A Name, A Name, My Kingdom for a Name

[Steve]

Orginally I sent this to a friend off line, but upon
giving it some thought, I realized it might be valuable
information for everyone.

If you have a Yahoo username, that DOES NOT include
something in the 'Real Name' section, you are asking
for trouble, and here is why.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

This is a completely minor point off every conceivable
topic.

I noticed you don't have a 'Real Name' in your Yahoo
profile.

Let me explain why that isn't a good idea.

I used to belong to the 'HP for Grownups' group under
the username 'boyblue', I posted for a couple years 
under that name until some Spammers got hold of it and 
started sending out email using my username. I just
a few days Yahoo canceled the username and wouldn't
bring it back.

Well, joining under a new username seems like a simple
enough solution, and for that part it was. But EVERY
POST I had made to the group also disappeared. With
out a 'Real Name' to reference the posts by...well
they couldn't reference them at all, that they 
vanished. 

If your profile has a 'Real Name' even if it is not
actually a /real name/, your post will remain in the
group, if by some chance your username is canceled,
but without something to reference the post against,
the post vanish. 

If you think your username can't or is unlikely to
disappear, keep in mind that I'm on my 5th or 6th
username in this group. One of them lasted a month 
before Yahoo canceled with no explanation, and another 
lasted less than 2 weeks. 

So, now I keep a back up name, I'm a member of all
my favorite groups under a rarely used name. If the
first one goes I can still post unmoderated while I
wait for unmoderated status on my new username to
kick in.

Don't let one of Yahoo's mood swings cancel all your
hard work; add a name to your profile.

For what it's worth. 

Steve/bboyminn