# FYI:  changing usernames to insult people in the Pit

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fyi-changing-usernames-to-insult-people-in-the-pit/338910>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [January 7, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fyi-changing-usernames-to-insult-people-in-the-pit/338910 "2006-01-07T18:22:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fyi-changing-usernames-to-insult-people-in-the-pit/338910/1 "2006-01-07T18:22:26Z")

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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?

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