I think HMC is a relative of the old Bronze threaded board. Which explains a lot in terms of the defensive posture and the name, and the shill. It's not malicious, just part of that board culture.

The threaded was always treated like the redheaded stepchild by Linear Bronzers.

And some folks don't get the "when in rome" sentiment. *shrug*

No reason to get up in arms, except to maybe discuss how to handle anything like it in the future.

msbelle, I can't get to the page you linked to. (None of the HMC board pages will load for me.) What kind of a feature is it?

Jess, it's a list of registered users with their info and a private messaging feature. I think it's standard on a lot of posting forums--it is with Sparklies. Makes it easy to find users.

except to maybe discuss how to handle anything like it in the future.

It's my understandng that registration is usually automatic, yes? (Correct me if it isn't.) If that's the case, could we set up some kind of a search that would route any usernames containing certain keywords (Minear, Noxon, Whedon, Boreanaz, etc.) to the Stompies for checking over? Or do we already have something like that in place?

it's a membership page that lists all registered users, then (my guess) some people opt in to have their email, webpages, location, etc available. It also lists date joined and tallies the # of posts.

Or do we already have something like that in place?

Sort of. The admin mailbox is notified anytime someone registers. The problem is that we don't watch the mailbox 24/7.

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.

I was just thinking of that myself. As Ro and Astarte are both pseuds I've used it was no big to shift to the less confusing one. I've had this sort of thing come up with my real first name too, and that's harder to sort out. As noted.

As y'all have already discussed the rest of the issues, I'll just point upward and say "me, too" regarding VIP and malicious masqueraders.

The admin mailbox is notified anytime someone registers. The problem is that we don't watch the mailbox 24/7.

Thanks.

More thought: It seems to me that making the effort to INSTANTLY NOTIFY stompies of problematic usernames would be more trouble than it's worth, given that this so seldom comes up and most posters would switch when asked. But I do think adding some text to the registration page asking people not to choose VIPesque names would be a good thing.

I don't want this to turn into, like, Jets-and-Sharks time, only with keyboards instead of switchblades.

I'd be up for some song and dance numbers, though.

Now we know how you got the guacamole on your pants.