[Wikipedia-l] Getting rid of nicknames

Fri May 16 20:41:53 UTC 2003

On 5/16/03 4:29 PM, "Lee Daniel Crocker" <lee at piclab.com> wrote:

>> (Axel Boldt <axelboldt at yahoo.com>):
>> 
>> If I remember correctly, we initially implemented nicknames to
>> accomodate users with offensive user names. This issue is now moot,
>> since by consensus offensive user names are not allowed anymore.
> 
> Actually, I implemented the feature just because I wanted it.
> I still think it's useful--I want my user page to be headed by
> a complete name, but using that long name in attributing comments
> seems like overkill. Plus, it gives people the ability to
> personalize a bit while not hiding behind a psudonym entirely.
> 
> Like many features of the software, I think this one just gives
> us a greater opportunity to judge the character of the user: if
> someone changes nicknames to deliberately obscure the attribution
> of comments, then we know how seriously to take those comments.
> 
> If users seriously abuse any feature of the software and disrupt
> our goals, we can consider taking action. But I don't see this
> particular feature as more abusable than any other.

I'd say that people have been seriously abusing the nickname function.
People really should not have nicknames that are significantly different
from their usernames.

People should not use nicknames that closely resemble other people's
usernames.

People should not use unpronounceable nicknames.

People should not use nicknames that are made up of non-alphabetical
characters.

Etc.