[WikiEN-l] Controversial user nicknames

Wed Aug 27 15:57:54 UTC 2003

There are a lot of Adam Bishops too, I even went to high school with another 
one. If there was a real name policy, maybe it would have to include middle 
names, even though that wouldn't always solve the problem either (but I 
don't think there should be a real-name policy anyway :))

>From: Vicki Rosenzweig <vr at redbird.org>
>Reply-To: Discussion list for English-language 
>Wikipedia<wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
>To: Discussion list for English-language Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
>Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Controversial user nicknames
>Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 08:00:58 -0400
>
>At 09:57 AM 8/27/03 +0100, sannse wrote:
>>Adam Bishop  wrote:
>>
>>
>> > How would you stop people from creating fake "real" names? They could 
>>just
>> > use the random name generator that Tim Starling posted on Saddam 
>>Hussein's
>> > talk page.
>>
>>As I understand it, the way the "use real names" policy is used elsewhere 
>>is
>>to simply ask new users if the name they are using is theirs.  So the 
>>choice
>>is to either use a real name or to lie.  This doesn't seem that useful to
>>me, those likely to cause trouble are the same people as those likely to
>>lie.  For myself, I don't wish to use my real name and I wouldn't lie - so 
>>I
>>would not participate in a community with a "use real names" policy.
>
>There's another problem with "use real names." I'm using mine. If the other
>Vicki Rosenzweig I'm aware of wants to participate in Wikipedia, I doubt
>either of us would think it a good idea for her to edit as "Vicki 
>Rosenzweig 2".
>
>And that's with an unusual name: there are a *lot* of "John Smith"s out 
>there.
>--
>Vicki Rosenzweig
>vr at redbird.org
>http://www.redbird.org
>
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