Not the kind of flattery you want

Mister Acacia is online

Having recovered from my huge rage vent against LL (they're still a bunch of asses, IMHO), it's time to write something constructive.

I put in a jira for a new feature, the ability to add an underscore or hyphen to a username when signing up. I see a lot of usernames that kind of make sense, and some that don't. Some have a firstname-lastname construct, but knowing whether it's a double first name isn't easy. Is Terry Lynne a first name or a first and last name?

Anyway, so I proposed the feature and then Whirly noted that LL needs to be careful about allowing imposter accounts. And I agree. I don't want someone making a Mister_Acacia and then doing something to harm my reputation as an old curmudgeon.

So I sent a support request. Kind of silly, because I knew that the canned reply would be unhelpful. And it was. I asked if there was a mechanism in place that prevented me from creating a username that duplicated a legacy username without the period; in other words, is there something that prevents me from creating misteracacia resident? Or jayrcela resident?

The answer was:

Thank you for contacting Second Life Support about your issues with creating a new account.  On the names if that has already been taken you could add a number to it so that you can have it as close to that name as possible but other wise you will want to choose something else.

 So, as I suspected, the agent didn't answer the question I asked. So I put it to them again:

You are correct on the system when choosing a name if it says that the name is taken or that it is not allowed it is best to choose another.  I could not say if that name has been chosen or if its not a good name.  That is up to that part of the system to choose.

OK, so as I also suspected, the agent doesn't have the answer for me. I rather expected that from the start. So I asked to have the case escalated so I could get an authoritative answer.

It is not necessary to escalate this because when the system says that name is taken it is not available for anyone other than the person who has it or had it  So it cannot be duplicated in this system that is why you are not able to get that name.

The agent refused to escalate the case. Does she have the authority to do that? I don't know.

But it tells me that we need to be vigilant about protecting our own identities. Every now and then, you should do a search for a username that is identical (without the space or dot) or similar enough that you believe it could be mistaken as your alt. Then raise the issue with LL. Do what is necessary to force LL to take action. Your reputation is at stake.

Mister Acacia is offline