A thread to discuss naming threads, board policy, new thread suggestions, and anything else that has to do with board administration and maintenance. Guaranteed to include lively debate and polls. Natter discouraged, but not deleted.
Current Stompy Feet: ita, Jon B, DXMachina, P.M. Marcontell, Liese S., amych
How about something along the lines of:
Buffistas tend to choose user names that can be easily used in conversation. Sometimes they are people's real names or nicknames; sometimes they are the names they always wished their parents had the sense to give them. You may feel cosmically drawn to the name @$sd_myxp12, but "What @$sd_myxp12 said" does not fall trippingly off the fingers. To reduce confusion, please avoid the names of famous people, including ME writers, and the names of existing posters. For example, if your name is Tiffany and there is already a Tiffany on the board, pick a variation, whether it be TiffanyT or Breakfast.
Nice, Ginger. A question, though. Is there a roster of registered user names? One that's available to posters? How would a new Tiffany know there was already a Tiffany, a Tiffani, and a Tiffanie previously registered?
I love Ginger's revision, despite the fact there is no registry to check.
To reduce confusion, please avoid the names of famous people, including ME writers, and the names of existing posters. For example, if your name is Tiffany and there is already a Tiffany on the board, pick a variation, whether it be TiffanyT or Breakfast.
Since there's no registry, maybe the wording could say something like "If you register and find that you're Jen #8, you can ask a Stompy to change your username to something more distinctive."
You may feel cosmically drawn to the name @$sd_myxp12, but "What @$sd_myxp12 said" does not fall trippingly off the fingers.
Ha! Love this.
For example, if your name is Tiffany and there is already a Tiffany on the board, pick a variation, whether it be TiffanyT or Breakfast.
Well, the board wouldn't let you register with the exact same name as an existing poster, right? Absent a registry of existing names....hmm.
"If you register and find that you're Jen #8, you can ask a Stompy to change your username to something more distinctive."
Something like this is good. And I don't think Tiffany needs to worry about whether there's already a Tiffani and a Tiffanie registered -- just about whether there's one posting enough to be more or less well-known on the board. So maybe something to reinforce the "please lurk first" message like:
If your name is "Tiffany" and you notice during your lurking career that there's already a "Tiffani" posting, you might want to register as "Breakfast" instead. If you find afterward that you're one of a crowd, you can ask a Stompy to change your name to something that won't get you confused with anyone else.
Yeah. I have a cousin who is a Buffy fan who, if he decided to register with his real name, could register as Tim M. It's a poser.
IIRC, there was a loose consensus way back when that, even if Tim Miner (Or Josh Whedon, etc) is your real name, you should choose a username that's less potentially confusing. (Personally, I think Tim M. or Josh W. would be fine.)
[eta that I'm also solidly behind requesting that people register with pronounceable names, but I don't think we should make too big a deal out of it.]
For example, if your name is Tiffany and there is already a Tiffany on the board, pick a variation, whether it be TiffanyT or Breakfast.
The board won't let you register as Tiffany if there is a Tiffany already on the lists, no?
The board won't let you register as Tiffany if there is a Tiffany already on the lists, no?
I would hope not. But my concern was more realted to "Tiffany T" and "TiffanyT" confusion.
