Skip to main content

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
A screenshot of a post on some platform from Megan Finger @meganfinger reading "THANK YOU Central for my awesome email address and username... like really side-eye emojii. Followed by a picture of a registration confirmation showing the username FingerMe and email address of FingerMe@cwu.edu
in reply to Shiri Bailem

sortius
mastodon - Link to source
sortius
• •

you don't want to know some of the usernames I've gotten.

And no, you can't know my real name

in reply to sortius

Steve
mastodon - Link to source
Steve
• •
@sortius knowing your real name, I can only imagine how bad some of them have been 😂
@sortius
in reply to Shiri Bailem

Justin D-Z
mastodon - Link to source
Justin D-Z
• •

@cstross I was a student network tech at university and was helping a new student name T. Este get networking setup. Once successful, they asked if I could also do anything about their unfortunate email prefix, teste2 (they weren't the first teste!). I told them that I could not, but they were welcome to take it up with the university president, David Hardesty. Or... dhardest.

Because 8 was the maximum number of characters.

@Charlie Stross
in reply to Justin D-Z

potpie
mastodon - Link to source
potpie
• •
@justindz @cstross our student logins at my middle school were the first letter of your first name plus the first three letters of your last name, which was very unfortunate for C. Unterberger
@Charlie Stross @Justin D-Z

Charlie Stross reshared this.

in reply to potpie

Ed Davies
mastodon - Link to source
Ed Davies
• •
@potpie @justindz @cstross Similar rules were, supposedly, used at IBM Hursley in the 1970s until Fredrick Uckfield joined.
@Charlie Stross @Justin D-Z @potpie
in reply to potpie

JB (he/him)
mastodon - Link to source
JB (he/him)
• •
@potpie @justindz @cstross yeah at my first workplace, Steven Lavery had that first initial+last name sadness. But Rick Azer liked his email address.
@Charlie Stross @Justin D-Z @potpie
in reply to potpie

sidb
mastodon - Link to source
sidb
• •
@potpie @cstross @justindz In undergrad the default was first initial, last name, and you couldn’t change it. Poor T. Watkins went a couple weeks before someone told her. She ran into the IT office just bawling (I knew people there). They made an exception and changed it.
@Charlie Stross @Justin D-Z @potpie
in reply to potpie

Lisa
mastodon - Link to source
Lisa
• •
@potpie @justindz @cstross At my last job it was first initial last name, and I had a coworker named S. Makmee.
@Charlie Stross @Justin D-Z @potpie
in reply to Justin D-Z

adehnert
mastodon - Link to source
adehnert
• •

@justindz @cstross we did first initial last name, falling back to first two if there was a collision. There was already a cjones, so Ca... Jones got the fallback.

She did manage to convince them to use another username, though.

@Charlie Stross @Justin D-Z
in reply to Justin D-Z

Damien (TIG BUSINESS)
mastodon - Link to source
Damien (TIG BUSINESS)
• •

@justindz @cstross i've seen "first initial, first 6 letters" as a problem, but they let John Christian change theirs...

Being stuck with drmoo@[org] for ages doesn't seem so bad... I got a few laughs out of emails to "Dr Moo"

@Charlie Stross @Justin D-Z
in reply to Shiri Bailem

RonInDortmund
mastodon - Link to source
RonInDortmund
• •
in the UK civil service, documents were changed/approved with the initials of the first two Christian names and surname. So my Dad (Henry William Preedy) signed HWP. His friend, Peter Ian Gowans, wasn't so lucky...
in reply to Shiri Bailem

Greg Wellman
mastodon - Link to source
Greg Wellman
• •
More than 20 years ago, a first year undergraduate at some university had a similar experience. I believe her name was Melissa Cummings.
⇧