Are there any restrictions on the choice of usernames - apart from the usual coding restrictions? What I mean is, could someone register with the name grimpixe (or something equally close to my name) and go around belching hatred and filth, leaving me to recieve the abuse by those who didn’t notice the difference???
There’s no technical restrictions on such things, if that’s what you’re asking, but the mods wouldn’t stand for it. There have been a few cases of two people randomly picking similar names (nothing so uncommon as “grimpixie”, of course), with the usual result being that one or both of them requests a name change from one of the Goddesses to avoid confusion.
Before the most recent upgrades, there was a bug in the software that made this type of thing very easy, and was exploited by a rash of troll(s) for a few months.
You can have your posting privileges removed without having it say “BANNED” under your name. It’s considered more discreet. The word “BANNED” tends to spawn a lot of noisy “why was so-and-so banned?” Pit threads.
And, having your posting privileges removed just means that Lynn’s standing there with arms akimbo, waiting for an explanation. “Well?” she demands. “What’s your excuse this time?” Her cousin Vinny is out in center field, waiting to catch your severed head on a high pop fly.
If you provide a proper explanation, Vinny just has to keep standing there, humming along with the scoreboard music.
But if you’re BANNED, then Vinny already has your head in his glove and is jogging towards the clubhouse.