to think that the "name changing" facility may not be such a good idea..

[MindyMacready]

While I completely understand the need for certain postings to remain anonymous, has time come to review the ease of name changing on this forum. Maybe a system that allows the poster to have one and only alternative ID for a limited timespan before reverting back to the original. If the contributor then needs to post anon at a later time, another temporary (system generated?) ID could be given etc...

It might put a halt to the multiple personalities that have appeared on some recent threads.

Thoughts...

BTW, I openly admit to having changed my name several times over yhe year or so, initially because my original postings lead to easily to me RL identity. After that, just for the fun of it.

That'd be no fun though. I quite like the multiple personalities.

or maybe more simply, one name per thread?

I agree it definitely seems to get abused.

It's one thing to name change because you're posting something very personal...but the "I've name changed incase people disagree with me" sort of threads really get on my norks.

If you've got a opinion important enough to post, surely you should stand by it instead of being a wuss at the thought people might disagree.

why do people give a shit. if it bothers you this much you need a hobby

I think people who name change to be vile are total scum and should be banned for ever. And kicked as they leave. And talked about in the same breath as muggers and murderers.
Spineless scumbags.

There is no need to remove the name change facility. MN has a list of talk guidelines that state you are not to namechange to post on the same thread you are already part of (sock puppetry)
Now whilst there are the odd thread where people namechange for hilarious piss take purposes and should be given the benefit of the doubt, when someone is posting with name changes for the deliberate action of causing trouble then the name change should be reverted and the posts should stand in the "normal" MN name.

We don't need knew guidelines, we just need the ones that already stand to be enforced.

I like name-changing, this is a new one for me.

twirls<

But name-changing because you are too much of a yellow belly to post in your usual name is pants.
But people would find a way around it anyway. Just sign up with a fake account.
So banning it wouldn't help if someone was determined to be nasty.

when someone is posting with name changes for the deliberate action of causing trouble then the name change should be reverted and the posts should stand in the "normal" MN name

Omg that would be hilarious

Can you post multiple times on a thread with different personas then? I thought it caused meltdown in MN HQ if that happened.

So I could start a thread that no one but me would be interested in and then argue with myself?

That would be fab

It's not a good idea to give the little voices their own name, exit.

This way madness lies.

voice of experience

Oh I bloody love the idea of that, imagine their humiliation !!

It isn't me .

Glad you agree

a new name for deeply personal shit is fair enough, especially if you're worried a RL person might spot you and therefore know all the other posts are you too, but as far as just 'hey, i have an opinion i'm ashamed of' then i don't understand. what does it matter which name people disagree with you under? can only suppose because they've made friends and don't want those friends to actually know and judge them on their full personality. which is sneaky.

Who could be arsed though really?

I always have a little snigger when I see the words...

"I've namechanged but I'm a regular"

Afraid to give an opinion in their recognised name, but desperate not to be thought a 'newbie (spit)'

Not that I recognise much, I like this site because I mainly read 'posts' rather than 'names' iyswim

i love it when someone starts a thread trying to enlighten us all to our bad ways!! and then nobody agrees with it!

I was triggered in to puzzling over this by the comments made today by WWIFN on another thread.

Exit, isn't that what they used to do before MN got popular?

I don't see a reason for removing it. If you suspect someone has namechanged to post on their own thread for trolling reasons, just report the post, MNHQ can check then and delete them and/or take action against the poster in question.

Question: You know how an op's posts show up in a different colour so that you can recognize them? What if the op name changes and posts again? Will it still show up in a different colour to the rest of the thread?

Not this old chestnut again.

What is WWIFN?

MN has namechanging. It is brilliant. If you don't like it go to a different forum. etc etc blah blah blah

fuzzy OP highlighting only works on posts from the same name