# A note from Cecil Adams about The Straight Dope
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [June 28, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891 "2018-06-28T03:20:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 13
### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/241 "2018-07-06T17:09:08Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#):
>
> You have to supply your own mortarboard.
>
> (You think I made that up.)
Oh, I have mortarboards aplenty [she muttered darkly.] And tams. So many tams.
---
### Author:  [@xpander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xpander)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2018, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/242 "2018-07-06T17:45:41Z")
Has a crowdfunded column been posed to Cecil? Even a monthly column seems feasible.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/243 "2018-07-06T17:48:27Z")
> [@xpander](#):
>
> Has a crowdfunded column been posed to Cecil? Even a monthly column seems feasible.
Would we have to call it something else, since the column and/or name “Straight Dope” is owned?
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### Author:  [@xpander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xpander)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2018, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/244 "2018-07-06T17:56:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Would we have to call it something else, since the column and/or name “Straight Dope” is owned?
Possibly, if it’s IP owned by someone else. But putting Cecil Zotti’s name in the column’s name wouldn’t be bad move.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/245 "2018-07-06T18:08:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Would we have to call it something else, since the column and/or name “Straight Dope” is owned?
It appears that the names “The Straight Dope” and “Cecil Adams” are both trademarked by _The Chicago Reader,_
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/246 "2018-07-06T18:19:50Z")
Zotti’s Bodies! “We’re known for our brains.”
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### Author:  [@The\_Cabbage\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Cabbage_Man)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2018, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/247 "2018-07-06T23:19:52Z")
Thank you Cecil and Ed for more than 40 years of The Straight Dope. I first read it when I was in college in the early 70s and have continued whenever I could find a copy of The Reader and more recently on the SDMB.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/248 "2018-07-08T20:06:53Z")
> [@MsWhich](#):
>
> MsWhatsit here. (Changed my username when a tweet of mine went viral and I was briefly worried about being doxed.)…
[hijack]
Interesting. I think the mods go apeshit about changing usernames–although I remember something about **Siam**. I wonder how much persuasion they needed.
[/hijack]
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/249 "2018-07-08T20:51:34Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> [hijack]
>
> Interesting. I think the mods go apeshit about changing usernames–although I remember something about **Siam**. I wonder how much persuasion they needed.
>
> [/hijack]
Plenty of posters have had name changes. They just discourage multiple name changes as I recall.
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/250 "2018-07-08T21:03:59Z")
The name change policy is now noted in ATMB, please see here:
[https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=858301](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=858301)
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/251 "2018-07-08T21:05:31Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> [hijack]
>
> Interesting. I think the mods go apeshit about changing usernames–although I remember something about **Siam**. I wonder how much persuasion they needed.
>
> [/hijack]
When my email address changed, I simply sent the mods an email asking them to change my username when they got a chance. They actually did it within a day or two, and also changed all my previous posts to my new username. No particular problem at all.
If the system had allowed me to use my name instead of email as my username, I never would have had to change it at all. I don’t understand why an honest person would use an alias when online anyway.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/252 "2018-07-08T21:13:28Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> [hijack]
>
> Interesting. I think the mods go apeshit about changing usernames–although I remember something about **Siam**. I wonder how much persuasion they needed.
>
> [/hijack]
No, it’s never been an issue. It was just a process to step through. We discouraged multiple changes, but it was generally never a big deal.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/253 "2018-07-08T21:20:44Z")
Holy Crap! I make a parenthetical aside–worse, in fact, a hijack–and within the hour not only the Administrator responds, not even with a Ding from On High, but with a sticky exploring the issue!
1. Now that’s some new Administration.
2. I feel kind of warm and glow-y that an issue I raised in ATMB made it to the big time.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/254 "2018-07-08T21:28:07Z")
[As long as we’re along this merry hijack, I do not like it username changes in principle at all, for the same reasons I raised lightheartedly about the ability to change Custom Titles: I think it important that the biographical (source) and bibliographical continuity in these Chronicles of Internet Thought be maintained, even if anonymously.
I do understand that if **LovesSamMadly** just missed being assassinated by Sam, that username-RL poster charitably could be accommodated. (Bibliographical research deals with name changes anyway.)
But **Leaffan** it is.]
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/255 "2018-07-08T21:29:21Z")
Let’s leave me out of this.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/256 "2018-07-08T21:38:33Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Holy Crap! I make a parenthetical aside–worse, in fact, a hijack–and within the hour not only the Administrator responds, not even with a Ding from On High, but with a sticky exploring the issue!
>
> 1. Now that’s some new Administration.
>
> 2. I feel kind of warm and glow-y that an issue I raised in ATMB made it to the big time.
FWIW, the post Tuba made is essentially the process we’ve always had. We just encouraged posters to reach out to a Mod first, we verified the email, and then we passed the name request on to Ed.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/257 "2018-07-08T21:53:20Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> I do understand that if **LovesSamMadly** just missed being assassinated by Sam, that username-RL poster charitably could be accommodated. (Bibliographical research deals with name changes anyway.)
>
> But **Leaffan** it is.]
Someone want to run this through the **Leo Bloom** to English translator form me?
---
### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/258 "2018-07-08T22:16:25Z")
I think he’s saying if you have a truly unfortunate name and for some reason need it changed it’s ok with him if you change it.
But ‘Leaffan’ has to keep his handle no matter how bad the Maple Leafs are playing.
Plus he’s happy Tuba made a sticky on it.
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### Author:  [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/259 "2018-07-09T01:27:34Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#):
>
> If the system had allowed me to use my name instead of email as my username, I never would have had to change it at all. I don’t understand why an honest person would use an alias when online anyway.
What system?
---
### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-note-from-cecil-adams-about-the-straight-dope/816891/260 "2018-07-09T01:48:45Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#):
>
> If the system had allowed me to use my name instead of email as my username, I never would have had to change it at all. I don’t understand why an honest person would use an alias when online anyway.
Look up the term [“doxing”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing)
That’s aside from people dealing with stalkers and the like.
That sort of thing might give you some idea.
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