Multiple Name Changes

I have only name changed once, and that was after the site was hacked and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get my old account up and running.

So I had to create a new account which shows I have only been a member for a short time (whenever the hack was) rather than years.

Made me sad as I liked my old username but someone had joined after me and created a very similar username and made posts I didn't always like, so I suppose in the end it was timely!

Yes, but in that case, ChippedNail, if I had something personal I wanted advice on and name changed for it I would come up as CrappySituation (67) and everyone would think 'first post under that name, lots of other names, must be dodgy'

Even though I'm not what you'd call a 'name changer', I'd still be WorraLiberty(6)

Copied and pasted from my list (I've changed a few numbers around in the secret santas)

WorraLiberty
WorraLorraTurkey
WorraLorraYonis
WorraLiberty
Xmas2013SantaA1109
Xmas2014MN2212

I would be RustyBear (66)

Bear in mind that MNHQ have actively encouraged namechanging for competitions - this is my 11th year on MN and there have been regular Christmas, Easter and Halloween namechange competitions, plus several others for special occasions, such as the Doctor Who themed one for the 50th anniversary. Then one Christmas I decided to do a 12 days of Christmas namechange. Others have been just for fun on a theme on various threads, such as the Terry Prattchett tributes or a thread where we were all translating our names into various languages.

Another time I changed because I wanted advice on the best design for the school website I was creating which obviously would have revealed where I worked. Then some people at work found out my name, so I use a different one for anything personal, but I want to keep RustyBear for most posts

As far as I am aware, I've never been accused of goading, and have never been deleted.

I do agree with Worra that a non-name changing topic would be a good idea.

I don't really see a huge benefit in having the number of name changes in brackets by the name. It can only refer to names that have been active in the last month or so. Unless the number was ridiculously high, I don't see what benefit there is in knowing. It would be easy to be a GF with a very small number of name changes.
And MN can see the name changes so if someone is being a GF, report the post and they can check.

I have 3 current names I'm posting under. This one is used for frivolous stuff, the other 2 are for more serious threads in which I give quite a lot of details about what's going on in my life.

There's no need to, but there's no harm either. I have never posted anything goady or had a post checked or deleted by MNHQ.

The anonymity is nice but I agree it is far too easy to be an arse and get away with it.

Not allowing name changing on a single thread would make sense but I do like having the facility to change it.

I NC when I've said too much under one name but I always stop using previous names. I think I've had about 5 names that I've used and a couple that I did NC to but never used as I changed my mind. If all topics had a 3 month deletion period (with the option to extend this further when posting and certain permanent topics) I'd probably go back to my favourite and stick with it. It'd prevent zombie threads, reduce the amount of storage needed, reduce name changes and keep things fresh because there wouldn't be many iterations of almost identical threads in the archives.

Posters in very vulnerable situations often name change to post in privacy. I don't think it would be helpful to signal to an EA partner that they had at least one other name.

No one needs hundreds of name changes. Maybe one or two but disguise some details if you're that worried.

I have quite a few spares from "seasonal" or event namechanges.

I quite like having the option to change - if I want to post something identifying it's nice to know it isn't too easy to link to 'me'.

Security, privacy, etc.

I have hundreds if namechanged. Never been a GF. Only had about two posts ever deleted.
Some people need to NC.

Yes,thanks Chipped,Is that thread started ** by the GF poster ?

Apparently they couldn't do it as it would have been a 'technical nightmare'

But we were promised they'd look into it, if people still felt the same a few months down the line.

We did feel the same.

HQ ignored the thread being bumped for about a month or so, then eventually came on and ignored the repeated requests.

That's when they said something about they can 'and do' limit name changing

Do yo have a link Chipped?

I just want one topic where name changing is not allowed.

So that people (in that topic at least) build up a posting history and you get to 'know' people, like on other chat forums.

That way when the trolling is at ridiculous levels, you could at least escape to that topic for a while.

I want to be able to somehow relinquish previous usernames that I no longer use as well as being able to see how many usernames a poster has been active under in the past month.