FYI: changing usernames to insult people in the Pit

The BBQ Pit
1

There has been some confusion about whether or not there is a rule against changing someone’s username in order to insult them. I want to clarify that there is no such rule in the Pit.

I suspect the confusion originated when Liberal changed his username from libertarian, and another poster pledged to follow him around the board using his old username. The mods at the time felt this was inappropriate and made a rule against that behavior, for that situation. That rule was never meant to be a blanket prohibition on writing anyone’s username inaccurately.

So, go nuts. It’s the Pit. If we let you call each other twats and ass-lickers, it seems silly to warn you for changing Poster to Postard or whatever.

I would ask, however, that you refrain from changing usernames in quote attributions. I don’t know what the mod consensus would be in terms of warning such behavior, but it’s certainly borderline, so better not to do it. Cool?

2

yep. thanks giruff

3

Other than the Lib thing, was this a problem?

4

I wouldn’t think someone with your username could ever see it as a problem. :slight_smile:

I have occasionally seen it come up in pit threads.

5

…

6

Ooh… you’re a bad egg.

7

I seem to remember it being a problem with since-banned Aldebaran as well, where some people were calling him “Deb” much to his ire.

8

Garr… I hate being beaten to the obvious jokes!!!

9

jokes like that tend to scramble my brain

10

Didn’t this become an issue with Karl? Karl [something], with the latex division?

11

well, this was recent, there did seem to be some confusion about the rule

12

Kel Varnsen, Latex Division. He used to get annoyed that people would often misread his name as “Karl”, and it was eventually used to bait him.

13

So does the “don’t call Liberal libertarian” rule apply just to this one poster who followed him around, or does it apply to everyone? If the latter, then why is Liberal the only one to whom this “feel free to modify usernames in the Pit” right doesn’t apply?

14

It’s against the rules to refuse to acknowledge someone’s name change and to make a policy of refering them by their old name. Although to my knowledge it’s only ever come up with Liberal and what’s-his-name, the behavior was deemed to be jerkish and would be equally prohibited toward any other poster who changed his/her username, if one were to make a habit of calling them by the old name.

You’re welcome to modify Liberal’s username in a Pit thread just as you would anyone else’s.

Does that make sense?

15

So the problem wasn’t with changing Liberal’s username, the problem was with being a prick about it. Gotcha ya.

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Liberal Liberal Bo Biberal Banana Fana Fo Fiberal Fee Fi Fo Fiberal…LIBERAL!

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So, if I get your drift, someone could then Pit Lib and could refer to him as** Liberaltarian**?

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Not that it would matter much, seeing as after his recent suspension he’s vowed to stay out of the Pit. I guess you could always Pit him in absentia, though…

19

Not true.

I had no intention of “following him around the boards.” In fact, if you do a search, you’ll find you could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve even addressed Liberal in any subsequent discussion.

I acknowledged in that long-ago pitting that referring to him by his old username was, in fact, namecalling, by “pledging” to do so only in the Pit.

I don’t mean to stir anything up here. I have no intention of breaking the injuction, even though it now appears that it may have been based on a misreading of my post.

Just fighting ignorance.

20

Let’s do Tuckerfan!!