Bitcoin Forum

In recent weeks we have detected that some users have changed their name.
So I decided to find out who made these changes. With the help of some data from LoyceV, which I had already saved, along with new data, I come to present a quick list of who made this change.

I detected 11 name changes. Here they are:

_________________________	_________________________
Old Username	New Username
Nekrobios	N12 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4475)
deego	fgmnp (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=16540)
glassuser	atomium (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=72377)
m0gliE	mOgliE (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=107200)
mfort312	RejectedBanana (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=182284)
Spondoolies-Tech	Guy Corem (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=295386)
The Pharmacist	The Sceptical Chymist (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=487418)
iwantapony	Murat (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=815246)
DroomieChikito	Chikito (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=938833)
#BitcoinCore	Forsyth Jones (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=941526)
igehhh	Igebotz (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1045971)

Some notes:
I don't know exactly when the change took place, but it must have been between September and December 2022.
There may have been some more changes that I couldn't detect based on the data I had available.
Some names are not included, by request.

That's quite a lot, in past change of Bitcointalk username was rare thing.
But I think that you missed The Cryptovator. It's unique case because he changed his username twice and IIRC recent change was in 2022.

Well, well, seems holiday spirit is positive around here, admins starting to care more and more about these cases, maybe they should put aside their decrimination towards some green troll and give him the 4 years long waited user name change, *I promise to behave and be a good helping member of the forum given the chance of course.


*= when some one promises and you ignore them just because a distrust, that would affect the person deeply, thinking nobody values them, and you might wanna research about serial killers and criminals and their life histories, people treated them similarly in a way. Not implying that I will lose it, just saying that if you show love, you'll  receive love in return whether from the person or the universe (God). Karma law.

Everyone has a reason for a name change.... yeah
I had that experience from when I got registered a year or two ago; at some point, I was confused which display name to use... Not until I came out with a resolution on my current name..
I don't think I need a change -- atleast not for now cus I guess it' looks cool on me yunno. The former problem gets peeps even more perplexed that they'll have to use something that sounds very awkward, with an intensions to change 'em afterwards.
I thought there was a way an individual could make a name change -- way back in my rookie days -- that'll only cause some trust disruptions ....alot of disadvantages yunno. You did a nice job dude

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

Interesting!
I'm curious now what's the process or how to request to change your username. 
Is there any factor to consider?

Yeah, if that's for security reasons, we need to respect them and IMO, if my username changed, I don't want to disclose who I am in the past. :D
Because it's useless changing your name if everyone knows who you are, not unless you want to change your username for the brand name of your company. 

I know this depends on the admins. But what are the requirements and acceptable reasons why a change name request is accepted, maybe @theymos or @Cyrus or mods can give a hint.

Sounds like your username is your used name irl, so for me, i would think to change it later on for security reason, but that's just me.

I think the question should be asked the other way around.
What reasons does a user have to change their username? Is it because you feel your privacy is at stake? I think the current name is the result of an "identity theft"?

Anyway, I think that the argument that the user uses to make that request has more weight, instead of the criteria that the admins may have.

It seems to have been, but then again I don't know how many members have requested their usernames be changed and how many requests have been denied.  From what Theymos told me, all I had to do to get mine changed was to be persistent and remind him periodically--I don't know if that applies to everyone or not, but I'm guessing it's probably easier to get a name change than one would think.

Had Igebotz not just sent me a PM I wouldn't have known he was igehhh previously--so thank you OP for creating this thread.  I wasn't aware of the other name changes at all except my own. 

Maybe Cyrus would weigh in, but I doubt Theymos is going to.  And I think it's the latter who's making decisions as far as name changes go.  Also, I don't think it's that big of a deal since Cryptovator got his changed twice in a fairly short period of time.

Just a heads up: There's a chance that some people might've requested a username change for privacy purposes, and such threads kind of defeats the purpose of the name change.

Bro can you please check your PM? I left it immediately after you made the post but did not receive a response yet. Thank you.

+1
Not everyone had the same intention as the "The Sceptical Chymist"

If this happened, first of all I apologize.
I am available via PM for any adjustments to the topic.

Had to check it several times to understand what had changed between old and new username lol .
That's a weird name change in my opinion and for sure it wasn't due to privacy concern, really curious on the reason.

To avoid homoglyph (https://profilbaru.com/article/Homoglyph) attack by single letter or multi-letters.

