who offered to change (iirc, anyway), but if she had expressed a longtime attachment to the name, we would've gotten used to that too.

Porn argument? Know it when I see it?

Yeah, pretty much that.

we just have to apply the Polaroid 12 step analysis.

You do that. Knock yourself out.

we just have to apply the Polaroid 12 step analysis.

We can just see what develops.

FTR, the poster in question is not registered under that same name on the site they linked to.

I do think the similar names thing is basically only gonna be enforced for the VIPs (see amyth, amych).

Well, isn't that nice. Said poster called us "no-life assholes" and it was posted by the webmaster at HMC.

it was posted by the webmaster at HMC.

He came over to pimp his own site? And then insult us?

Someone slept through Marketing 101.