# Board Culture: Bolding User Names **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 30, 2012, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531 "2012-05-30T11:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/1 "2012-05-30T11:01:08Z")
Could I have the next paragraph added to the Board Etiquette sticky, please? It has been a longtime element of the board “culture” that members’ names referenced in posts are bolded. There is no rule mandating this; it is simply a matter of courtesy to other members. The reasons are several: it makes it easy for someone scanning a long thread for a reference to a person to find that reference; and it can help to prevent ambiguity when the member name might be taken as a common noun; especially if a self-deprecating member name might otherwise be taken as a rule-breaking insult. A really good example of its value is “Nobody in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=653489) is concerned about Syria” (false) vs. “ **Nobody** in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=653489) is concerned about Syria” (true; the member using **Nobody** as a board name opened the thread to express tjat concern). This should show clearly the value of bolding the member names. I’ve thought for some time that addressing that custom in the FAQs was a good move that I ought to suggest; reading **Nobody** ’s thread crystallized my motivation to suggest it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/2 "2012-05-30T11:21:55Z")
People do it when they think it’s useful. I don’t think that it should be part of any official list of best practices. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/3 "2012-05-30T11:59:09Z")
I agree with Polycarp. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/4 "2012-05-30T12:19:16Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > People do it when they think it’s useful. I don’t think that it should be part of any official list of best practices. Maybe I should resurrect my old “[Unwritten Rules](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=388545&highlight=unwritten+rules)” thread (which actually got zombified and then locked)… Not sure if it should go here or in MPSIMS (where the original went), tho. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/5 "2012-05-30T12:25:39Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I agree with Polycarp. > > Regards, > Shodan I’m having trouble seeing what you did there. 😛 I generally bold, but in short sentences or when it draws more emphasis to the poster than the thought, I’ll sometimes leave it plain text. Another situation is where a poster and an off-board name are being used together–it can make for odd-looking sentence structure. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/6 "2012-05-30T12:48:54Z")
Bolding is a good idea. I do it almost automatically. But correct spelling is more important for people who do “vanity searches” to see where they have been mentioned (whether or not they have posted in that thread) and a bolded and misspelled name is worse than useless. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/7 "2012-05-30T13:35:33Z")
I used to bold, now I don’t so much. Maybe I’ll take it up again. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/8 "2012-05-30T14:10:56Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I used to bold, now I don’t so much. Maybe I’ll take it up again. I tried to quit once, but I gained weight. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/9 "2012-05-30T14:29:18Z")
I think I did it once or twice but gave up. If you want to see if your name is in a thread, search the thread for your name. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/10 "2012-05-30T15:39:13Z")
if i could be so bold to agree it is a good idea. it happens to the ID when you quote. this would be consistent with that when referring to a person without using the quote function. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/11 "2012-05-30T15:41:16Z")
I got “in trouble” one time from a full of themselves poster for not bolding their name. Needless to say I often don’t bold anymore. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/12 "2012-05-30T16:02:48Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I got “in trouble” one time from a full of themselves poster for not bolding their name. Needless to say I often don’t bold anymore. I fail to understand your logic. I can see the desire to punish the one person who is full of themselves, but not letting that affect everyone else. Besides, not bolding one person’s username as a veiled attack is precisely the passive aggressive crap I could see some posters doing. Anyways, I think it’s a good idea for a myriad of reasons. For one, it makes it easier to make a lowercase name stand out. It conveys a little extra bit of information. It allows a poster to quickly scroll through a thread rather than use search every single time. But, most importantly, it’s a clear part of the culture of the board, and to not use it is to create distance between yourself and the rest of the community. It would be akin to typing in all lowercase without puncutation or, worse, textspeak. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/13 "2012-05-30T16:20:50Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It would be akin to typing in all lowercase without puncutation or, worse, textspeak. I don’t consider these to be “akin” at all. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/14 "2012-05-30T16:22:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Besides, not bolding one person’s username as a veiled attack is precisely the passive aggressive crap I could see some posters doing. Yep. But If I use your username it is most very likely going to be right after I QUOTED you. Or its going to be right off the bat in my post. Usually both. It’s not going to be buried in the middle of a two page diatribe in tiny lower case print. IMO if you are not following the whole conversation, but just the ones that OMG have your name in it thats rather silly and shallow and more importantly not my problem (Baring of course posters you generally ignore, in which case why do you WANT to respond to them? Reminds of a funny event recently. Some brand new thread had a key word in the title thats part of a posters name. They responded to that thread so very very fast even though it actually had nothing to do with them. So, either it was rare dumb luck they ran across it right after it was posted or they run"vanity checks" around here nearly continously. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/15 "2012-05-30T16:28:22Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > People do it when they think it’s useful. I don’t think that it should be part of any official list of best practices. I think more posters are reading the boards from phones or iPads, and some are using the Tapatalk app, which makes bolding the usernames more difficult. I do it when I can, but sometimes I just can’t depending on the device I’m using. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/16 "2012-05-30T18:23:55Z")
I do it mostly because some usernames are goofy things that don’t look like names - like phrases, or lowercase common words. I bold them to help make them distinct as usernames. Thus consistency compels me to bold other usernames. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/17 "2012-05-30T18:27:26Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I think more posters are reading the boards from phones or iPads, and some are using the Tapatalk app, which makes bolding the usernames more difficult. I do it when I can, but sometimes I just can’t depending on the device I’m using. Yeah, I habitually bold usernames, but when I’m posting from my phone, doing UBB code is such a major pain in the ass that I usually don’t bother. I do think it wouldn’t hurt to have it somewhere in a FAQ, though – not necessarily as a “best practice” sort of thing, but just to let people know what the deal is. I remember, lo these many years ago, when I was new to the boards, wondering if the software did that automatically or what. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/18 "2012-05-30T19:03:45Z")
Never got into the habit, especially since it seems more a personal choice than a general norm on this board. I suppose if most posters started doing it I’d probably go along, however, as long as I’m at home and posting from a computer, and not on the road posting from my phone or iPad (the later pf which seems the norm lately, unfortunately). -XT ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/19 "2012-05-30T19:52:40Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Never got into the habit, especially since it seems more a personal choice than a general norm on this board. Note that when one uses the board autoquote function, the username is bolded. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531/20 "2012-05-30T20:09:18Z")
Is it really that big a deal to need a rule? As it happens I do bold user names but I see no pressing reason that I should be _required_ so to do. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-culture-bolding-user-names/623531.md?page=2)