How would you feel if a newbie has a username that closely resembled yours?
By charms88
@charms88 (7538)
Philippines
May 9, 2007 12:05pm CST
5 days ago, there was a newbie requesting to be added as my friend. I was astounded when I saw her username..."mycharm88." I honestly do not know what to feel. I informed a friend who immediately sent mylot a message to address my concern. Until now, mylot hadn't reply back yet.
Nevertheless, I do not have anything against this new user. It can be "pure coincidence" that she had come up with a username that look ALMOST like mine. We're both females and from the same country. As a matter of fact, the more I look at her name, the more I feel like she's my clone, LOL! What really bothered me is that most of you might confused her as me. This newbie is still right there in my list of friends awaiting for my approval.
If you're in my situation, how would you react? Do you think I have the right to demand that this newbie should change her username? Should I just let the matter drop, accept her as my friend and go on like its nothing? What will you do if you saw someone with a username that looks like yours? Do share your thoughts.
19 people like this
47 responses
@PurpleTeddyBear (6685)
• Canada
9 May 07
Hi Bunny,
Hmmmmm I'm not really sure what to think. It could be a pure coincidence as their are over 90,000 people in mylot now. I'm sure someone will come close to a purpleteddybear at some point too :( It is sad, because you do like to be original but I guess that kind of thing just happens. I don't know what to suggest hun, sorry.
5 people like this
@PurpleTeddyBear (6685)
• Canada
10 May 07
I understand hun, and I'm sorry that the other persons user name is so close to yours. If someone used "mypurple" or "myteddy" like you said I wouldn't be all that upset, but if they used "mypurpleteddybear" or something that close I'd be upset too!
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160697)
• United States
10 May 07
I have seen some other near duplicate names, cannot remember which right now. I do not like it. I would probably wait and see what discussions she replies to, and posts. It would make me feel real creepy, like I was being stalked.
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
9 May 07
I have actually seen this User as she requested with me to but I denied I don't know there was just nothing there
I would actually wait for mylot that is of course if you get a reply or accept her and see what happens
I have to be honest though it did confuse me at first lol
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
9 May 07
Baby you already know how I feel on this issue.
3 people like this
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
9 May 07
No no, not unless you want one. :P
I would have felt the same if I were in your shoes. Maybe quit myLot or something lol.
4 people like this
@misheleen73 (6037)
• United States
10 May 07
There are a lot of people out there. And unless she came into the site before signing up somehow, I don't think it was intentional. If she pops up with a bunny avatar, then we'll sick my monkey/gorilla friends on her. Sometimes when you are signing up for something, you put in a name you want, and it's taken already. Sometimes these are really original names.. or so you think..lol. Just take it as a form of flattery, great minds thinking alike..lol. We all know who the REAL bunny is, no worries my four legged friend !!
3 people like this
@misheleen73 (6037)
• United States
10 May 07
AHA !! I knew it,, you are a monkey on the other site aren't you !! I caught you, you little rascal !! LOL
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
9 May 07
Well it does seem strange that the user has the number 88 as part of her name like you do...but I wouldn't let it bother you much--I've discovered for instance that my user name that I use all over the web, is very common...since I've been using my particular name for so long, I would hate to make up a new one..so I often have to come up with variations of spelling for my name...like pyewackete, pyewackette, pyewackat...uh, you get the idea..
3 people like this
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
10 May 07
No I can understand how you feel..when we chose a user name we do like to think it's uniquely our own..
2 people like this
@ctv101103 (859)
• Philippines
10 May 07
hi charms! i don't really know how i'd feel if i were in your shoes. i'd probably be upset at first but i'm sure the feeling will wear out after sometime.
if it's a mere coincidence or if the person really copied your user name, let it be. don't stress too much about it. it's not worth your time.
cheer up friend! maybe the person just admires/likes you :)
@hcromer (2710)
• United States
9 May 07
There are a lot of people on the internet and sometimes it's hard to find a user name that isn't already taken. My name is Holly Cromer, that's why I chose my name, but on other sites that I'm a member of there are already other people who have hcromer as a user ID. It's just an alias and I don't think that they should have to change their user name because it is similar to yours.
I might wait a while to add this person as a friend if you suspect that they are stalking you in some way, if you watch their discussions and this person isn't stealing your pictures or discussions I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't care if someone had a similar user ID to mine.
3 people like this
@slickcut (8141)
• United States
9 May 07
I really think she copied you.I think it is too close to your name to be acceptable.Im not sure why Mylot did not catch that.Its just like your name except for my..I don't know what i would feel..I really feel it would be much nicer for her to pick something else as a user name.Why not send her a message and see how she responds,if i had requested to be your friend and you sent me that message to please pick something else,i would, and not be offended...I would ask her by private message and i think her reply will determine your drcision to drop or continue the matter.I do think it will be confusing to your friends and could also cause a mistake in your earnings as well.It is really to close to your name not to get mistaken with yours..It could cause both you and her some problems...I do hope you can get it all worked out.
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
10 May 07
Well my username isn't unique at all and I know there are a lot of "other" maddysmommy's out there so it wouldn't really bother me too much! Accepting her as your friend is totally up to you, and um before you do, why don't you find out a bit more about her i.e. message her and talk to her. If you like what you read then by all means accept her. If not, then thats totally up to you too!
