You should disallow leading blanks in usernames.
I guess I was the first to do this, but now that " BANNED" was dropped, I’d hate to see further examples, as it does cause confusion.
(Long story, please skip. Proposal itself is above.
When I was first deciding on what username to pick, I happened to say BANNED would be cool. Then I went to class and my roommate took it. He thought I’d passed on it. But once I realized blanks were in the middle of names I tried one at the front and got " BANNED". This worked out fine, until I was told it wasn’t working out fine, so he gave me BANNED and took another. Now, don’t you wish you’d stopped reading up there?)
While you’re at it, you should also disallow consecutive whitespace characters, trailing whitespace, and all useage of character #160 ( ), which looks just like a blank space. Any of these could be used to mimic some or all usernames.
I have a symbol in my name. I tried a blank and got a broken link to log in with and had to change it. (The problem was noted somewhere around here.)
You have a ligature in your name, when spelt properly.
The people and the other smiley are very nice people, certainly nicer than you.
Lots of names have digits and a few have other punctuation.
Some have accents to be authentic.
I would go so far as to say blanks alone wouldn’t be a problem as long as they were visible. On some boards, the name is a white zone in a pastel background, and this blanks are never a problem.
The only problem is Masquerading, but this board won’t show the IP-#s they log (as has been mentioned elsewhere here).
When they do, the point of that game is lost and no rules are needed.
The singer Prince is a fool, as before and after his name change, but his name wasn’t an actual problem for anyone that I could see, just a topic of curiosity.
I would like to see this rule discussed with logic, not just steam.
Show_Biz: Characters in general are not a problem in usernames. The only place it’s a problem is where it allows for masquerading, as you mentioned. Specific things that could allow for masquerading include multiple consecutive blanks, leading blanks, trailing blanks, and characters that look like blanks. For example, if I spelled Wood Thrush’s name with two spaces in the middle, instead of one, or I used the funny character that I mentioned, it would look exactly the same. Examples:
Wood Thrush
(normal)
Wood Thrush
(leading blank)
Wood Thrush
(trailing blank)
Wood Thrush
(space replaced by char #160)
Wood Thrush
(two spaces in the middle)
All of these names look the same, but the system will treat them as different. Underscores, accented letters, parentheses, etc. don’t cause a problem.
As for the suggestion to make the IP’s visible to all, I don’t think that that would help. It’d be another step to verify a person’s identity, and many people wouldn’t even know how to use them. Further, they’re unreliable: The same person may have several completely different IP’s, but multiple people (using a public computer lab, for instance) might all have the same one.
Chronos - My name has two blanks in the middle. I had the same problem as Show_Biz, and couldn’t get into my account, so I tried with 2 blanks and it worked. Some things will never be clear to me, and I just try not to worry about it.
(Can I drink on this message board? Better go back to MPSIMS now)
The way this sentence is written leads me to believe that either you can’t write English very well, or you are an idiot. Either way I probably shouldn’t pick on you, so I’ll just limit my comments here.
I gather that you think that other people here are nicer that I am. What a perceptive fellow you are. What made you think I am not aware of that or care very much? For that matter what are you commenting on it for? Just to start something? What kind of person does that make you seem, eh?
Go right on ahead. We await your erudite discussion breathlessly.
He certainly pegged you. Like I said, special characters aren’t the problem. We have a nice new Australian student (^(oo)^) over at MPSIMS who is nicer than you too. I hope you don’t try to get her banned! I’m in love with her.
You don’t know what a ligature is, when Show_Biz SHOWS it to you? Why do you think he should present more “erudite discussion”? You didn’t comprehend his everyday English.
And, I agree with him, also having a non-letter in MY name!
I know what a ligature means (a pair of joined letters). I however do not spell my name like that. I like my letters seperate thanks. How he spells my name is is preference.
Also, if you walking attitudes would go back and read the thread again, I never made mention of people that have some space or dash or whatever in their name. I simply asked TUBA (not you), about people having only a symbol for a name, as Prince did.
~
and the other smiley are very nice people, certainly nicer than you.