User Name Change

[bUU]

A member got a bit distracted today by my user name (which is a family pet name, made up of letters from my real name, not the English word it appears to be). I'm wondering if it would be possible, in the interest of avoiding such distractions in the future, if my user name can be changed. I've started using bUU as a user name in other forums, perhaps that's the best approach here as well. Thanks.

[Alex Frakt]

I changed it for you.

The best way to request a name change is to send a PM to me or LadyGeek.

[bUU]

Great! Thank you very much.

[sscritic]

Bicker, was this post necessary? It appears your name was changed. I am guessing that occurred because you sent a PM to an administrator, not because you posted here under your new name asking if you can change your name to your new name that you are already using. Now I have myself confused. We need a timeline.

[sscritic]

Nope, the admins stepped in without a PM. Now where does that fit in the timeline?

[sscritic]

P.S. I never worried that others were confused about the critic in my name. I didn't let them force me to change mine. If you like Bicker, you can PM an admin and change it back. Don't let other bogleheads beat you down. That someone else was distracted is their problem, not yours. Hold fast! Stand up for your family pet name! I use a family pet name on another forum, and it doesn't bother me if others get confused. I want them to be confused.

[bUU]

I don't really care for bicker any more than bUU. bicker is who I was - thirty-five years ago if you can believe it. bUU is who I am today, so I'm just as happy to be labeled with something that is closer to reality.

It's funny how when you're picking a user name you don't think very much about how others will perceive it. A friend of mind truncated parts of his name, as in my case. The result for him was something that sounded an awful lot like a well-known celebrity - who had nothing to do with my friend - he wasn't an idol or anything like that - but of course the linkage was so obvious that counter-productive assumptions were made.

Well, at least I thought it was funny.

And just to fill in the timeline, I didn't see any way to PM "the Administrators" and didn't think that I should have just PM'ed one of the Administrators.

[Alex Frakt]

Bicker, was this post necessary? It appears your name was changed. I am guessing that occurred because you sent a PM to an administrator, not because you posted here under your new name asking if you can change your name to your new name that you are already using. Now I have myself confused. We need a timeline.

I changed it based on the original post. When we change a name, it changes on all of the previous posts as well.*

* That's what it looks like anyway, but it's not technically correct. Every time you request a page on the forum, it gets built from scratch by the forum software using the information from our database. When writing out usernames it uses the current name associated with that account. Note that the old name will still appear if it was quoted by someone else, because post contents are just a blob of text to the software. I'm including this info because I know how important accuracy is to you

[Alex Frakt]

And just to fill in the timeline, I didn't see any way to PM "the Administrators" and didn't think that I should have just PM'ed one of the Administrators.

If you are logged in you can find us by clicking on The team link at the bottom right of each forum page. It's admittedly kind of obscure. That's why I publicly responded to your post, so other interested parties could see the answer.

[porcupine]

P.S. I never worried that others were confused about the critic in my name. I didn't let them force me to change mine. If you like Bicker, you can PM an admin and change it back. Don't let other bogleheads beat you down. That someone else was distracted is their problem, not yours. Hold fast! Stand up for your family pet name! I use a family pet name on another forum, and it doesn't bother me if others get confused. I want them to be confused.

True Bogleheads don't bicker over bicker!

BTW, bUU, references to your old posts will still show up as bicker, as H*J (part of username hidden to preserve identity) can attest!!

- Porcupine