Changing My Account July 22, 2005 7:51 PM   Subscribe

How can I cancel my account? If I can't, how can I change my nick? And if I can't do that, then how can I cancel my account? I kind of ashamed of being a $5 MeFite.
posted by Tlahtolli to MetaFilter-Related at 7:51 PM (115 comments total)

I don't understand.
posted by ColdChef at 7:54 PM on July 22, 2005


It would seem to me that the easiest way would be to click the logout button and then never log back in. Or are you looking for a refund? Given the language on the signup page, I wouldn't be optimistic about that.
posted by delfuego at 7:56 PM on July 22, 2005


I don't really care about the $5. I just don't want for me, Harry Morgan, to exist in Metafilter. I mean, if I created it, I think I should be able to destroy it.
posted by Tlahtolli at 7:59 PM on July 22, 2005


You might succeed in getting your account deleted, but your comments are going to be archived here for all time. Rotsa ruck.
posted by bingo at 8:02 PM on July 22, 2005


'Relax' said the nightman, we are programed to receive.

~signed, a fellow $5 noob
posted by If I Had An Anus at 8:09 PM on July 22, 2005


*scratches chin*
So I'm going to have to break the rules?
posted by Tlahtolli at 8:11 PM on July 22, 2005


Why is Harry Morgan as hard as it gets?

Why is Metafilter designed to keep Harry Morgan in debt?

(even if you convinced mathowie to magically delete all your posts and comments, and good luck with that, it would still be accessible via the wayback machine and presumably other sources. If you really need to get rid of this stuff I suggest a massive EMP strike from the upper atmosphere.)
posted by selfnoise at 8:12 PM on July 22, 2005


Also: in the future, just mail an admin. MeTa has enough of these look-at-me-I-wanna-quit threads.

Unless of course you're going to go BUCK WILD like neu or someone similar. In which case please proceed.
posted by selfnoise at 8:15 PM on July 22, 2005


Well, it's ok about the comments. I think it's weird how people are thinking that I want to delete my comments. I mean, that's ok. I'm not that wedded to them. It's just things Harry Morgan said. But I just don't want Harry Morgan around any more. I want to get rid of him. Help me get rid of him.
posted by Tlahtolli at 8:18 PM on July 22, 2005


What about the M*A*S*H reunion, Harry?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:20 PM on July 22, 2005


/me shoots Harry Morgan.

Well; sorry, but it just doesn't seem to work that way.
posted by yhbc at 8:28 PM on July 22, 2005


Thanks selfnoise. I'll just implode quietly.
posted by Tlahtolli at 8:28 PM on July 22, 2005


What a dumbass.
posted by Mid at 8:37 PM on July 22, 2005


Full moon was last night.
posted by smackfu at 8:38 PM on July 22, 2005


We'll forget all about Harry Morgan if you just give us a chance. Just let the Harry Morgan account fade into oblivion by...not using it.

All you have to do is sign up for a new account, with a new name (tip: don't use the name 'Harry Morgan II'). You'll still be a $5 mefite though.
posted by iconomy at 8:41 PM on July 22, 2005


Don't use Hairy Organ either.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 8:43 PM on July 22, 2005


Or anything with Anus, really.
posted by Mid at 8:44 PM on July 22, 2005


What about the M*A*S*H reunion, Harry?

Sod that, I'm waiting for a She's the Sheriff reunion.

(Okay so for some reason I thought Harry Morgan was on She's the Sheriff. He wasn't. I still want a reunion.)
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:45 PM on July 22, 2005


Alternate plan: send it my home orphaned laundry. We will take good care of him and Harry will have a blast playing with the other minions.

Soon your reputation will be so sullied there's no way anyone would believe that you, the real harry morgan, could have possibly said anything ever attributed to you.

My email is in my profile.

posted by If I Had An Anus at 8:53 PM on July 22, 2005


Please obliviate Harry Morgan. He wants his metafilter output erased and his time here behind him. He can't communicate what he think anyway. He content to go back to laying his nonsense on his friends...
posted by Smart Dalek at 9:09 PM on July 22, 2005


Harry, email me and tell me your new username, and I'll happily change it and lock the account up for no further use.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:15 PM on July 22, 2005


Hey! So what the hell ever happened to my request for "El Grande Cojones?"
posted by yhbc at 9:17 PM on July 22, 2005


By which I mean . . .

