Re: internet screen name theft
 

It appears I'm a soccer player, a player in the NBA development league, a professional skateboarder, a wedding photographer, a prospective congressman, an interior designer, a movie producer, and a murderer currently on death row in Missouri.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

I warn against doing this. One of my friends did this and found out that there is some guy with the same name as him. Unfortunately, his search of this guy led to some explicit websites on a school computer. He didn't get in trouble (because he didn't get caught), I just warn to be careful.

With that being said, I'm an australian politician, a baseball star, and a comedian.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

i am an emmy winning nararator! :cool:

this is getting fun. really fun...

thing i was worried about was people pretending to be me.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

And now you discover that they are worried that you are pretending to be them! :P

My name is unique enough that Google only lists my own nefarious activities. But my daughter comes up as a very prolific journalist, and my son as a realtor, a doctor and as my husband (hehe - they share the same name!)

Re: internet screen name theft
 

User names are a very good thing in some cases, especially for kids. My user name was chosen for no particular reason other than it had nothing to do with me. It allowed me to be a part of this when I was told that no one online was allowed to know my name (Parents rule, I think it is a good one) I have since made the decision that hiding is not something I want to do. User names are still very personal and I can understand where you are coming from. You have to realize, we live in a world with over 6 BILLION people, chances are someone will think that mrbob1000 is a cool name and use it without even knowing about you. And if they do know about you and are still using the name, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

Although, a search of my name doesn't show up anything about me until page 3/4 and even then its a dead link.

On an unrelated note, is there a procedure for changing user names here?

Re: internet screen name theft
 

Contact Brandon Martus and ask him to change your username. Give him the current name/information and provide the new name that you would like to replace it with.

It may take a little while but he will change it for you.

Jane

Re: internet screen name theft
 

Here is a really old thread about choosing a screen name that is your real name.

Enjoy!

Andy B.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

Actually, I sometimes just call people by their usernames. (Just ask boiler) It makes things easier and I believe it is more personal.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

Aww. I'm only a cyclist and some random guy on Facebook. And what's more funny is the cyclist with my name lives in my STATE! Perhaps a long lost relative?!

Re: internet screen name theft
 

Lucky for me that when I search my name, not too much comes up. Most of the results are my published photos, as well as my team's 2008 animation submission!
However, I do have a lesson learned. Many years ago my high school was having a huge amount of financial difficulties- they cut art, gym, music, everything but the "core" classes. In response, I posted a brief, yet somewhat angry review of the school on a school review site. Even though others had done the same, it still reflects poorly on me when it shows up in Google results. One of these days I'll contact the site asking for its removal. Remember, kids- everything appears on Google!

As for username theft...I'm still not sure why it's a problem. If the username I want isn't available, I just pick another. I generally don't see myself gaining any sort of fame or familiarity by using just one alias, but maybe that's just me.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

The real trick is to add some things that are on your resume along with your name, and then see what pops up. It shouldn't take but a few tags to drill you out of the masses.


Wetzel

Re: internet screen name theft
 

well, from googling my full name, i've come up with:

1: some jivespace thingy that i apparently signed up for cuz it has my psuedonym
2: the honor roll list from my school =))
3: early 1900's austrailian electoral rolls
4: UW office?
5: supreme court tax decision
6: uw office again.
and a band =)
man i get around.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

About 104,000 for you--many times what I get for my name. For comparison: John Doe gets 4,580,000. John Smith gets 47,400,000. So I guess we'd all better avoid screen names using John Smith-- unless we want to get lost in the crowd, big time.

Re: internet screen name theft
 

Need to find out where your chosen user name is registered?
http://www.usernamecheck.com/
EDIT: Whoops, didn't see this earlier; still worth mentioning again /EDIT

Do you know how many people share you name? (this is only an estimate)
http://howmanyofme.com/

remember kids, when picking a user name, plan ahead, then go to all the websites ever and squat the accounts, so you will always have the name :yikes: (but no, really, do plan ahead; and don't put a strain on the poor websites info structure)

Re: internet screen name theft
 

How Many of Me returns that one or less people are named Branden Ghena. Wow, I feel like one in 305,668,223! :D

I'm not so sure about usernamecheck, though. While it did uncover my long lost eBay account (I had forgotten about it), it also listed my old username (tawnos23) as taken on websites which, once I got there proved to be open, and didn't notice my steam account at all.