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We're currently having an issue with a troll on this site, who is creating accounts that impersonate (real) user Eddie Kal.

https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/51692/eddie-kal https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/51691/eddie-kal

My question is, aren't usernames meant to be unique? How is it possible for someone to be creating these?

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    I've seen users change their name in the past (one of our previously moderators did it a lot). I think the unique identifier is in the user code (in the links above the number (51691/51692)) but that's a suspicion
    – ajsmart
    Jun 22, 2022 at 20:38
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    I suspect this is the same idiot I refer to obliquely in this other thread (Content filters and/or IP range blocking?) asking how better we could prevent this kind of abuse in general. (NB: Not Eddie himself, but whoever it is that is trying to impersonate him.)
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Jun 22, 2022 at 21:05

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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If you've been flagging these posts, please continue to do so. Meanwhile I have escalated this case to the Community Management team and they should have higher level moderation and administration tools to help

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    I have been flagging these consistently. I'm concerned with how easy it is for display names to be spoofed. I was under the impression these should be considered unique per site (at least up to appearance). I thought they might be using Unicode lookalike characters, but I confirmed that they are not.
    – jogloran
    Jun 22, 2022 at 23:39
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    The names are allowed to be the same, the user IDs are the ones that are unique
    – Flaw Mod
    Jun 22, 2022 at 23:45
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    I'm curious, is there any good reason to allow multiple users with the same display name? I can't think of a compelling use case, and allowing this seems to open the door to exactly the kind of abuse mentioned in this thread.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Jun 23, 2022 at 7:01
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    @EiríkrÚtlendi I agree that this type of abuse is somehow way too easy. I think one of the motivations for allowing non-unique display names is to enable everyone to use their real name (first name or full name) as display name, even if someone has the same name as you.
    – Earthliŋ Mod
    Jun 23, 2022 at 8:14
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    @Earthliŋ, thank you for that idea. I can't say as I agree with that approach, precisely because of the excessive opportunity for abuse. For something similar, that still allows for unique handles, SE could just stick a number on the end for successive iterations of the same handle -- much like is done for email accounts.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Jun 23, 2022 at 16:39
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    The spammer strikes again... japanese.stackexchange.com/users/51714/eddie-kukelkal japanese.stackexchange.com/users/51713/kukelcamel ...
    – jogloran
    Jun 23, 2022 at 20:16
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    Somebody's been creating new accounts (like 10-20 in the past hour) and spamming nonesense and slurs as new questions. Basically all the new questions are the same spammer.
    – Esther
    Jun 23, 2022 at 20:30
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    We need a way of solving these issues. I'm actually a little surprised there's no efficient moderation technique across StackExchange for situations like this (e.g. an IP range ban).
    – jogloran
    Jun 23, 2022 at 20:32
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i cannot comment yet because i lack the website points but my question was a target of the abuse in the past days

fortunately things have slowed down but i too checked the new users list and it seems theres a lot of similarly named chinese accounts being created currently, please look into this

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  • just as i posted this there is a new wave of accounts posting gore pictures
    – gashapon_gyambura
    Jun 25, 2022 at 21:54
  • What is your connection with these spammers?
    – Jimmy Yang
    Jun 25, 2022 at 22:35
  • they posted abusive answers to my question
    – gashapon_gyambura
    Jun 25, 2022 at 23:05
  • Huh? Nothing about the recent spate of spammers suggests they're Chinese.
    – jogloran
    Jun 26, 2022 at 3:04
  • thats not what i meant, if you take a look at the latest batch of new users there are a lot of chinese accounts that have a similar name containing the characters 平台总代 and identical about mes
    – gashapon_gyambura
    Jun 26, 2022 at 10:52
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    Profile spammers are unfortunately a thing around the SE network. I have deleted the accounts.
    – Flaw Mod
    Jun 27, 2022 at 2:07
  • @gashapon_gyambura Apologies, I thought you were referring to the previous spate of spammers (circa June 23)
    – jogloran
    Jun 30, 2022 at 0:31

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