Hijacking of user name!!

Gosh! I wonder what's going on? Who'll be next ladymarydoll or MawBroon10?

Oh, but I have always been a lady, contrary to public opinion.

Thank you marydoll I wondered if I was imagining things!

I do think HQ could be more careful when I complained it was Bluebell and Bluebel1 the last being a figure 1 instead of a letter l which look exactly the same It definitely wasn’t her fault and she was more than happy to change which was lovely
I too would be rather suspicious why the 10 the first option would be to add a 1 or 2 not a 10

The computer should be programmed to recognise /disallow several similar character patterns though Baggs

That would certainly be the ideal. Fat chance with limited tech.

I would have thought anyone joining a forum would have a bit of a lurk to find out what the forum was like before becoming a member?

To add lady in front of a specific username as in yours Jane ‘10’ is too much of a coincidence. Also in the spelling of baggs which stands out clearly in yours Baggs

Can’t remember what the conclusion was exactly when luckygirl brought this confusion over very similar usernames up but GNHQ said they were unable to stop this happening.

Do wonder though if lurkers or new members pay any attention to usernames as I have been addressed as Angus a couple of times?

I think I'll check out and 're register as LadyChewbacca. It has a certain ring to it and is, on reflection, a more apt name for me!

There also seems to be a few "glammas* registered now a user name I have had for 7yrs ,I have also noticed grannybaggs this morning again noticing the spelling of baggs which I would consider a copywrite infringement
against our Baggs

I did contact GNHQ but no response. Wonder if this happens on MN?

Jane10 It seems to be easy to name change on MN for some strange reason.
Hoping you get a reply they may be short staffed over the week-end and not look at it until Monday ?

I've seen Grannybaggs too, but I'm pretty sure I've seen another 'baggs' or 'bags' name recently. Hmm, will have to think about this one....

Got it! It popped into my head just as I'd hit 'post message'! There's someone called 'allsortsofbags' posting. Only one 'g' though.

I posted about this a couple of weeks ago. Someone was objecting because she was Luckylegs7 and objected to my similar original name even though I've been on here for years! I don't understand why admin can't object if names are too similar. It made me feel unsettled.

Now there is a endrel123 which is confusing with elrel
There are many new posters at the moment, and I think there will be some mix ups and confusion.

I sometimes get confused about my own posts?
I have seen posts recently from AnnB, my surname begins with B and because Ann is a common name, I often sign AnnB on cards etc
When I first saw AnnB I thought, I don't member posting that comment.

I know how you feel, ann. A couple of 'kitties' have been around for a while and I get confused. Added to which, someone used PP for PensionPat which are my RL initials.

Someone up thread (sorry!) mentioned the fact that new posters have presumably previously loitered to establish whether they like GN so it does seem a 'provocative' act.

GNHQ, ought to be able to do something to stop really similar names.

When I joined my username was something I use a lot with 2digits after. I then noticed another poster with the same name and 1digit which was the same as me, very easy to confuse. I then changed name as I did not want mistakes between the other poster and me and also because I felt rather identifiable.

Agus I’m guessing you’re name was auto-corrected to Angus. It does this on my iPad.
When choosing a new name, as long as it isn’t exactly the same as an existing user, it will let you have it. I think it can be very tricky trying to think up a username if you don’t visit forums very often.
Jane is probably THE most common first name amongst my peers so I think it’s a bit mean to cast aspersions at this stage. Plus with others wading in and agreeing, it smacks of belonging to a clique to suggest that people can’t choose similar names.
If someone is deliberately trying to undermine you, wait until you have concrete evidence and let the site moderators deal with it properly.

Not sure if this would work? Could GN should have an advice paragraph for new people when registering. They should suggest the newcomer searches on gransnet, before deciding on their own user name. Then if, say, another Jane came up, they would be strongly encouraged to choose a totally different name, not just a number or two after. I an sure GN could sort this if they wanted to.

Craicon. There are already several Janes on GN. Absolutely fine, they add different things to the Jane. It's the odd addition of the 10 that struck me as odd.

Yup. craicon has confirmed what I said. It's done by computer character recognition. If one character is different from a username already in use, the new one, with only one character difference, will be allowed.

There could be a dozen reasons for having a 10 after the name Jane.

You'll notice I'm not asking you what your reason is, Jane10

I bet that if someone who's bothered by the current algorithm's weaknesses offered to write a better one for free, GNHQ would happily adopt it.

But no-one would offer to do it for free because it would be quite hard to do.

For all we know there were already some LadyJane variations, just people who don't post on the forums.