# People with REALLY long usernames **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 15, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510 "2002-09-15T04:36:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/21 "2002-09-15T17:57:09Z")
Whats the least amount of letters a username can have? Anyone can register under O? Or just a ? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/22 "2002-09-15T18:02:50Z")
I don’t know if there’s a software-imposed limit on how short a username can be, but I know that **tuba** frowns upon usernames that are too short to be searched on. And that’s good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/23 "2002-09-15T18:37:23Z")
Why would that be frowned on? I can’t do a vanity search on my username by searching by keyword, but my the posts I have created can be searched by username which works regardless of the length of the name. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/24 "2002-09-15T18:47:19Z")
**rsa** : I think it’s 'cause it makes it harder to check for a pattern of naughtiness. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/25 "2002-09-15T18:52:46Z")
We have a number of one character posters (and one zero character poster), the majority of which are inactive. A number of those are as follows, for the curious: Name Posts Last Post b 0 Never D 1 10/00 E 2 09/00 G 38 02/01 j 0 Never o 0 Never x 0 Never y 5 10/00 ? 5 06/00 1 0 Never (blank) 0 Never 0 0 Never As for my name, I’ve grown somewhat attached to it. If it had to be changed I’d do it, but until then I’d like to keep it. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/26 "2002-09-15T19:10:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\ ***rsa** : I think it’s 'cause it makes it harder to check for a pattern of naughtiness. > > Fenris \*\* So the board discriminates against those, like myself, who suffer from male pattern naughtiness? ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/27 "2002-09-15T21:19:32Z")
Don’t worry lel and rsa, you can search for your names, just through your profile rather then the search page. When I contacted Tuba about changing my name sometime last year my top name I wanted was Si but she said that 2 letter names were heavily frowned upon and so we went with my 2nd choice (I was smart enough to give her 3) Osiris. For all new users I would suggest finding a name that fits in the 4 to 10 range. And the further you get away from that the less desirable. Of course anything over … 10 gets you nicknamed, eh Cost? Actually it’s not my problem since I also have a 19" set to 1280 by 1024. Oh the wide open spaces. ---
**Author:** ![Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/db5fbb/32.png) [@Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fred)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/28 "2002-09-16T01:32:53Z")
Yay, a mention of me in a thread! The spaces don’t, in fact, let you wrap on the main page; only inside a thread. I feel guilty about my name often, actually. Because whenever I reply, the board stretches the “Last reply” space. I’ve pondered changing it, oh yes, I have. ---
**Author:** ![Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/db5fbb/32.png) [@Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fred)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/29 "2002-09-16T01:39:19Z")
Yay, a mention of me in a thread! The spaces don’t, in fact, let you wrap on the main page; only inside a thread. I feel guilty about my name often, actually. Because whenever I reply, the board stretches the “Last reply” space. I’ve pondered changing it, oh yes, I have. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/30 "2002-09-16T04:05:04Z")
You should change it to **the grim spectre of GREEN death**!! ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/31 "2002-09-16T06:41:56Z")
Apparently, costermongers are responsible for the Cockney accent, which used to be a code of some type. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/unitedcolours/cockneys\_cabbies/cockney\_rhyming.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/unitedcolours/cockneys_cabbies/cockney_rhyming.shtml) Now that’s _alot_ more interesting, to my mind, than the mere fact that it means “barrow boy.” What precisely singled out this piece of information to inspire the user name, one wonders. Of all the things that might be said about costermongers (and WHOA-BABY, what _couldn’t_ be said about them??) he chooses this piece of information not only to share with us, but to remind us of every single time he posts. Or perhaps he was hoping his user name would start an annoying Band Name thread in MPSIMS. No telling, I suppose. Oh, **costermonger means barrow boy** , where have you gone? ---
**Author:** ![coosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@coosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coosa)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/32 "2002-09-16T07:04:55Z")
I think his name would wrap if the underlining was removed. **grim spectre** ’s name wraps on my screen between ‘red’ and ‘death’. Maybe he’s gone somewhere for the weekend? ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/33 "2002-09-20T01:47:05Z")
Uh… we kinda had a SDMB snafu… most of the posts in this thread were deleted… Don’t know where you guys wanna go from here. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/34 "2002-09-20T01:52:31Z")
