User name confusion..

[BertrandRussell]

There is now a poster using the name @BertrandRusselI- which is a bit confusing. Is that OK? I think I had the name first (aware that sounds a bit playgroundy) and I might be confusing.

I always think of BertrandRussell from the 11plus forum when I see the MN one. Certainly not a chocolate teapot there either.

MN will sort it

Well hopefully. If the new account isn't intentionally mimicking Bert then the overlap of interest areas is quite an amazing coincidence.

She's stopped posting now, so presumably problem solved.....

swaylortift seriously?

Bertrand- perhaps it's an issue wider than MN if there's a BertrandRussell on the 11+ forum?

I was just coming onto this thread to post that we'll now something rum is going on when BertrandRussell starts posting about "super faith primary" schools or "lovely Grammar" schools!

The real Bertie is inspirational. I think she's quite ace, grumpy but ace. You can't mimic that.

if I contributed to s&b it would be a bit like that.

I do picture you in tweed!

I did used to post on the 11+ forum- but under another name. But I think it's just coincidence- it is just the sort of user name the pretentious pseudo-intellectual arrogant know alls over there would choose......

On the App, it begins to suggest the posters name as you start to type, and the only option coming up now is the real @BertrandRussell so either the imposter has deregged or MNHQ have banned them.

Hi there everyone,

Thanks for your concern about this - we have made a note of your suggestions.

We can't give any more detail than this, but we want to let you know that we did get in touch with the user in questions, and they have name changed. Whilst we do understand your concern that this poster might have been intentionally impersonating BertrandRussell, we have no reason other than the username to think this is the case - so it's possible it was just a genuine mistake by a new user.

Bit of a mistake isn’t it, it comes up “this username is taken”, to change one letter only seems a bit deliberate...

Aah well, all’s well that ends well.

To be fair, though, there must be literally millions of usernames on the MN system by now, with the vast majority of them being unused in practice - e.g. because they belong to lurkers, or someone who name changes regularly and has not intention of reusing any names, or someone who's just buggered off. They might have assumed that that was the case in relation to BR. Obviously you can check whether a name's in regular use by using AS, but not everyone knows that.

You would not use an uppercase i unless you intentionally wanted it to resemble an L. It just not as natural a thought process as Russell02 etc.
Regardless it's resolved for the moment and I suspect it will be addressed fully by MN as this is an age old problem on IRC (internet relay chat) and many other platforms long before MN.

I suppose I am slightly concerned because she didn't come across to this thread when I asked her to. If it was a genuine coincidence I would have thought she would. But hey ho.

Bertie's is not diminished with dilution!

Bertie's mojo!

TBF, she may have been mortified if genuine.

I'm sad now this didn't give rise to a philosophical counterpart to Mortificado. Though it might have been less fun on account of fewer dragons etc.

Or a philosoph-off. Syllogisms at 30 paces...

This isn’t a new problem it seems

Just briefly returned to my favourite old name because I see that Gaspodethetalkingdog is posting a fair bit. I did point out when I first saw that username how similar it was to mine, but got no response. I don't think the other Gasp and I would agree on many things, so probably for the best that I namechanged - not for this reason, just thought it was time for a change. Very much hoping that nobody is mixing us up.

Glad you're still around Gasp0de, I thought you'd gone AWOL. I'd been vaguely wondering in the context of this thread if you had 0s because someone had nabbed GaspodeTheWonderDog early on and then not posted - the first discworld name I tried years ago wasn't available but I've never seen it used.

I read this thread the other day and thought it must be uncomfortable to have someone posting with such a similar username to you.
I've just read a post by Catspyjamazzzz and thought "I don't remember writing that"
I know it's not nearly as similar as Bertrand's doppelganger but if I had to think about it then I'm sure others will read it wrongly too.
I think I've had this name since the last data theft and I'm quite fond of it.

I'm fairly well known on another forum, and have been using the same unusual name on there for quite a few years. As my nn is so well known on there (and a lot of people have met me in rl and know it's me), I decided to open a gmail account with that name as well, just to stop anyone else from taking it.