One's choice of a user name should be final. I have seen MANY threads from users bemoaning their choices of names, many of which I have joined in, but so long as the ultimate answer (even if it didn't come from mathowie himself) was "hey, you signed up that way, that's the breaks!" was the rule, there was at least a sense of fairness to the process. If you now agree to "happily" change someone's username (when you see the request, and have the time to respond to it), that kinda negates all the prior history, and derogates the process.
posted by yhbc at 9:23 PM on July 22, 2005


Well, since this request has been resolved to everyone's satisfaction (I hope), I want to derail the thread to ask about "/" - specifically, yhbc wrote "/me shoots Harry Morgan." I always thought that the "/" referred to most IRC programs, where commencing a line of input led to the output preceded by the username i.e.:
/wonders about "/"
would output
birdsquared wonders about "/"
but then there's HTML, where "/" is the tag modifier indicating "end", and
I've seen both usages on Meta*: yhbc's above is clearly IRCish, (though it appears to use a redundant "me"), while other posters often use "/derail" or "/snark" which seems more HTMLish - is there some sort of consensus as to which is preferred.

/ends derail
posted by birdsquared at 9:31 PM on July 22, 2005


Good point, yhbc.
A $5 membership entitlement?
posted by If I Had An Anus at 9:32 PM on July 22, 2005


Hmm - this is a little awkward - it appears this thread isn't resolved to everyone's satisfaction - so much for the new lack of mandatory preview...
posted by birdsquared at 9:34 PM on July 22, 2005


No problem - I'll respond to your derail question while we wait for the main resolution.

As I used it (and as I think most folks use it) "/me" is meant to indicate how an IRC user would type a statement; i.e.: "/me gets another beer", which would of course be presented on-screen as *yhbc gets another beer*. I think this is where the other MeFi custom of "action asterisks" came from - that is, actually typing in the asterisks to designate your "action", i.e.:

* pops top, slurps foam *

On the other hand, I (and many others I have seen here) have also used the "slash" in the html way to indicate an "end" to an action as well, i.e.:

/slurps

So, I guess at the end of the day context is key, as per the usual answer dealing with any communication issue.
posted by yhbc at 9:47 PM on July 22, 2005


bird^2

It's both. AFAIK proper syntax for the former is /me engages in pithy third person action.

The later is just a closing tag for pseudo html, without the angle brackets.
posted by loquacious at 9:48 PM on July 22, 2005


email me ... your new username, and I'll ... change it and lock the account up for no further use.

Change what exactly? You mean create a new account, right? (Not change attributions of current posts, of course.) And ?lock? Harry Morgan?

Are there examples of a 'locked' accounts already?
posted by If I Had An Anus at 9:50 PM on July 22, 2005


How can I get "Bunnyfire" back?
posted by konolia at 10:07 PM on July 22, 2005


I can send out a call for sacrificial virgins around these parts, but they're few and far between. You may be out of luck.
posted by yhbc at 10:13 PM on July 22, 2005


/me gets it now.

I guess I misremembered my IRC syntax.

I also should have known better than to think that ANY issue would be resolved to everyone's satisfaction on Meta*.
posted by birdsquared at 10:24 PM on July 22, 2005


"How can I get "Bunnyfire" back?"

I'd pay to see that!
posted by mischief at 10:26 PM on July 22, 2005


Tlahtolli? What the hell kind of name is that? I want Harry Morgan back! Come back, Harry! Come baaaaack......
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:34 PM on July 22, 2005


Also, /em is used in a lot of games as shorthand for "emote", thus a user would type /em wave, and the game would display the character waving and the text "CharacterX waves at everyone."
posted by dejah420 at 10:47 PM on July 22, 2005


... I just don't want for me, Harry Morgan, to exist in Metafilter...
posted by Tlahtolli


IIHAA wrote: (Not change attributions of current posts, of course.)

I guess some things are more "of course" than others.
posted by birdsquared at 10:54 PM on July 22, 2005


Donde esta "Mike Hunt"?

Whither?
posted by bardic at 11:24 PM on July 22, 2005 [1 favorite]


Now I'm really confused.
posted by ColdChef at 11:24 PM on July 22, 2005


My mind has melted.
posted by Quartermass at 11:34 PM on July 22, 2005


Was it something we said? Why would anyone want to leave the compound?
Could we have an ad hoc committee to investigate this matter?
posted by Cranberry at 11:34 PM on July 22, 2005


I'm still trying to work out the recursiveness of the original question.
posted by crunchland at 11:49 PM on July 22, 2005


Well, I'm a brand spanking new MeFite.

