As people begin to drift in, I think we should establish a policy on usernames. Otherwise, we might end up with some of the games being played at peeder’s place. I think we should say, up front, in our Faq or whatever we come up with, that people who have established UIDs on other sites should be given the presumptive right to use them, here; and that if anyone takes the UID of someone well-known on other sites, they should make clear on their user page that they are not that person. I realize this is another subtle meta issue, but it’s another that I think needs clarification, before people start using UIDs to abuse their previous enemies. And they will. And it could create another type of headache that would disrupt the site’s smooth flow.
Thoughts?
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it’s a good issue to discuss.
I was about to post to the FP (since ek gave me this spot and I’m testing out things right now in prep.)
any way we can track the validity of UIDs from one site to the next. Not sure how we could do that legitimately.
can simply keep a policy of username rights: that is, if someone wants to come on here with someone else’s username and the original ‘owner’ complains, we default to the wishes of the original ‘owner’. It’s an informal sort of copyright.
I’d rather people signing up weren’t assaulted with rules like barbed wire, but as an informal policy (mentioned in the FAQ, as one of your options), I think it’s good practice.
of fame protects me. Mediocrity finally has an advantage!
A UID is trade dress and should be protected as such.
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it doesn’t seem like a particularly heavy-handed policy, but i have no doubt that people will try to hijack others’ uids, just to make trouble.
This does not even need to be discussed.
Of course you have to do that.
(and i always want to say IUD)…
i don’t like the idea of stealing someone else’s identity… now i am all about being loose and let it flow, but there are some narrow areas of which i don’t approve… this would be one
scenario 1:
if the real Hunter wants to use his UID here, then we should ask the imposter to create another account, delete the fake Hunter, and allow the real Hunter to assume his ID.
scenario 2:
hunter may not want to join or have that name, in which case it’s okay for the imposter to have the name, but must clearly indicate on the profile they are not THE Hunter. If they don’t, it is tantamount to stealing and they should be asked either to create another acct and we delete fake Hunter… and if they go around posing as hunter: BAN THEM
scenario 3:
make it policy that you can not create an account of a well-known blogger… you will be asked to create new acct and see above
scenario 4: create accts for these people already? don’t know if that’s practical… and if they want to join, give those or delete and let them create new one…
anyway…
So I can’t be MAMZ?
I’ve been shafted out of that UID on like 3 sites now.
Le sigh.