0 (zero) and O (capitalized O)
l and I (capitalized i)
rn and m
cl and d
vv and ww

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Not all users in the list changed display name in 2023. Your title is not relevant.

I agree that this topic should not be made because of privacy of others. Even you delete or edit it now, there are scrapers did their tasks already. Don't make it at beginning is better.  :)

I think this member changed his name a long time ago, because I'm pretty sure he was under the new name at the beginning of last year as well. Besides, I don't think that anyone can just avoid being associated with their old name, so I don't believe that a thread like this threatens someone's privacy. Those who want complete privacy can get it by creating a new profile and taking all measures to hide their true identity. There are at least 10-15 members who have changed their names over the years, so even though a lot of time has passed, every time I see their profiles I remember that they used to have a different name.

Even though i never expected this to be possible am it surprised me seeing a number of isers now getting into this change of username of a thing, it's getting common and more frequent and i hope Theymos does not create rules to reduce the rate and tendencies whereby members take advantage of applying for it, also i believe changing a username should come in with a particular reason for doing so, not because others are doing it or one feels it should be changed since he forum never suggested any before at the point of registration, it's an individual decision and choice in selecting one, which i believe if left this way people will continue to increase in number of applicant for a change of name.

People have reasons that's why they will change their username and it could be privacy related or just for fun.

Whatever the reason, I guess if the username change is not announced publicly by the user or admin himself we should not be bringing it to the public.

Igebotz and The Sceptical Chymist have discussed it publicly but others are new to me.

Here is a take from theymos on discussing username changes


I guess you need to revisit your list and ask the users for their consent to be on this list.


Edit:

I think I overlooked your notes, looks like you already did the exercise if so then well done.

If by mistake, include someone who didn't want that kind of situation. I am fully available to review this situation.
My intention was not to expose anyone in a negative way, just to do a comparative analysis.

Any inconvenience, I am fully available by PM to deal with the situation.

Did all the members you posted about asked a name change publicly or not? If any of them never asked publicly by posting a topic you should change the OP, not that it matters now anyways.
I think theymos should block the names he doesn't want mentioned from being posted or scraped.

As I've stated previously in one of my posts, I don't care about the cases and reasons of others, but mine was for the sake of security, while a few others were for privacy reasons (I can't recall the exact reason), while Sceptical Chymist requested a new name, I assume he was bored with being The Pharmacist and desired a new identity. ;)

I don't mind the public knowing that I used to be ighehh, and because my new name represents my brand, I'm fine if I go viral; if I wanted to remain anonymous, I wouldn't have asked the admin to include a custom title.

I see some names that were changed way earlier than September 2022

It's actually hard to hide who you were from the past, especially with the quoted replies. Your new username will still be associated with posts and quoted replies having your old username.

Also, there are now third party sites that keep track of forum data like Loyce.club, bpip and ninjastic.space. Someone can still easily connect the dots using those sites.

Maybe dumb question, but can someone explain my how username change helps in terms of privacy?
Because once you're on internet, you stuck here forever. You can change username, delete posts and so on, but all your data will stay. Like for example quotes of old your posts where your previous username is quoted. Or various scrappers and archives

I cannot give 100% certainty.
But I made that statement because I used a file I had from September 2022, which contained this data, which in turn I compared with a file from January 2023.

Way more than I expected, to be honest.
Since I became aware of the name changing process, I have had the impression that it is extremely unlikely it gets granted (since the admin himself has to take care of it), however, 11 names changes is almost an average of one petition granted per month, only last year.

Thanks for taking the time to give us this summary, Op.  ;)

Thanks for the list - it's very much appreciated. 

Changing profile names is one way a scammer can get away with scam after scam, so it's good to be able to eliminate unlikely from likely when potentially dealing with a new user only to discover it's an old profile gifted a new name.

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If someone genuinely fears for their safety, then may I suggest they walk away from their high profile UID and start again as a newbie and don't draw so much attention to themselves in future?

It's supposed to make new members doesn't know their real username, of course the old members already know which is real username especially if they're active in a same section. Maybe their real username has a code or link with their real life, so they're want to break it.

I think any user already know that, they wouldn't ask theymos or Cyrus to change their name then. It's because their main account is already get a lot merit, reputable and can be trusted enough to deal with high amount money. I don't think there's a person who want to abandon his main account if he's trying to be active in this forum.

