On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 7:10 PM, WereSpielChequers <werespielchequers@gmail.com> wrote:

That's a very different subject. The choice is not between pushing things underground and allowing promotional usernames. People can declare a COI without revealing who they are or putting things in their username. Declaring COIs is a good use for userpages. Not least because userpages can be updated as editors shift employment and their COIs change.

In my experience, accounts like that only tend to edit articles about themselves. If I am looking at the article [[Joe's Pizzas]] and I see an editor named User:Joe's Pizzas in the edit history, I know what's what. If it says J. Smith, the link is less obvious.

I agree things are different if User:Millie C. from Acme PR makes 2,000 edits a month and runs for admin. If we allowed accounts named after organisations, their edits should be restricted to the organisation's business. If they wanted to do other edits, they should register a second account and disclose the link.

Andreas