Questions tagged [user-names]

For questions regarding user names (display names) and what is allowed in them.

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Why is the wrong username showing up on a CW answer after a user changes names?

An answer to Interesting examples of vacuous / void entities was written, and only edited by, @JonasLinssen: However, the answer shows up as having been written by @PrudiiArca: The text "...
LSpice's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
37 views

How should we respond to user profiles (as opposed to questions or answers) that appear to be spam? [duplicate]

I've come across 10 different MO user profiles that all have very similar usernames that contain the name of a company. None of these users have any activity on the site except for filling out their ...
tparker's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
228 views

Is there a way to `@` exactly one of two users whose names differ, if at all, only by whitespace?

I recently approved an edit to Zeroes of characters of general linear group induced from certain characters of parabolic subgroups by user @math seeker. I approved the edit, which was otherwise ...
LSpice's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
623 views

How to @ a user with non-Latin characters?

When typing comments, it's useful to use the "@" system to alert a user to a comment (and also to make it clear to a 3rd party who you are addressing a comment to, as comments have no "...
Matthew Daws's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
197 views

Ability to flag user accounts as spam

There is currently no method to flag a user account as spam (only posts). However, there is a huge influx of user accounts that are clearly spam (look for the "Autobiographer" badge on the ...
gmvh's user avatar
  • 2,758
10 votes
1 answer
342 views

How to report intrisically spammy user accounts?

Sometimes, I notice that some very odd username is listed on Home as having earned the "Autobiographer" badge, where by "odd" I mean something very much non-mathematical and ...
gmvh's user avatar
  • 2,758
9 votes
2 answers
673 views

Why are usernames not unique?

Fifty users on MO are identified simply by the name Andrew (with a capital A). Perhaps there are even more common names. Most websites require prospective users to register a name distinct from that ...
John Bentin's user avatar
  • 2,427
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

Recognizing identifiable users changing user names

I noticed recently regular users changing usernames (for instance, changing to a username supporting some particular political issue). The purpose of this post is not to discuss whether this should ...
YCor's user avatar
  • 60.1k
27 votes
2 answers
1k views

MO policy regarding pseudonyms that are other people's real name

I have noticed just now that a user has chosen as pseudonym "Alexander Grothendieck", which I'm a bit unconfortable with (the probability that it is also that user's name is extremely low, hence my ...
Thomas Sauvaget's user avatar
29 votes
3 answers
3k views

Celebrity usernames

The question "naive de Rham cohomology fails for singular varieties" (naive de Rham cohomology fails for singular varieties) recently received an apparently useful answer from a user with the name "...
Sam Hopkins's user avatar
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