Two users with the same name

[mike_godwin1]

How do you have 2 users on this system with the same name?<p>

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=2409254">Mike

Godwin</a><p>

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=3917814">mike

godwin</a><p>

 

Must be case sensitive for user names. Not a good idea.

[ty_mixon]

hmmm . . . I'm glad my name is very unusual. ;)

[joshroot]

There is no interlock to keep people from having the same name. As in life, people on photo.net sometimes have the same name.

 

However, I have been thinking that it is probably time to put something in the system to stop that. Though in the past decades, I can only think of a few times it has caused a problem. So perhaps it's not that important. I'd rather see a couple people with the same name than start seeing users with names like "NikonLuvr342".

 

I'd much rather have a forum discussion with Mike Goodwin than NikonLuvr342.

[ty_mixon]

Josh,

 

I agree with you, but w/o any other unique ID's (face, voice, body) it can be difficult for everyone to know which Mike they are speaking too. I'd rather see Mike Godwin & Mike L. Godwin. Or some form of easy to use unique ID.

[joshroot]

I'm happy to change a user name for anyone in that position. They just need to contact me through the "contact photo.net" link at the bottom of the page.

[mike_godwin1]

I don't think it's any big deal. I just thought it was weird that I had 2 join dates till I read some of the postings from the other one and knew I never wrote those. At least no one has sent me anymore hate mail thinking I'm the Mike Godwin that wrote the Mike Godwin Law for the Usenet. Hell, I'm better looking then he is and I still have all of my hair! ;-)

[bobatkins]

I've always considered the ability to have multiple users with the same name to be a liability for the site and for users. However up to this point I haven't had a lot of luck convincing previous "powers that be" that I'm right!

 

Think yourself lucky you're not "Adam Smith", since we have 29 of them registered, or even worse "John Smith". We have several hundred members named "John Smith". "Ansel Adams" has five accounts here, even though he's dead and I think we have even more "John Doe" accounts than we do "John Smith" accounts.

 

Sounds like Josh may be coming around to my way of thinking, so maybe we'll see some sort of restriction in the future. It hasn't been a huge problem so far, but one day it will be if we don't do something about it.

 

The solution is to require a unique user name. That can be done with a middle initial and/or a Zip code or other locator.

 

e.g. John Q. Smith - New York 10101

[joseph_wisniewski]

There is actually another "Joseph WIsniewski" on photo.net.

[peter_daalder]

Spare a thought for all the <a href="http://www.photo.net/community/directory/lookup.tcl?last_name=smith&email="> Smith</a> and <a href="http://www.photo.net/community/directory/lookup.tcl?last_name=jones&email="> Jones'</a>

[Mike Howard]

Look how many Michael or Mike Howard's there are :). I don't even know who I am any more.

[joseph_wisniewski]

Bob, there is a very much alive photographer in Chicago named "Ansel Adams". He's in his 20s, and although no relation, his parents (photographers, surname Adams) did indeed name him after the more famous Ansel.

 

In Ford, the email system worked with 8 character user names. First initial of your given name, and up to 7 characters of your last name. First come, first serve, if your name was taken, you got some of the characters at the end replaced with digits.

 

Although "jsmith" went up to about jsmith70, it was J Williams that was the most common name on out system. I searched it once, it was the only name that went into three digits, like jwill145. Of course, once they passed jwilli99, the jwillXXX name could also absorb J Wills, J Willis, etc.

 

Fortunately, of all the Joseph Wisniewskis at Ford, I got my corporate email first, so I was jwisniew@ford.com. The next one was jwisnie1, then jwisnie2.

 

It took a lot of high end corporate approval to get outside this system. From what I hear, poor Frank Ucker had to go all the way to the director level to get someone to sign off on changing his email to franku or uckerf or something.

 

VP and above used an entirely different email system, so they wouldn't get constant emails from the rank and file.

[bobatkins]

Well we do have a unique email system! You can't register with different names at the same email address.

 

Names aren't unique identifiers in most cases (hence the use of social security numbers by the government) and in most situations they don't need to be, but I think this is one situation where they do.

 

Obviously everyone should be able to use their own name, even if that name is John Smith, Ansel Adams, George Bush or Albert Einstein. However that doesn't mean they can't add an identifier to their name if someone else "got there first". I don't much like numbers, but middle initials and/or location doesn't seem like much of a burden.

 

We probably don't really want too many "mobster" names though. I'd draw the line at John "The Enforcer" Smith, though Lex did sneak under the wire with his name!

[joseph_wisniewski]

OK, first, I have to warn you that I'm sick today, and heavily under the influence of cough syrup. Which seems an acceptable condition, considering the direction this conversation is going it. Especially since I actually figured out the answer. More on that in a few paragraphs. But first...

 

I thought "Will Smith" was "The Enforcer", not "John Smith". Can you imagine photography with enforcers? Punch, kick! "You have violated the rule of thirds, and your background distracts from the primary subject". Kick, slap, slap. "The eyes are not in focus". Punch, punch...

 

My friend Bryce Denison, who studied under Ansel Adams has a dog named Einstein. ;)

 

Back to the original subject, I can only see one way out of this. Barcodes...

 

Bob Atkins 58421698713335487611, you have until June 1 to report to your nearest photo.net authorized tattoo parlor for your photo.net barcode tattoo. All subscribers should receive their USB interfaced barcode readers by then.