Whimsical

[liv]

I have discovered that the username ewe was recently returned to the pool of available names. I'm really quite tempted to change to that, so I need you guys to help me make the decision. (Good usernames don't hang around very long, so if I wanted it, I'd have to act fairly fast.)

Pro:

• It's a very cool username.
• A three-letter username would have a certain cachet.
• I'd be supporting LJ by buying a rename token.
• I don't like livredor as a handle; I meant it to be the title of my blog, and it doesn't really work as an identity.

Con:

• It would cost $15.
• It might confuse people who have got used to calling me livredor or Liv.
• I've kind of built up an identity as livredor, even if I didn't intend that when I created the name.
• I have a subdomain at livredor.p5.org.uk, and a email address based on livredor@[domain], and I've generally been using livredor on quite a few places on the web apart from LJ now.
• People might confuse me with ewx

[Poll #491216]

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Nay, nay, and thrice nay. It's just not you.

I may be mildly biased from having worked a couple of years at the same institution as some people studying memory and face recognition in sheep, but the things are stupid, and you're so not.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hypatia_/]

Livredor is a very cool name also, it would be kind of a shame to change.

What you could do is bag 'ewe' as a free account for a while and try it out to see if it 'fits' at all and then make the switch if you still want to? Thereby postponing an actual decision :)

[liv]

Nay, nay, and thrice nay.
That's very decisive! And I'm not sure it's fair to give you five votes for being emphatic, but why not, since this is a very non-serious poll anyway.

the things are stupid

Be you mutton or be you lamb,
Be you ewe or be you ram,
I'll tell you this, by hook or by crook,
I bain't as stupid as I look.

Dick King-Smith, quoted from memory.

and you're so not.
Well, thank you for that! You'll have to blame my parents for giving me an inappropriate name, if I'm not stupid enough to be Ewe.

[liv]

Livredor is a very cool name also
Thank you! I think other people like it more than I do, which might be a reason to keep it.

What you could do is bag 'ewe' as a free account for a while and try it out
Sadly this is not possible; LJ doesn't allow you to create a new account with a name that was formerly in use. If you want old names you have to change the name of an existing account. Otherwise it would be a good idea, if slightly mean.

If you dont like your original...

[ayan77.livejournal.com]

... than change it to "ewe". :)
you know whats funny ... my boyfriend, Alex, and I say ..."I love ewe" lol ..meaning you ...but being cute ..of course ...but "ewe" would be a cool name... yes ...your friends might be confused ...but they would get used to it ...just let them know you have changed it ... you know ... have fun with your new possible name ...you know ...
sincerely ...
natalie

Another reason not: homonyms

[redbird]

This is selfish of me, I admit: I sometimes talk about people by their LiveJournal handles, especially when someone is likely to know the person that way if at all, and I suspect saying something like "My and rysmiel's friend Rachel, who is Ewe on LiveJournal" would lead to confusion.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hypatia_/]

Sadly this is not possible; LJ doesn't allow you to create a new account with a name that was formerly in use.

Ah I didn't realise that. Does this mean that even if you are new and want a disused name you need to create a temporary account and then 'adopt' from it?


Ethically I think its OK to squat for a little while if you want to try out the name - its not like you are planning to keep both permanently. In fact I see no particular problem with using both permanently if you used them for different things eg Livredor maybe for all you books discussions and Ewe for 'the meaning of life' because you would actually be using them both rather than simply sitting on a name. I keep a seperate blog for work which has no overlap with anything else and I know a few bloggers and LJers who do something similar - two strands for two aspects of life, sets of interests or even personae although work/non work seems the common split. Mind you this may predate easy subject organisation with Wordpress/MoveableType style software.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

If you change, can you switch back if it doesn't work?

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

It's certainly witty. I like it, me.

[mummimamma.livejournal.com]

Well, do you consider yourself an livredor or an ewe? I admit that I like the sound of livredor (Dr. Livredor!), but the journal of ewe would still be a livre d'or, right?

As for stupid sheep, well, there's a saying in Norway, Sauer er ålreite dyr - "Sheep are all right animals", so there!
Long story about a party who, years ago, wanted to give more more money to sheep farming. When asked "why sheep?" the politician in charge couldn't come up with a better reason.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Only if she plans it beforehand, and pays more money.

(Basically, she'd have to create a dummy account and rename that, for $15, to "livredor", displacing the current "livredor" to something like "ex_livredor821", then rename *that* account to "ewe".)

[pne.livejournal.com]

Ah I didn't realise that. Does this mean that even if you are new and want a disused name you need to create a temporary account and then 'adopt' from it?

