Some user names too similar?

[James the Giant]

I recently got confused by new member "alan..."
There's already an alan. Having two alan's is confusing, especially when one can only tell them apart by three dots after the name.
Granted, their posting styles are rather different.
Just a suggestion, how about if something like this is encountered again, a PM could be sent asking the new member to specify a modifier to their name, like James the Giant, or Florida Alan, or something like that?

It's not really an issue, I just thought I'd say.
Cheers

[Ben]

Hi James,
Good call.
kind regards,

Ben

[plwk]

And now...to interrupt the programme for this announcement....

Sometimes when tabby cats gather.... I get confused as to which is my own tabby ...

expecting the other tabby to go pink because of my confusion... Thanz for the attention...

And now back to

[alan...]

I recently got confused by new member "alan..."
There's already an alan. Having two alan's is confusing, especially when one can only tell them apart by three dots after the name.
Granted, their posting styles are rather different.
Just a suggestion, how about if something like this is encountered again, a PM could be sent asking the new member to specify a modifier to their name, like James the Giant, or Florida Alan, or something like that?

It's not really an issue, I just thought I'd say.
Cheers

the same happens on every forum and every website around the world (except ones where you can have identical names, then it's truly confusing), when a user sees their desired name is taken, they simply add a "1" or a "0" or a "." etc which then makes it unique enough that they are allowed to have this name. i have gotten confused before but eventually i just started looking at names closer. however i do see some merit to your idea.

have you suggested this requirement to yahoo, google, and all the other places this happens? might be a good idea. if they accept your idea every user name would then be required to be totally unique in every way and no one would ever be confused. the only problem is that the bigger the user base the harder it is to have a name you want as opposed to a name that you simply accept as there are no other options. adding punctuation to a name doesn't really change it's meaning. but if you have to surround names with sentences, phrases and ideas it is a totally different story. as it is now if there is one "bob", bob two can be "bob...", bob three can be "bob1" bob four can be "bob/" bob five can be "bob10" and so on. however if each bob has to have a unique little story around their name it becomes way more complicated and will totally change the meaning of the users name: "infinite bob", "parade of bobs", "bob and the dragon", "what about bob?" and so on. some users will not want to have words surrounding their name. so i can see both good and bad to this idea. it would be great to have zero confusion, but not so great to be forced to pick odd combinations of words for your user name.

[James the Giant]

have you suggested this requirement to yahoo, google, and all the other places this happens?

Like I said, it's not a big issue. Could be useful to avoid confusion for a reasonable sized forum like this, but totally impractical for massive systems.
I just want you to know it's totally nothing personal. I read your comments and questions with interest, and I learned some interesting and very useful stuff from that Vipassana Jhana thread you started. Your contributions here are excellent. Keep up the good work.
Plus you're less grumpy than the other Alan!

[Ben]

Plus you're less grumpy than the other Alan!

We all have rough edges, James.

[James the Giant]

Plus you're less grumpy than the other Alan!

We all have rough edges, James.

Yes indeed. I liked the other Alan too. He isn't here much any more but he had some good things to say too.

[appicchato]

We all have rough edges...

Ain't that the truth...

[Buckwheat]

What edges?

[James the Giant]

What edges?

The ones that abrasive people help grind off. Helpful!

[alan...]

have you suggested this requirement to yahoo, google, and all the other places this happens?

Like I said, it's not a big issue. Could be useful to avoid confusion for a reasonable sized forum like this, but totally impractical for massive systems.
I just want you to know it's totally nothing personal. I read your comments and questions with interest, and I learned some interesting and very useful stuff from that Vipassana Jhana thread you started. Your contributions here are excellent. Keep up the good work.
Plus you're less grumpy than the other Alan!

awesome thanks! i enjoy your posts as well!