Tlahtolli means "word" in nahuatl. That's an indigenous language from Mexico.
posted by Tlahtolli at 12:20 AM on July 23, 2005


Cranberry: Listen, it wasn't you, any of you. It was me. But I'm a new person now and I'm over whatever happened in the past.
posted by Tlahtolli at 12:22 AM on July 23, 2005


please oscillate Tlahtolli.
posted by ori at 12:31 AM on July 23, 2005


Tlahtolli means "word" in nahuatl. That's an indigenous language from Mexico.

Aw, that's so ethnic! Do you have a tribal tattoo?
posted by ori at 12:32 AM on July 23, 2005


Urge to destroy... rising.
posted by squirrel at 12:44 AM on July 23, 2005


Matt - when you're done can you please change my username to Harry Morgan?

Thanks, man.
posted by scarabic at 1:45 AM on July 23, 2005


This is utterly confusing until you realize that Tlahtolli used to be "Harry Morgan."
posted by grouse at 1:49 AM on July 23, 2005


I just don't want for me, Harry Morgan, to exist in Metafilter

MetaPhysical
posted by matteo at 2:14 AM on July 23, 2005


Thanks, grouse, now this starts to make sense. (Though, on first glance, Harry Morgan's posting history seems nothing to be ashamed of.)
posted by rjs at 2:42 AM on July 23, 2005


Matt, can you change my user name to 'Morgan Harry?"
Thanks.
posted by fixedgear at 3:19 AM on July 23, 2005


Whoops, bad precedent. So if someone wants to change their username they just have to start a whiny thread in MetaTalk. Uh oh. I don't think you thought this one through Matt.
posted by sic at 3:31 AM on July 23, 2005


Wow, I don't believe it.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 4:01 AM on July 23, 2005


Matt, can you change my user name to 'Morgan Harry?

Soooooooo, fixedgear is available then, right?
posted by cyphill at 5:07 AM on July 23, 2005


I changed my mind, sorry about the confusion.
posted by Harry Morgan at 5:35 AM on July 23, 2005


sic : "So if someone wants to change their username they just have to start a whiny thread in MetaTalk. Uh oh. I don't think you thought this one through Matt."

I think, judging from Matt's comment, that it's not just changing the username, but changing the username and locking the account. That is, Tlahtolli will be unable to use his new Tlahtolli account, and his posts will all remain, but his posts will not be Googlable by using his real name.
posted by Bugbread at 6:26 AM on July 23, 2005


Harry Morgan : "I changed my mind, sorry about the confusion."

Sockpuppet, or really reregistered?

(er, obviously, this question is directed at Matt, because you can't get a straight answer like that from the person in question)
posted by Bugbread at 6:27 AM on July 23, 2005


mad props to whoever re-registered that name. just made my morning.
posted by andrew cooke at 6:39 AM on July 23, 2005


That's awesome.

Mind you, I still can't make heads or tails of this whole thread...
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:57 AM on July 23, 2005


roffle.
posted by Kwantsar at 7:58 AM on July 23, 2005


Woah

/keanu
posted by bdave at 8:52 AM on July 23, 2005


please disable my posting privileges. after you deleted my two comments in the dead gay iraqi teen thread, i swore off posting. though i have tried to stop, i posted again today in the blue. now i'm posting in the gray. i am powerless over posting, and my life has become unmanageable. i'm totally serious. you don't have to change my name though. some users exist just to serve as a warning to others.
posted by quonsar at 9:23 AM on July 23, 2005


What? Huh? NO!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:39 AM on July 23, 2005


ori: I'm actually Mexican.
Hi Harry!
posted by Tlahtolli at 9:56 AM on July 23, 2005


Er...ok, since Tlahtolli is still posting, I guess my interpretation of what Matt said was wrong.
posted by Bugbread at 10:24 AM on July 23, 2005


since i am still posting, i guess mine was too.
posted by quonsar at 10:26 AM on July 23, 2005


Seriously, will someone tell me what the funky fuck is going on?
posted by ColdChef at 10:26 AM on July 23, 2005


Maybe Matt meant that the old account would be locked.
posted by Tlahtolli at 10:27 AM on July 23, 2005


well, my guess is that matt changed the db field with the username text for user 23016, from "Harry Morgan" to "Tlahtolli". that then meant that when someone tried to register "Harry Morgan" as a new user, it was accepted (i would guess that the code simply checks against existing values, and "harry Morgan" no longer existed).

hence anything previously posted by user 23016 now appear attributed to "Tlahtolli" (on dynamically generated pages - is anything permanently static here?). things posted by (new, presumably) user 26186 appear attributed to "Harry Morgan"

just a guess.
posted by andrew cooke at 10:40 AM on July 23, 2005


in other words, the user number is used as the key field in the database. the name is just some field used when pages are rendered.
posted by andrew cooke at 10:43 AM on July 23, 2005


(the only problem i see with my theory being that for some reason i thought we were in numbers 30,000 up).
posted by andrew cooke at 10:45 AM on July 23, 2005


In our last episode . . .