I usually tell friends: "It's on the Internet, it's in the World."
Once something is put online, it will never leave. It can fall into oblivion, stop being associated with something, or any other situation. But it will continue to exist forever.

That said, each one should take the measures they feel are necessary for their situation.

Obviously it wouldn't delete your past history, but it would at least make it significantly harder to know your identity in the surface level. e.g. JohnSmith123 vs JS69

It's probably better solution than do nothing. Even if it won't improve your privacy significantly. But for someone who have serious intentions to find information about you, it will take just few minutes to find it.
Anyway, I don't question decisions of users to change their usernames. Everyone has their own reasons and it's ok, as long as it doesn't makes any harm for community.

Thats interesting as previously it was impossible to change the username and as per the forum rules it may require 50 btcBTC as mentioned by mprep here. I know the 50 BTC could not be realistic value in current times.


By the way, can anyone whom usernames have changed, tell us how did they apply for the change in username and how long did it took to get the application successful?

It can take days, weeks, months, years, or even NEVER. You just need to PM the admin with a good reason and hope for the best. The speed is determined by your reasons, and being an established member is advantageous. (Change of username is one of the most difficult requests)

It took a few days for mine to be approved. I was fortunate.

It's probably safest to assume that this is correct, but in reality a lot of things on the internet are lost within time. Hence, why we have data hoarders who try to secure the more critical information. I imagine there's multiple users that have mirrors of bitcointalk though, since it does contain a whole lot of important information, and history.

So yeah, not too be too critical of you, but generally it's best to assume whatever you put on the internet is here forever, but in reality given a long enough time it probably won't be. Depending on it's importance that is.

Look, sometimes it doesn't need to be very important, just a backup that someone kept until today.

For example, 15 years ago I had a banner exchange site, with hundreds of users, which I ended up selling. But, I still have several backups of this site and if you want today I can put it back online in a few days, as it was 15 years ago.
Why do I still have the backups? For nothing in particular, just for a historical record of the work I've done. And I have no intention of using them.
Did the website have relevant information? No, just some emails. But, the information exists and it is possible to go back. Nothing guarantees me that the site's buyers have not kept the information until today, despite the fact that the site is no longer on the air.

It is very easy to store thousands of pieces of information that have been made available on the internet one day. It may not be accessible in general, but it exists and is there.

If not for this thread I wouldn't have known that Murat was iwantapony. I know I came across that user's posts a great deal when I started newly here but all of a sudden I couldn't find them again. I concluded the user had stopped posting; not knowing they only changed identity. However, if I may ask what security or privacy reason would make anyone change username when this is just an online forum. We don't even have a physical presence. I don't see any cogent reason for that. If it were for a reason to brand or rebrand their businesses, then we could say yes they've a reason for that. Otherwise, I wouldn't take the privacy or security angle to mean anything. Do people truly get scared online when they haven't done any wrong?

I would not agree with that statement, because you received your change in a few days, and most others didn't wait more than a week after the request. The whole point is how each individual member will support his request, or rather if he is asking for a name change for a good/meaningful reason or if he just wants a cosmetic change because he just doesn't like the current name.

I know of at least one case where a forum member got at least two name changes in a very short period of time, which only confirms that it is by no means the most difficult request.

If you google philipma1957

you get a lot of pages.

If I change that name on twenty accounts and blogs I suppose a simple google search would find less pages.

AFAIK theymos changes the display name if the request is not privacy related but if the request is because the member has concerns for their privacy then he changes the username as well as the display name. Since he does two different things there must be valid reasons for changing your username for privacy.

People do not get "scared" but they do get concerned. Some people will take comments you make on a forum very personally and you do not know what they might do to get back at you. We have seen feuds in the forum for years and sometimes they have gotten very personal. I can see why people get concerned and that is not a terrible thing. It is like when you use tor browser or vpn even though you have nothing to hide the same thing applies to be concerned about usernames

Well, I got your drift on that. I've even followed some posts here where threats on life had been made. It's really sad that people go to that length. I think this is where the ignore button should serve its purpose. I don't hesitate to activate it whenever I discover someone is trolling me. I hate what I don't like, as they say jovially.

Thanks for bringing this up here for others to be aware of those that have changed their forum names.

Whatever reason they are changing their forum name is best known to me. To my understanding, it is just a change of name, it doesn't change who they are in the forum. Their data and the way they contributed to the forum will still be the same(it doesn't change with the name). That's the good part of it all