Uh… we kinda had a SDMB snafu… most of the posts in this thread were deleted… Don’t know where you guys wanna go from here. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/35 "2002-09-20T01:56:12Z")
ok… I only posted once… I’m just doing this as a test ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/36 "2002-09-20T04:11:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lel \* > \*\*As for my name, I’ve grown somewhat attached to it. If it had to be changed I’d do it, but until then I’d like to keep it. \*\* Don’t blame you, the main thing about it is that spelled backwards it seems to be the same, but you and I know that it is totally different. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![A\_wizard\_song\_for\_thee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/46a35a/32.png) [@A\_wizard\_song\_for\_thee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_wizard_song_for_thee)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/37 "2002-09-20T04:12:24Z")
Okay, seeing as how it’s annoying to certain folks here, I’ll change my name as soon as I can think of a good shorter one… ---
**Author:** ![Costermonger\_means\_barrow\_boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Costermonger\_means\_barrow\_boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Costermonger_means_barrow_boy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/38 "2002-09-20T05:09:12Z")
**clayton** - > [@](#): > > Costermonger means barrow boy, for example. > > You ass. > I know you’re new here, but man… What a way to start. > Thanks to you the entire setup of IMHO is messed up, with the “thread started by” column is fucking huge, making the other columns much smaller. > > I don’t know if this bothers anyone else, but it’s annoying to me. You’re the ass in my book. I know you’ve been here too long, but what a way to end up. It’s not messed up on my screen, so how am I supposed to know how it looks on yours? Do you still have your screen set in the default 800x600 (Granny mode)? As for your request for an official comment, it seems to me that you should look on the official rules thread on ATMB, where this is discussed. I have complied with those rules. Even if you hadn’t thought of that, you surely should have considered that the application blank sets the length and that is under board control. Above all, I do not have the longest name by any means, so why single me out? Just to make yourself look like the judge of this? And why a pit thread? Why not just an ATMB question? Afraid you won’t get enough backup that way? And don’t pretend it’s a Serious Question, that’s just in the pit because it’s about a rule. If that were the case, you would have posed a question or a suggestion, not start off calling me an ass, then say I “messed up” and then act superior because you have an earlier signup date. Only a suburban seventeen year old would think like that. And how was I expected to find this anyhow? Someone saw the post where they asked “where has he gone?” and wrote to me that “you should stick up for yourself”. What is this, kindergarten time where you feel it’s fair game to notice the new kid has a “different” name. Is that it, that my name is not American? What really annoys me is that you could have simply emailed me, but instead you chose to offend me in public with what you hoped would be “biting ridicule”, but just came out flat. I think you’re too young to be posting on a public forum. Go back and ask an older sibling to do it for you, and maybe you won’t look so foolish. Maybe your eighteen year old pally Sparc can help you out there. He’ll tell you to go get some M&Ms, eat only the ones with a real nice smiley on them, take a deep breath before you sit down at the computer again, turn on your irony meter and set sarcasm output level to maximum. Now you can post again. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/39 "2002-09-20T05:17:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kniz \* > \*\* > > Don’t blame you, the main thing about it is that spelled backwards it seems to be the same, but you and I know that it is totally different. 🙂 \*\* Yeah, because backwards, it’s **lel**. While on the surface it might look the same as **lel** , you know it’s different, right **kniz**? 😛 (I like the idea of a limit on characters in a name upon registering myself.) ---
**Author:** ![coosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@coosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coosa)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510/40 "2002-09-20T05:39:29Z")
I guess my last post here was eaten by the starving hamsters, so I’ll try again. Through some weird coincidence I actually came across the word ‘costermonger’ in a story I was reading a few days ago. From _Seventy-two Letters_ by Ted Chiang, published in **The Year’s Best SF 6** : > [@](#): > > It was the evening of the following, the sun was setting, and Stratton was strolling across Westminster Bridge as the last remaining **costermongers** were wheeling their barrows of fruit away. I had never encountered the word before and would have had no idea what it meant if **Cmbb** hadn’t just joined the board. Sometimes one learns from the SDMB in strange and mysterious ways. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-really-long-usernames/128510.md?page=3)