Name and Number

[Marsh]

Could I suggest that Answerbank starts printing the contributor's membership number beneath the username?     This would make it easier to detect impostors and those who have innocently chosen a name similar to someone else's.  It works for raffle tickets � why not for people?

[smudge]

D'ya know Marsh - that's the best idea I've read for quite some time!

Well apart from my user Country of origin suggestion!

[FP]

Good idea.

[FP]

But it still wouldn't stop people posting under multiple names.

[THECORBYLOON]

Marsh That is a damn fine idea, no doubt ABE will say we have no membership number or it would take too many elastic bands......  

[FP]

Months ago I suggested that there should be a membership list available with number, username and date of joining.  It got some favourable replies but the Editors made no comments :o(

[Lindy Loo]

Brilliant idea Marsh. Either that or simply have the users joining date included next to the name? It is listed in everyones profile and would certainly indicate when each username was created.

[Artful]

Yes good idea, Marsh. But if the Ed finds it too complicated I think Lindy Loo's suggestion is a good place to start.

[VINNY100_2]

Im sure the techies could use one  of these suggestions.Waiting in anticipation ED.( :)

[Salamander]

You could also set it so that only traceable e-mail addresses can register. (i.e. the e-mail addresses you get from your ISP). Stopping users using hotmail, yahoo and other such addreses would stop users being able to create multiple anonymous accounts.

I have seen this done on other sites and it works well. Anonymity would still be retained between users with the benefit of AB being able to trace offenders.

[jno]

Salamander, I've had to change email addresses when changing ISP, which is a pain; I just give my hotmail address to sites like this, since it's always the same (unless I forget to access it for a month). I understand the argument against hotmail accounts, but I'd just as soon continue using mine. Marsh and Lindy Loo have made excellent suggestions, though. This cloning business is producing bad feeling among contributors and some very unpleasant postings.

[Salamander]

I agree jno they are good ideas. I can see the problem you mean. Just a thought.

[Lindy Loo]

Thanks Artful and jno for your comments.

To answer the point made by Salamander...  is a idea only to allow ISP given email addresses, but there are people, like myself, who use independant ISP's that only provide an internet service and nothing more, so using Hotmail, Yahoo etc is necessary to have email access.

[CT]

I agree with these suggestions. They seem sensible. Hopefully something along these lines could be implemented without too much trouble.

[FP]

Poor Lillibet who gives such good, informative answers is now a victim of the imposter.  There is a posting in the News section now where the double L's have been replaced with two capital I's. 

[hugoboss]

AB ed - when are you going to do something about this intruder issue?! You are losing valuable members left right and centre, and letting the childish intruders carry on regardless. This idea by marsh is a good one. Think about it.

[Marsh]

Some further thoughts.  I like Lindy Loo's idea of using the joining date but AB Ed may think it a breach of privacy.  And maybe the full membership number might reveal commercially sensitive information.  

He could use just the last five digits, like Amazon does for credit card numbers.  Even better would be an AB issued PIN, preferably including some letters to make differences easier to see.  This might  use up to much techie time, however.

Thank you all for your agreement.

 

[Lillabet]

FP, thanks so much for pointing out that I was being impersonated at the weekend. He/she is still about. As such in theory I think this user number is a good idea.

I would not however like all hotmail / yahoo addresses etc to be banned. I registered using hotmail and regularly use this as my main email. It is a habit I got into when at uni as I wanted to access my emails both at home when I used the family computer and couldn't remotely access my uni account and when at uni and not able to access the family freeserve (as it was) account. There are a lot of students who post who may be doing the same as I did. Also if you banned hotmail you'd ban me and I wouldn't like that.

[jno]

I'm startled to find the fake Lillabet is still posting. I'd assumed that when 'her' existence was uncovered she'd just be deleted from the files as a matter of principle, but apparently she's allowed to go on impersonating as long as she's uncontroversial.

I don't think that's right; any member name that mimics an earlier member's should be deleted and all its posts along with it - even if they were helpful posts, in fact. If they really want to sign up and offer useful advice, they can always do so under a non-spoof name.

Meantime, real Lillabet, can't you report the fake's posts? I think the report process allows you to do so on the grounds of imposterism |(if that's a word), and only you know which is which without cutting and pasting, which seems an unduly tricky process on AB.

[Lillabet]

jno: I know. A far as I can tell s/he posted loads over the weekend. Some were reported for being offensive - and deleted. Some I think were reported for being imposters after someone kindly realised it wasn't me and proved that they were using capital I instead of small l to make the names appear identical.

I reported more yesterday as imposters and these too have disappeared. I assumed that they would be banned but this morning had to report three more answers from my imposter. Including two in my thread asking about the impersonation... Membership numbers would help

[AB Editor]

Dear Users,

Thank you for the suggestion of using membership numbers to distinguish between users. We are currently looking into alternate font styles for the User names so they are more easily recognised. Again, thank you for alerting us to the situation and your patience during this time.