3 people like this
@easy888 (10405)
• Australia
15 May 07
Hello,charm88,i do not feel any problem if a new user has a similar nickname with me,i will not ask him/her to change,may be i will even add him/her onto my friend list as he/she may have similar personality with me.I have not seen any members with similar nickname with me,if you see it,just let me know please and i may add them.Thank you.
@okn0tok (569)
• United States
9 May 07
Well,
Its just a name. I thibnk they are similar but also different.
Yours:
Charms88 - would make me think you collect charms or something and were born in 88, or other event of significance in 88.
Theirs:
Mycharm88 - would make me think they are talking about how charming they are and also referring to a birth year or other significant event in 88.
So while they have the same numbers and partially the same word, the meaning differ quite a bit to me.
3 people like this
@RookRocks (381)
• Philippines
10 May 07
Well everyone has a right to his or her own username. But I understand your concern. You could try to message her first asking what led her to choose that username. And you can also wait for a little while longer and watch her future actions on the site. If she chose the name maliciously to damage your rep, then you have a good ground to ask myLot to force the user in changing her name.
However, the fact that she asked you personally to be your friend already cast suspicion on her motivation. How did she came by your name anyway? Did she replied to a post made by you?
@charms88 (7538)
• Philippines
10 May 07
Good question, rookrocks. I actually went through all my threads and didn't see her responded to any of it. That was the first thought that came to my mind too. The first time I checked her profile, she had only one friend on her list. Can you blame me why I will be this uneasy?
@shinjiao (1457)
• China
10 May 07
Well I don't care the new user's name is closely to my username.But I experienced a disgusting thing in a BBS.I read some discussion about a newuser who always started a username closely resembled to other users.And then the guy posted the similar discussion on the BBS.Many users complained in BBS and someone told the guy not to imitate the usernames.I didn't care about this phenomenon till the guy started a username just closely resembled mine.And the worse thing was that the guy also imiated my discussion and posted negative reponses on the BBS.I was so anger about this.I sent messages and told the newuser stop his or her action.And at that time some of the users sent the similar messages to the guy and we decided to joint together to protect our own usernames.Finally, the disgusting usernames disappeared.
@KrazyKlingon (5005)
• United States
12 May 07
This person might actually know you, whether online or not. Check your referrals & see (Uh - you probably already did). I did have someone use a similar name to me - except I invited her. She took her name, Krista, & threw Krazy in front of it.
We both also used to jump into these turns-based strategy Tradewars games, & then team up with the team name of Just Married. You wouldn't believe how mnay people actually fell for it, thinking that we were really newlyweds. It wasn't our intention. We, especially she, thought that it was a great team name to use.
2 people like this
@charms88 (7538)
• Philippines
14 May 07
I don't know her personally and certainly not my referral. This is the first time that I saw her name. I finally have my first referral 3 days ago after my three months tenure here at mylot. To tell you honestly, I don't think I can do what you and your friend did. I must find someone who is a bunny lover to team up with, LOL!
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
10 May 07
Since your username isn't that unique, I'd not worry about it. It looks like you both might like charm bracelets or something??? That's how we usually pick our usernames - it "defines" us. Well, maybe we're not as different as we think we are :)
Now, I think my name is kinda unique and I've never come across anyone else using it. I think if I saw rainydawn that would be ok becuase it would mean something different than reinydawn - although they're promounced the same. reiny and reinydawn have been my nicknames since I was probably a baby so I use them all the time online.
@roque20 (518)
• Philippines
10 May 07
I think if that happens to me i will just dont mind it and of course i will be shocked but i will try to inform the mylot admin to clarify if it will be okay.And after that i will just dont mind it and i will be happy that i have my same new user as long as we posted different discussions.Thats the important.
@totalearnings (1603)
• India
10 May 07
hi charms. i just had a look at the newbie's profile and i dont think theres any that's objectionable to reject the invitation to add as a friend. also her avatar is quiet differennt. i wouldn't mind to accept such newbies anyway.
@charms88 (7538)
• Philippines
10 May 07
I know what you're saying, totalearnings. What I really like to understand here is how she came about to request for my friendship when she had never ever responded to any of my threads before. I normally will respond to a thread from some user here before making a request.
@whyaskq (7523)
• Singapore
11 May 07
Though I would be surprised too if someone were to use almost an identical username as mine. I would think I was one of my usernames. Perhaps it is really "pure coincidence" and she request your friendship probably also because of almost identical username :P
There are millions of people in the world. Having 2 person with same name is already so common. If people just like a particular username but has been taken up by someone else, tendency is for people to just twitch a bit and get it through. btw, I have also seen another bunny here.
@Woodpigeon (3710)
• Ireland
10 May 07
No one, as far as I know, has a user name anything like mine. I don'tt hink pigeons are that popular! I think if someone came up with my suername or something similar, they would have a tough time imitting the avatar, because it was a custom job thanks to elp.
I would be really annoyed if someone did something similar deliberately, but I don't think that is too likely to happen!
@charms88 (7538)
• Philippines
10 May 07
Oh yeah, your name is quite unique. I like your avatar too. How did you make the eyes blinking like that. I'm using my own pet bunny. A friend had tried to make something of my bunny eyes, but it came out like a blazing eyes. Not good for my sweet adorable image, LOL!