Basically, yes.

So that'd cost $15 for the "free" account, since you have to buy a rename token.

Then if she decides she likes the name and would like to move over all the content (and paid time, and styles, etc.) from "livredor" to "ewe", she could still do so, but would have to pay another $15.

A baaaaad idea

[neonchameleon.livejournal.com]

Too confusing - you're using livredor too much online and ewe sounds far too like "you", which would make those odd "and [foo] on LJ" introductions that much more confusing.

[liv]

Does this mean that even if you are new and want a disused name you need to create a temporary account and then 'adopt' from it?
Yes, that is exactly how the system is set up. I don't know entirely why this is; it's either that old names should not be resuable at all, and it's a loophole, or it's that the account creation thing has an overly strict way of checking whether a name is free.

Ethically I think its OK to squat for a little while if you want to try out the name
Well, since TPTB are talking about actually purging deleted accounts more regularly, I think it's not such a problem. In the past, if you squatted a username and then decided to delete it, it could be years before it was made available again. Also, this only applies to buying a previously used name; squatting a new username is pretty mean, because you change it from being free and easily available, to costing $15 and only available to those in the know.

two strands for two aspects of life, sets of interests or even personae
I very much don't want to have more than one journal. Not that it's in principle a bad idea, just it really doesn't suit me. (I have a secondary journal, dictyostelium, which I use for watching high traffic communities, but I don't post anything meaningful there.)

[liv]

Hi Natalie, nice to meet you and thanks for the advice!

[liv]

See, this argument appeals to my vanity, because I'm always happy for people to talk about me. Being referred to as your friend and rysmiel's seems a good motivation for keeping my current name.

[liv]

can you switch back
Essentially, no. See pne's comment for technical details. But even apart from the fact that I can't get my $15 back, it's pretty irreversible.

[liv]

*hi-five* I like the way you show up with all the helpful technical details as soon as there's a question about how LJ works. I'm pretty sure you and I have worked together on complex renaming issues in the past, too.

[liv]

Mm, I'm really tempted now, even though lots of other people have put compelling arguments against. Dilemma dilemma.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I changed my vote from 'no' to 'yes' as well; it doesn't sound that bad, and fits your name.

[pne.livejournal.com]

*blush*

I can't claim all the credit, though; this entry (http://www.livejournal.com/community/howtosupport/2994.html) by rho helped me gain my understanding, and there was a post by... someone in some support community somewhere which I can't find just now which talked, IIRC, specifically about how to prepare a rename so that you could rename back, by using a dummy account.

But yes, I like to be helpful :) And I don't mind the occasional dig around LiveJournal's source code to answer a question of how, exactly, things work.

I remember one of my own support requests was about how renaming works, and involved isabeau grovelling around the source code... ah yes, here it is (http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=104570). Fairly detailed answer, no?

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

You could have both, and have one for personal and one for professional, or something...look at me, trying really hard to think of reasons you should have "ewe."

[liv]

You could have both
I really don't want two journals. The LJ system isn't well set up for it, and I want to keep all my friends in one place, and it would just lead to extra complication which isn't helpful.

one for personal and one for professional
There might be something to be said for having a blog that I didn't mind associating with my name, and that I would be happy to let employers etc find when they googled me. The trouble is I have no idea at all what I'd put in it.

trying really hard to think of reasons you should have "ewe."
The problem is that if it's a case of converting my existing journal, I can justify the money to myself. But if it's buying a secondary journal (when I could just create a free one, albeit with a less cool name), it seems extravagant.

[liv]

Well, do you consider yourself an livredor or an ewe?
That's exactly the problem: I don't think of myself as livredor, that's just the name of the journal. That's really why I'm thinking of changing in the first place, cos I want something that feels more like my name.

I admit that I like the sound of livredor (Dr. Livredor!)
*broad grin* Thank you!

the journal of ewe would still be a livre d'or, right?
Oh yes, definitely. That feels like an argument for keeping the current name though.

As for stupid sheep, well, there's a saying in Norway, Sauer er ålreite dyr
Thanks for that little snippet, I really like that story!

[liv]

Too confusing
Oh well, fair enough. Those are the arguments which are already inclining me towards the negative.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

On second thoughts, I think you should devote yourself to finding a really awesome domain name instead.

[liv]

I have screened this comment because it's gratuitously offensive. I welcome debate but there is no point in insults with no actual content. And if you have a personal problem with me, please identify yourself and tell me why you are angry with me, because otherwise there's no useful way we can proceed.

That said, I suspect you are just a random drive-by troll, in which case you won't see this reply.