Should misleading usernames be restricted on the forum?

[alegotardo]

I agree that there should be some kind of restriction, but I think we need to be caution....
In my local forum (Portugues), there was a case of a user named "bitcoincore" that  never had bad intentions and never made any posts or actions with the intention of deceiving others users, but in one day his account was locked.
It took several influential users from the local board to defend him and allow him to reactivate his account. The misunderstanding was terminated resolved and he returned to forum after change his account name (he chose another one himself).

In short, I agree that official member labels are interesting and helpful, but for lay users, the lack of a label on a nickname that looks official can still mislead people.
They should be banned, but first, the person needs to be given the right to defend themselves.

[Nathrixxx]

It will be very hard to know the intention of everyone creating a similar username account on this forum, so let us not just debate on what we may not have a definite solution to, everyone is free to make use of the username he desires as long as it does not be taken, there might be similarities from from this names, but once they are not the same, then we may judge it to be on a neutral intention not to impersonate or perform an in illegal activities with such.

[crwth]

Aren't there already solutions to this to see how moderators are highlighted in their profiles? It seems like positions have already been assigned to the official staff of Bitcointalk.

Or maybe some added friction when registering here or reserved usernames or something.
^{(I'm all in for some captcha or verification that shows possible impersonations)}

All in all, it seems like educating the newbies is one of the best ways to prevent possible deception.

[LoyceV]

we need to consider a mod that just mods names giving say a 1 month ban . Just to be proactive.

A temporary ban doesn't make sense, if it means someone can continue pretending to be a moderator afterwards. Just ban them, done.

There should be no restrictions while choosing usernames.

It's a simple way to test someone's intentions: if they start by impersonating someone else, they get banned and their IP-address collects units of evil for their next attempt

[GeorgeJohn]

Should some users get banned due to their usernames? This came to my mind when I saw this username officialmoderator.

The username is not given...it most have a negative mindset why he choosed such a username...probably, his intension is to scam people by messaging some of the forum users privately and scam them...but this thread has reviewed his objectives.

Either should prevent such usernames or should ban them after creation. Because the username is kind of misleading, newbies would be confused when they see the username.

With this information newbie will be known that this particular user we are emphasizing on, is a scam...But for the aspects of Ban, I don’t think forum use to ban a user due to choice of selecting of a username..I think it will commit a crime that will warrant to ban.

As much as I understand the concern and what others say, this is a price to pay for freedom
As people, we all have a responsibilty of our own safety and privacy. Everything cannot be done for us. One of those responsibilities is to be smart. On social network sites like Twitter and Facebook, I can create a username with "Elon Musk" or "Mark Zuckerberg". The good thing is that in this community, once people see the username like the one OP talked about, it would be tagged immediately to let newbies know they are not "moderators"

in bitcointalk we dont welcome scam, and we fight against scam, that's why we take action immediately to bridges a future scam, they're be tagged to sanitise the forum so that their plans of scam won't be executed...in Facebook and twitter, many people have lost thousands dollars through user impersonators..

[acroman08]

I agree with this, if the name is trying to impersonate someone working for the forum, like mods, staff, admins, etc. Apart from that, if the name is trying to impersonate someone else, I think the forum community should be the one to handle it, giving the account red tags should be enough.

[Alpha Marine]

in bitcointalk we dont welcome scam, and we fight against scam, that's why we take action immediately to bridges a future scam, they're be tagged to sanitise the forum so that their plans of scam won't be executed...in Facebook and twitter, many people have lost thousands dollars through user impersonators..

As you obviously saw in my post, I said those kinds of users will easily be tagged immediately they make a post with such an account, but dictating what username and what not to use is not the way. Once the account has been tagged, everybody has a responsibility for their own security.
This is why i don' see it as a big deal because anybody that can still be scammed despite the red tag on the profile of a new account cannot be helped.

People still try to scam people with different means on this forum, and there is only so much the community can do to help; the rest is up to you as a user to use your head and be able to spot cheap scams.
The moment a newbie account PMsanybody on the forum, you'll receive a warning. This should tell you to be careful, and newbies can send a limited number of PMs per day or so.
So, imo, the forum has done all it needs to in that regard. It's left for the community to do their part by tagging suspicious accounts (which it does so well) and for individual users to be vigilant and take responsibility of his safety and privacy. 

[MarryWithBTC]

It will be very hard to know the intention of everyone creating a similar username account on this forum, so let us not just debate on what we may not have a definite solution to, everyone is free to make use of the username he desires as long as it does not be taken, there might be similarities from from this names, but once they are not the same, then we may judge it to be on a neutral intention not to impersonate or perform an in illegal activities with such.

Did you see the kind of username that Op called out? - officialmoderator. This is not a coincidence and no one with good intention will create such a username.
Similar type of usernames that should attract a permanent ban are;

• ForumStaff
• StaffMember
• OfficialStaff
• MeritSource

As harmless as Meritsource might look, someone could pull a scam with it by telling newbies to pay a certain amount for an x number of merits.

I agree with this, if the name is trying to impersonate someone working for the forum, like mods, staff, admins, etc. Apart from that, if the name is trying to impersonate someone else, I think the forum community should be the one to handle it, giving the account red tags should be enough.

