On 8/18/05, Phroziac phroziac@gmail.com wrote:
Well, assuming he really is not a sockpuppet of anyone, he probably tried to use the name Ril, found it was in use, and put those dashes in. If he looked at the profile of ril he would have noticed he was banned, right?
You're expecting too much of someone new to the project creating a username. When you have a preferred online 'handle' and you try to register at a site and find your usual name is taken, would you just try a variation on it? I think most of us would. I doubt he looked at the user's page - he just got a 'that name already exists' at the account creation screen.
Anyway, it's probably a bad idea to use any name excessively similar to anyone elses name, in my opinion. But yes, you are somewhat right, and we should assume the name is in good faith. (Is that enough to force a name change by the way, assuming he survives arbcom?)
No, it is not. We do not enforce any 'names must be sufficiently dissimilar' rule between two active users; it would be wrong to make the names of banned users MORE protected than those who contribute to the project.
-Matt