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Original poster

Taking someone else's username

2 replies

ELM8 · 26/07/2022 21:52

I saw an OP come back on a thread from quite a while ago and was wondering.. if you name change, could someone then take your previous username? Then if they posted (if they had the inclination) they could pretend to be the owner of that previous username?

I know that wasn't the case at all on the thread I saw earlier but sometimes when a poster starts a thread there's someone coming on having searched their username bringing up something they've said previously...

Has anyone ever had a time where they suspect the OP is not actually the OP? Is that even possible or do Mumsnet not let you take someone's previous username?

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MNHQ

LilyMumsnet · 26/07/2022 21:57

Hello!

This isn't possible - you own all of your usernames whether you're using them or not!

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 27/07/2022 12:33

Hi again,

Yes, with usernames like the BertrandRussell incident, that was a clear case of trolling and trying to cause trouble so we'd simply ban for that.

We do often have this happening where it's accidental too, however, as @takeitandleaveit describes. It's a tricky one then - if it were causing issues and the posters were posting in the same places we might ask the 'newer' person to that username if they'd mind changing it. Usually we find most people are happy to do that to avoid confusion.

And obviously there are some usernames that are very similar but sort of ubiquitous like the Mumtotwo or UsernamesAllGone type names where it's kind of obvious that there may well be others about and we think most people would opt for something a bit different if they were bothered about having a similar username to someone else.

Hope that all helps explain a bit further. If you ever have a username query like this though, do just drop us a line. We can usually work something out.

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