User names

[Steve0766]

Hi don’t know if anyone can help or shed some light on this for me...
If people name change what happens to their old user name? Does it go into a pot and is free for someone else to select? Or does it still stay associated with the original user of that name?
A really important one for me to find an answer
Thanks

Always stays with you. Once a name has been taken, even if only used once, it can never be used by anyone else.

However, you do only have to change one character to use it so in theory it's possible to masquerade as someone else by using a 0 for an O or adding two letters where their was only one for example. That's massively frowned upon though and I wouldn't be impressed if someone did that to me.

@Pascha I thought this was the case. But really hoped it wasn’t.
Thanks

Hi @Steve0766,

Pascha's absolutely right (thanks @Pascha) - once a username is registered to an account, no one else can ever use that name, even if the poster deregisters their account.

It sounds like you have a specific worry here - you can always drop us a line at [email protected] if you have any further questions.

Looks like a MNer got her username searched by her partner who read all her posts.