(1) A user named Harry Morgan posted this thread.

(2) Sometime Friday night / Saturday morning, Matt changed Harry Morgan's name to Tlahtolli, apparently per Harry's request. The Tlahtolli nick is now substituted for the Harry Morgan nick retroactively -- i.e., comments made by Harry Morgan now show the new nick.

(3) Many people are confused because: (i) it's weird that someone would want to change their nick rather than just registering a new account; (ii) Matt seems to have changed the guy's nick, even though it seemed to most that you couldn't just up and ask Matt to change your nick; (iii) Quonsar seems to be asking to be deleted, but may be joking.
posted by Mid at 10:51 AM on July 23, 2005


(2b) someone else then posted under "Harry Morgan"
posted by andrew cooke at 11:05 AM on July 23, 2005


Oh, I missed that.
posted by Mid at 11:08 AM on July 23, 2005


If you can be Harry Morgan, I wanna be Jamie Farr.
posted by wendell at 11:56 AM on July 23, 2005


What does "I kind of ashamed of being a $5 MeFite" mean, in this context, anyway? How does changing the username affect this? Or was it just gratuitous information?

Also, well... just to mention the bleeding obvious: posts such as this one by spazzm that respond to a user by name make no sense if that name is later changed. But we knew that, didn't we?
posted by taz at 12:05 PM on July 23, 2005


maybe he really was called harry morgan?
that's what i assumed until i googled that name.... (but then this thread kind of dooms any attempt to be anonymous).
posted by andrew cooke at 12:16 PM on July 23, 2005


I sometimes wonder why dreamsign says these things. Must I be dreamsign? Could I have not paid the $5, or was this destiny predetermined?

/psychotic break
posted by dreamsign at 12:27 PM on July 23, 2005


the original harry had a long personal story about why his nick had to be changed. I didn't lock the account because I assumed he would stop posting, based on what he'd said (that he didn't want to participate, just wanted to leave and take the name away). Him posting a bunch here is confusing and I have to do something about it, as I don't want to go around changing people's nicks every day. I only do it in extreme circumstances, and that usually involves people with harrasment problems and/or google searches that ended up with them losing job offers, etc.. This seemed like one of those special cases.

So I've blocked the account. Original harry, if you're reading this, feel free to sign up a new account if you want to continue, but the old account is locked and name changed per your request.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:27 PM on July 23, 2005


I know you know the rest of the story.
posted by Harry Morgan at 2:48 PM on July 23, 2005


Huh? I meant ... And now you know the rest of the story.
posted by Harry Morgan at 2:56 PM on July 23, 2005


Am I dreaming all this? When I awake will my name turn out to be Mary Horgan?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:01 PM on July 23, 2005


so he wants the man's money, after sticking it to him? should've been an academic.
posted by andrew cooke at 3:03 PM on July 23, 2005


Are you referring to Matt, andrew cooke? Man, that dude just can't win. He did something nice -- and extremely unorthodox -- for Original Harry.

Original Harry: If your name is really Harry Morgan, I apologize for the Hairy Organ crack (I bet you've never heard that one before).
posted by If I Had An Anus at 3:53 PM on July 23, 2005


Now I'm even more confused. Do you mean Harry Morgan was the REAL Harry Morgan? But now he's not.... something... er... and Harry Morgan isn't really who he, uh, we, thought he was? And now somebody else is Harry Morgan. How do we know this isn't ALL THE SAME PERSON.

*collapses and obliviates*
posted by warbaby at 4:50 PM on July 23, 2005


Wow, this is like a psychological thriller, except.....online.


Can I be Nicole Kidman with an implacable East European accent?
posted by cyphill at 5:14 PM on July 23, 2005


If I am ever tried by jury, I want Matt as the foreman.

] That's a compliment. [
posted by mischief at 5:24 PM on July 23, 2005


I'll bet Harry Morgan is really Donald Luskin.
posted by gsteff at 5:59 PM on July 23, 2005


Actually, the original Harry Morgan was Kaycee Nicole.

