A Name, A Name, My Kingdom for a Name

[Steve]

---  "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> ---  "Steve" <bboyminn@> wrote:
> >
> > 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.
> 
> Tonks:
> 
> Huh??? Sorry, I don't think I understood a word of 
> that, but it was interesting. Why would Yahoo remove 
> you if you hadn't done something wrong somehow, 
> somewhere? 
> 
> Tonks_op
> who always thought that bboy meant bad boy in minn. 
> it means blue boy?
>

bboyminn:

If you look along side your posts, you will see that 
you have a 'real name', it's 'Tonks'.

Your username is 'tonks_op' and your personal name
is listed as 'Tonks'.

So, you email address in your posts looks like this-

"Tonks" tonks_op at ..."

So, you are protected.

Losing your username is arbitrary. Pardon the expression
but 'piss' someone off in one of your discussion 
groups, and they can complain and have your username
canceled. That is really all it takes. 

Also, if Spammers get your username, they can start 
sending Spam under that name, and that will get your
account canceled. 

If by chance, though a computer virus or whatever, they
get your password, they can not only send email under
your name, they can use your Yahoo account and Yahoo's
email server to send it. Again, you are canceled with 
no explanation. 

The real problem is the 'no explanation' part. One day
your account is gone and that's it. At best you /might/
get an email telling you your account is canceled, but
that is not likely since they would have to send it
to the account that is being canceled. 

So, the question to others is, how valuable do you
think your posts are? Do you think your contribute
something to the discussion? If you do, then enter
your profile and put 'something' in the 'Real Name'
section. Without something to reference your post by,
they just disappear. 

Now, Yahoo may have improved things since I lost my
'boyblue' account, so perhaps it is no longer an
issue. But if you make substantial posts in discussions
then you certainly want to protect that. So, add
/anything/ to the 'Real Name' section of your Profile
and you will be safe.

Losing your Yahoo account can come out of the blue 
without you actually having violated terms of service.
It comes without explanation and without appeal.

Better safe than sorry.

Steve/bboyminn