I just logged on a few minutes ago & found a nasty PM in my inbox from some gal I've never even heard of.  She was chastizing me for comments she thinks I made to her in one of the chatrooms..apparently last night.  

1--I very rarely go to a chatroom...it's been so long I can't even remember when the last time was, but it certainly wasn't last night.

2--I have never used any alias other than greywolf on TER for anything...reviews, posts, whatever.  Anyone who knows much about me knows my attitude about multiple usernames & that it's not something I wouldn't do myself.  

3--I've never heard of this gal before, let alone reply to one of her posts.  So unless she has used other alias' I've never had any contact with her in any fashion..& certainly not the chatroom.  And because I've never seen another username that similar to mine, I don't see how she could have mistaken me for someone else.    

4--I've always been under the impression that a username couldn't be duplicated, & I find it hard to believe someone else using another name would say they were also aka greywolf.  

I'm sure in my time here I've made a few enemies as well as friends.  I haven't the slightest problem with being accountable for my words or my actions, but if I'm going to be on someone's shit-list, I'd at least like it to be for something I HAVE  actually said or done.

Has anyone had something similar happen?  Or have any thought about how it could happen?  STAFF?  GND?

It would be easy to change a letter and cause this type of confusion if that handle wasn't taken.

-- Modified on 10/25/2003 7:48:31 PM

unless of course it was you who took it (for yourself) ... i've taken every conceivable permutation of "singleton" for this very same reason (to prevent "identity theft") .... it's very easy to mimic someone else especially with generic handles like

john84122
jonn84l22
john84122
jonnB4122

ones for L's, 8s for Bs and h's for n's  etc ... happens ALL the time in chat rooms

as for being on someone's "shit-list" ... welcome to the club!

I'm off to pose as you now!

was using the alias GirlCrazy.  He/She actually posted a message on the LA board.  I notified Staff but it was just one of those things that came with the territory of posting in a message board.  There isn't much I can do except laughing about it.

who knows they might like YOU better than ME! ... but no matter what happens just keep telling everyone you're a Brad Pitt lookalike stud muffin and NOT a furry little squirrel!

You got me on that one.  I found the provider in question and checked the 5 minutes she was in chat.  I saw no one in there with a name even close to yours.  I saw no negative comments.  

A mind is a horrible thing to waste.

-- Staff

I got screwed by a former employee who found my file-o-facts and decided to have fun with my account.

I got screamed at and accused of all sorts of nonsense for something that happened while I was out of the country.  When I got back, I got accused of making excuses for "my bad behavior".  There was no defense I could provide, people simply assumed I made up a lie to cover myself.

In the end, I gained a couple of enemies out of it, made a couple of new friends and had to simply accept my lot and get on with life.

No matter what you do, some folks are always going to suspect you regardsless of your past performance.  Nothing matters to some folks except the chance to pile on and attempt to belittle you over something they suspect to be the truth.  Remeber, it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to prove a negative.  How does one prove that they "didn't" do something.

Don't look for moderators to help you.  Their response is usually limited to what they observe as "the facts" and that is it.  No amount of reasoning will change their minds about anything.  They usually have their hands full policying other matters they consider more important than the preceptions others have of you.

In the end, it appears that the providers run the show from the background and with a few exceptions, they can do no wrong.  Once you are accused by a provider of ANYTHING, you are helpless to defend yourself against that accusation or any other supposed affront you may have caused.  I am fortunate that two or three well-known providers have come to my aid in the past or I would probably have been banned quite some time ago.

I know this isn't a solution to your problem, but consider it a bit of sage advice, learned by another following a painful road you are now on.

Regards,
Loarthan

I found out because she sent me a PM asking me to post a review. When I told her I hadn't ever met her she was really irked, frightened. She rattled off some personal information about the guy and it turns out he is Asian. Being of Eastern European descent, I told her it definately wasn't me.

I did alert staff in case this weasel turned out to be a stalker or was abusive.

Cheers,

HPG

under their own TER Alias! Rest assured they are worthless and weak, and probably molest small furry rodents.

HPG

-- Modified on 10/26/2003 7:24:58 AM

....as it's for the 'right' reason & not a case of mistaken identity.  Just as we're in a way known by who our friends are, those who don't like us says something as well.  I'd be proud to be on a couple of peoples' shit-list. LOL

I used the alternate spelling (*e* instead of *a* & keep it all in lower-case) in my user name deliberately & haven't once deviated from it or used another alias, didn't even gobble up any mutations of it to prevent stuff like this...didn't consider that would be necessary.

Is it as easy as he seems to indicate for someone else to take an existing name, alter it slightly, 'claim' it anonymously, & then use it on the boards or in the chatrooms?  I'd like to think that's not possible...for reasons that I'm sure are obvious.

we believe.  Rumors (both careless ones and malicious ones) and ignorance abound.

Yes, it's very easy to alter an existing handle and use it, and there's no way to prevent someone from doing it.  How could we?  When these boards were young, I did ask people who chose handles similar to well-known posters to choose another handle, but even then I could not keep them from doing it in the chat room.  As was suggested, you can add all the permutations of your name that you can think of as aliases to prevent someone else from using them.

I don't know if they were back then (I doubt it), or if the person added something to the name.

Didn't mean to infer that they used a different combination of upper and lower case. This individual called a provider and told her he was HiProGlo in order to get in the door.

My immediate thought was . . . if this dude read my posts as compared to those of other more articulate and clever posters, he could have thought of someone much to impersonate!

Cheers,

HPG