But don't tell anyone I told you so.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:11 PM on July 23, 2005


I paid $5. Some of cheapest entertainment dollars ever spent.
posted by Balisong at 6:29 PM on July 23, 2005


Tlahtolli writes "ori: I'm actually Mexican."

Another sockpuppet revealed.
posted by mexican at 7:45 PM on July 23, 2005


Gold. Especially iconomy, taz and, um, Harry Morgan. But like ColdChef, I still have no idea what's going on.
posted by soyjoy at 7:48 PM on July 23, 2005


To the MetaFilter community:
I kindly beseech of you that from this comment on I be referred to either as $user21491 or 'The member formerly known as Edible Energy'
posted by Edible Energy at 8:14 PM on July 23, 2005


It is illegal for you to read this post. Please turn yourself in to the authorities for processing.
posted by Balisong at 8:20 PM on July 23, 2005 [1 favorite]


Fortunately, I'm illiterate.
posted by kenko at 9:10 PM on July 23, 2005 [1 favorite]


Are you referring to Matt, andrew cooke?
no, i'm not.
i was guessing, from ex-harry's posts (the usual mefi whining about bush et al), that he must have missed out on some political job. otherwise, i can't see anything else even remotely interesting about the contents - unless it's the time stamps.
posted by andrew cooke at 8:06 AM on July 24, 2005


Can I be Nicole Kidman with an implacable East European accent?

That's right, folks. There is no appeasing Kidman's accent.
posted by cortex at 10:38 AM on July 24, 2005


It's truly voracious
posted by cyphill at 11:20 AM on July 24, 2005


Tlahtolli writes "ori: I'm actually Mexican."

Another sockpuppet revealed.
posted by mexican at 7:45 PM PST on July 23 [!]


I'm just grateful this thread is almost over.
posted by grateful at 1:30 PM on July 24, 2005


Metafilter: I'm actually Mexican.
posted by Mid at 2:10 PM on July 24, 2005


Metafilter: Please turn yourself into the authorities for processing.
posted by cyphill at 3:01 PM on July 24, 2005


Metafilter: I'm just grateful this thread is almost over.
posted by Rothko at 3:36 PM on July 24, 2005


Metafilter: It's truly voracious.
posted by voltairemodern at 4:00 PM on July 24, 2005


Never!
posted by drezdn at 5:14 PM on July 24, 2005


So if I understand correctly, Harry is no longer Harry, but could possibly return at some future point, but this wouldn't be Harry, but someone who is currently someone else?

Righto.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:44 PM on July 24, 2005


Hi, grateful
posted by If I Had An Anus at 9:51 PM on July 24, 2005


Doesn't the text of this thread make the whole switch pointless as anyone googling the name could come up with a link to this thread which clearly shows who Harry is now.
posted by drezdn at 10:50 PM on July 24, 2005


I died. I spend all day on a mountain and this is what I miss.
posted by gramschmidt at 12:12 AM on July 25, 2005


Hey! So what the hell ever happened to my request for "El Grande Cojones?"

yhbc, that should either be Los Grande Cojones or El Grande Cojón. Maybe Matt'll change you to the latter. You can be like that ball in The Prisoner. Only pink & hairy.
posted by mono blanco at 5:39 AM on July 25, 2005


Suppose I change my monicker to "Davy" because I didn't know when I signed up that we could use capital letters in login names here? (In old-time Unixland such was not done, and I still don't see that much of it on Metafilter.) Or maybe I should also change that to "Davey" (see the E?) because that's the way my mother spells it? Or better yet, is "Stalin" taken (that'd be a sly homage to Mayor Curley)? Or maybe I should go whole hog and call myself "God".
posted by davy at 10:22 AM on July 25, 2005


Interestingly enough, God modeled his voice after mine. We were doing Jello shooters behind the Pic-n-Sav one night and he told me he was thinking of ditching medical transcription and going into either religion or theatre. I said he should combine the two. True story.
posted by Harry Morgan at 3:01 PM on July 28, 2005


Wasn't it said that all conversations end when Hitler comes up?


Hitler.
posted by glenwood at 7:08 AM on July 29, 2005


Interestingly enough, God modeled his voice after mine.

That is so not true.
posted by Voice of God at 12:21 PM on July 29, 2005


wow this thread is still kickin?
that's my momma!
posted by Edible Energy at 1:30 PM on July 30, 2005


Hitler? I hardly knew her!
posted by If I Had An Anus at 6:29 AM on August 2, 2005


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