name changes not allowed -- should be, in some circumstances

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I won't be posting anymore, thanks to the management's refusal to allow me to change my username. I chose MR because it meant something to me and would, I thought, be meaningless to anyone else. Then, after participating here I learned that it's used here to mean mental retardation or mentally ret*d. I think that's good reason to want a different user name. The software doesn't allow regular users to change their own name. And the moderators I've talked to are not willing to do it for me.

There's the option of just creating a new account and using it instead. Problem is, I'm not allowed to do that and be honest about it. I tried. The new account was banned. And I'm just not willing to sneak in and pretend I've never been a member. Because of my honesty, and my choice not to use this name anymore, I'm not allowed to post her anymore. And, frankly, that's pretty sh***y. I shouldn't have to choose between posting under a name that means around here mentally ret*d, not posting anymore, or being dishonest. I should be allowed to have my name changed on this account, or else be allowed to start a new account, and be honest about it.

I won't be around anymore. Posting as MR is not acceptable to me. And I'm not allowed to create a new account so I can use a different name, nor are the moderators to do it for me (or to ask an adminstrator to do it, or refer me to and adminstrator).

MR, read your PMs. I have done as you have requested and sent you how to reach the Admin/owner of the Site and have contacted him in your behalf, as well.

Merle

When something is important to you, it is good to have patience.

It sucks in such cases, but life often sucks. The problem with changing the name on your present account is that it causes problems in dealing with all the posts you've made so far, and the problem in letting you get a new account is that doing so would undermine the rule against creating troll accounts (even though you would not be creating a new account in order to troll). I hope you find a resolution to your problem.

Eh. Alex let his girlfriend have two accounts; it's obviously not unprecedented. In PHPBB you can change a user's name and it will change the name on all of their posts, at least it used to behave like that. It can be bothersome having to announce that MR is now NewUser and can create some confusion, so it's understandable that it's not done very often.

Having someone change the password on your current account to a random jumble of characters would effectively prevent you from using it if you decided to switch accounts; however, patience is best in this case. Taking your ball and going home is silly. IIRC changing a user name requires admin privileges and not just moderator ones.

Just have them ban your current account and have them unban your new account.

How did you get to be 39 years old without knowing that MR can mean mentally ret*d?

firstly, what is wrong with being mentally ret*d? you do not want to be varnished with that brush?. embarrassed?
if you say things that are valid, then it does not matter how your mind is classified.
people can not argue with truth, and that is all that matters.

secondly, you are obviously not mentally ret*d, and anyone who saw your username and used it in a way to indicate you were ret*d would be an idiot that people would ignore, or even admonish.

thirdly, i thought your username meant "mister", and i thought it was witty because just "mister" with no other name is like a "mysterious person".

that is what i think.

Sorry, we don't do that, Spokane_Girl. For more info, I am sure Lau could bore you to tears telling you why.

Merle

I'm 48 and I didn't know! Maybe it is country and culture dependent?

'
I must admit, I am one of the ones that thought MR was Mister. I had no idea that some people used it as a negative comment about mental retardation.

Merle

Exactly. When I saw the username I read it as "Mister". "mentally ret*d" never entered my head. Maybe the op is hypersensitive assuming everyone reads it negatively.

I would only interpret it as "Mister" if it were "Mr" rather than "MR." MR does stand for mentally ret*d, and that has occurred to me when seeing some of MR's posts, but I always assumed it was an unintended coincidence with whatever the name was supposed to mean. I didn't think the poster MR was actually referring to mental retardation.

Maybe changing the name just to be "Mr" would be better? That would not be interpreted as mental retardation. I know other places I have been allow you to change capitalization in your name, but not the name itself.

sure, changing the capitalization is a whole 'nother matter. for example if a member had the user name "therapist" WP can change the capitalization to Therapist, but not to theRapist.


Merle

Mister is how I would have interpreted it as well given the capitalization. Also my first post was written because I was puzzled, not with intent to nail the OP. Orwell's suggestion makes a lot of sense.

I was reading it as Mister, as well. Just FYI. Mental ret*d never occurred to me until MR pointed it out.

I am the queen of a regrettable screen name, having penned DW_a_mom after quite a bit of frustration with having all my better names already taken in the first forum I ever joined. Which was a parenting forum. Which means that DW is commonly used to refer to Darling (or darn) Wife, and many assumed I had no personal identity at all, seemingly referring to myself as just, "wife and mom." I didn't intend the DW to refer to darling wife or anything wife, but so it goes. After a while I just got used to it, and given how no one else would ever be so lame, I can carry it everywhere without anyone else having claimed it before me.

And thus, I am, for now and ever more, on the internet at least,

DW