I agree, the forum might not protect all the reputable users, but the community has the responsibility of responding to such types of impersonation.

[LoyceV]

Similar type of usernames that should attract a permanent ban are;

This made me curious:

115475. moderators
178756. ModeratorStick
252132. Moderator.
289837. FuckModerator
289839. FuckModerator1
409196. JebacModeratora
492328. Speculation Moderator
498099. VIPmoderator
498101. VIP-moderator-VIP
498125. moderator-VIP
509938. BlitzModerator
648568. fuckmoderators
777982. Moderatorialkmhi
798538. Moderatorlpkz
853565. Moderatorextp
888443. HowToReportModeratorsIdio
908157. TopModerator
933728. ModeratorFucker
937181. moderator2017
1130315. Moderator Bitcoin
1130461. Kalogmoderator
1130465. Moderatorkalugs
1316491. cryptoroom.moderator
1446380. DumbAssModerators
1590791. THEYM0S Moderator
1616383. THEYM0S Moderator `
1640006. THEYM0S Moderator .
1640031. THEYM0S Moderator ,
1752893. THEYM0S Moderator.
1840782. ModeratorBlockchain
1860638. Moderator THEYM0S `
1864027. Moderator THEYM0S .
2082937. Avatara.world.moderator
2258988. ctsmoderator
2294131. Moderator Officier
2433902. moderator1
2467703. ___Moderator___
2631530. ModeratorZ
2716667. SportyCo Moderator
2846839. ReeiTheModerator
3419952. MODERATOR_SUPPORT
3424470. moderatorbot
3429701. Official_Moderator
3487769. Moderator258
3589691. ModeratorTT
3693573. Comm_moderator
3749934. officialmoderator

[Somto9Light]

Meh. I don't understand fuss about usernames. We have tags, 'Staff' — under actual staff, 'Administrator' for actual admin, 'Founder' under actual Satoshi. If somebody impersonates established users, there are stats to compare.

You need to understand that this should be mostly for members of the forum who are familiar with these things, like the tags and other forms of identification. Newer members are mostly naive to stuffs like this and that’s why they’re mostly the targets of these imposters.

But still, newer members of not, they should know about forum ranking, and if a user is an imposter trying to impersonate established members, then they should be able to tell if they’re real or not through the rank, except they’re simply just stupid too.

[MarryWithBTC]

Similar type of usernames that should attract a permanent ban are;

This made me curious:

1590791. THEYM0S Moderator
1616383. THEYM0S Moderator `
1640006. THEYM0S Moderator .
1640031. THEYM0S Moderator ,
1752893. THEYM0S Moderator.

So, even punctuations can make a difference. Can thymos consider to invalidate punctuations in choosing usernames at least it could help.

@LoyceV, how do you scrap and get all these data?

[LoyceV]

So, even punctuations can make a difference.

I haven't seen any other forum that allows so many different characters in usernames.

Can thymos consider to invalidate punctuations in choosing usernames at least it could help.

And lose creations like these?

331186. ,,,,,,2
750938. zhangna,,,
3623010. khaled0111%22, %22,,,,,,,
765278. Money+++
1058124. bluechip+++
2377629. Loto+++3
2431208. Vladimir+++
2595674. egc+++
3090691. +++negativo+++

@LoyceV, how do you scrap and get all these data?

Download profile, save name here. Some names are quit annoying to deal with.

[Perfectbaby]

Who knows if someone could create Satoshi Nakamoto? Still, it's empty, and someone may try it unless the forum prevents them. So better prevent creating such a username or ban when noticed.

I also support you on what you said; currently now we know that many people knows that he is not a moderator at the moment, but when the account starts making progress that is where we should be that Afraid of username. Also want to encourage the forum to stop duplicate names especially those who are staff on the forum or reputable manager because I have also seen, or come across where some people created similar username as them just to impersonate those managers. So, if the admin see something similar they shouldn't allow that person to make the account in order for their community to be saved from gotten scammed from newbies

[aioc]

Who knows if someone could create Satoshi Nakamoto? Still, it's empty, and someone may try it unless the forum prevents them. So better prevent creating such a username or ban when noticed.

There is an option that will prevent people from creating certain usernames, and the Admin of this forum has the option to include names that cannot be registered here. Usernames are not rights; they are privileges.

[UmerIdrees]

Should some users get banned due to their usernames? This came to my mind when I saw this username officialmoderator. Either should prevent such usernames or should ban them after creation. Because the username is kind of misleading, newbies would be confused when they see the username. Though the scam isn't moderated, it's pretty easy to scam newbies with this username on the forum. I am not against this user, but I think the username is quite confusing.

Who knows if someone could create Satoshi Nakamoto? Still, it's empty, and someone may try it unless the forum prevents them. So better prevent creating such a username or ban when noticed.

Well, it's not possible to restrict people creating such usernames (as there are so many combinations that can be created like NewMod, UnofficialMod etc)  but once such usernames are seen the DT members gives them trust / rating that they are not the official mods or admin and should not be impersonated as such persons. A person who spends some time on this forum would not be fooled by these usernames.