Should I change my username?
Inspired by @Seek :/
One of Seek’s reasons to change her user name is “It was really easy to google-search me under [my] old name”.
Yesterday I was a little bored and read @Seek’s profile for kicks. Somehow that statement interested me. I did a quick Google search for my username and woa, everything I asked here filled the Google’s page!
I’m considering seriously whether to change my username, as my Fluther activities’ being displayed on Google search somehow leaves me insecure. Should I change my username? Or am I over-anxious? Side note: I sometimes overthink things.
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19 Answers
Changing your username will not disconnect you from previous posts. Your name on those previous posts will be changed as well, automatically.
heh and I believe I pushed Seek over the edge into changing her name.
For me, it was the fact that the username I had on here was exactly the same as my username for everything else. That made it really easy for people to connect all the dots. I decided to pick a handle I didn’t use for any other site and one that was common enough that other people may have it as well on other sites or something popular enough that this site gets buried in the results.
The thing is you change it doesn’t change the @Mimishu1995 mentions in the question. Your username can be different but it is still pretty obvious who is being responded to.
When I changed my username I was nudged into not making it so different that it would be totally unrecognizable.
The funny thing is that when I had them change the old johnpowell account to something else it opened johnpowell back up. So I was able to register as johnpowell and start from scratch with my old posts under a different name on a closed account. This seems like a pretty big bug if you ask me.
So I will put it into action. Please don’t ban me for pointing this out again for the tenth damn time.
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And since this bug will probably never get fixed I think it would be best to just not allow changing usernames.
@Mimishu1995 :: Just to make it clear. I was able to fake being Seek. That wasn’t actually her.
@johnpowell I was a little suspicious when I saw “her” avatar :p
I’m… going to email Ben right now.
It’s vital to stay the same.
Mine won’t come up on a google search and it’s my real name. To many Judi’s to choose from.
@Judi Heh, if I could go back in time now and change my username, my username would be something like “Mafia”. Too many Mafia to choose from :D
Thanks, @PhiNotPi
Really, it’s not something I’m terribly concerned about on a personal level. I more wanted to be able to allow people I know IRL to join Fluther without all the dirt I’ve talked about them in the past surfacing. So, unless one of them tries to open a sock puppet in my own name, I’m cool.
But yeah, that’s a pretty darned big bug.
@SeekPowell That… is crazy.
@dappled_leaves :: The fucked thing is astute members here will notice. Google doesn’t.
Okay, got a reply from Ben. Basically, the current work-around is to create a new account with the old username and ban it. This is obviously not a large-scale solution, but this is something we can do, given that programming development is unlikely.
@PhiNotPi My change-my-username willpower kind of diminish right now…
That actually sounds reasonable. I would hope this isn’t something you have to do that often and it should only takes a few minutes.
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