I thought it was decided that Unicode usernames were a bad thing

November 17, 2005 5:18 AM

After the 김치 hubbub, I thought it was decided that Unicode usernames were a bad thing. So what about our new friend ND¢? What's the range of valid username characters? 0x0001 through 0x00FF?
posted by Plutor to Etiquette/Policy at 5:18 AM (66 comments total)

Nothing against ND¢, or his username. I merely ask for clarification.
posted by Plutor at 5:19 AM on November 17, 2005

Isn't "¢" within 8-bit ASCII?
posted by mcwetboy at 6:11 AM on November 17, 2005

Apparently not. Surprising.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:14 AM on November 17, 2005

김치 posted some great links, I wish he or she was still with us.
posted by LarryC at 6:24 AM on November 17, 2005

I don't know what Unicode is, or what this sentence means, "What's the range of valid username characters? 0x0001 through 0x00FF?". I do like my username though, and I hope that I get to keep it.

ND¢ is my rap name. I don't really rap, but if I suddenly develop the ability to, I am glad that I have a rap name already picked out.

I also take no offense at the question being asked. I know that you have to have certain rules and self-policing to make a site like this work, so if my username has to go, then so be it.
posted by ND¢ at 6:33 AM on November 17, 2005

Is it pronounced Indecent? Hmm I think I need a rap name too. Just in case.

*ponders*
posted by iconomy at 6:43 AM on November 17, 2005

There's no such thing as 8-bit ASCII. ASCII is a 7-bit code.
posted by grouse at 6:46 AM on November 17, 2005

김치 posted some great links, I wish he or she was still with us.

Yeah, but orthogonality seems to be back, so it's not a total loss.
posted by grouse at 6:47 AM on November 17, 2005

iconomy: "Is it pronounced Indecent?"

Shit, I didn't pick up on that. Now I decidedly don't want your username to go. And, yeah, the cent character is in ASCII space. Maybe any eight-bit characters work. Presumably the code removes spaces (0x20), but would it remove the " " (0xA0) character? Or " " or " " (0x09 and 0x0A)? Would a user name of "mathowie " work? Someone with five spare dollars care to try?
posted by Plutor at 6:48 AM on November 17, 2005

It is in the standard 8-bit ISO 8859-1 and the Windows ANSI codepages.
posted by smackfu at 6:49 AM on November 17, 2005

£ U.N. D'Azz
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:17 AM on November 17, 2005

I get it "N D Cent!"

*goes back to bed...
posted by Quartermass at 7:18 AM on November 17, 2005

Heh, I didn't get the 'indecent' thing either.
posted by delmoi at 7:24 AM on November 17, 2005

Wouldn't "endecent" mean "to make decent"?
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:26 AM on November 17, 2005

Quite so, citizen!
posted by NbigN at 7:35 AM PST on November 17 [!]


Simpsons reference? Dork!
posted by cortex at 7:37 AM on November 17, 2005

ND¢ is my rap name. I don't really rap, but if I suddenly develop the ability to, I am glad that I have a rap name already picked out.

I like him. Can we keep him, dad?
posted by blag at 7:44 AM on November 17, 2005

Damn. Those were some cool links.
posted by lodurr at 7:46 AM on November 17, 2005

JLB8
posted by fire&wings at 7:49 AM on November 17, 2005

Pssst, fire&wings, how is your cat doing?
posted by Gator at 7:57 AM on November 17, 2005

ND¢ is my rap name.

Ah, I get it. So "N" is kinda the brother of "Fid."
posted by soyjoy at 8:04 AM on November 17, 2005 [1 favorite]

L'il Brul Gilt

And I second Gator's question to F&W--how's kitty?
posted by frykitty at 8:07 AM on November 17, 2005

What's wrong with unicode names?
posted by afu at 8:07 AM on November 17, 2005

Would a user name of "mathowie " work?

been done. can't find the link to that thread tough
posted by terrapin at 8:12 AM on November 17, 2005

afu: willful impersonation of other users through the use of logically-different but graphically similar/identical unicode characters. We had a fake quonsar, at one point, for example.
posted by cortex at 8:16 AM on November 17, 2005

And, I suppose, lack of out-of-box support for all unicode dispaly characters on all common browsers would make for a lot of "what's with that funny box nickname" comments.
posted by cortex at 8:18 AM on November 17, 2005

Clever cortex.
I got caught.
Ex.
posted by NinjaPirate at 8:20 AM on November 17, 2005

(and I read the name as "N-descent", perhaps some sort of aeronautical term. perhaps I should donate my head to someone who will use it)
posted by NinjaPirate at 8:22 AM on November 17, 2005

Is it pronounced Indecent?

iconomy: "Is it pronounced Indecent?" Shit, I didn't pick up on that.

I get it "N D Cent!" *goes back to bed...

Heh, I didn't get the 'indecent' thing either.

Wouldn't "endecent" mean "to make decent"?

I read the name as "N-descent", perhaps some sort of aeronautical term.

So, I have been posting stuff here for a week or so, and I kept expecting someone to stop mid-thread, and say, "Wow, what a cool and hilarious username you have there. You are truly a genius and should be worshipped as such". When no such reaction came to the greatness of my username, I started to think, "Maybe I'm not so clever". Well, it turns out someone wasn't so clever after all.
posted by ND¢ at 8:35 AM on November 17, 2005

It's "Hat Maui" all over again. And yes, I still "hear" HOT Maui in my head.
posted by deborah at 8:36 AM on November 17, 2005

Well, it turns out someone wasn't so clever after all.

No, you were clever. I didn't get it, but I was the one being daft.
posted by terrapin at 8:43 AM on November 17, 2005

Well, in the future try not to be so daft, punk.
posted by cortex at 8:48 AM on November 17, 2005

terrapin: "No, you were clever. I didn't get it, but I was the one being daft."

Clever overload. Yes, yes, I was inflicted by it, too. Good on you, ND.

It could be worse. Just look at poor Todd Lokken.
posted by Plutor at 8:49 AM on November 17, 2005

been done. can't find the link to that thread though

Because I'm just that nice a guy.
posted by languagehat at 8:51 AM on November 17, 2005

Hey, I'm not the only active poster in Columbia! Yippee! A neighbor! One day we'll have enough for a meet-up. Maybe by 2037.
posted by chiababe at 8:54 AM on November 17, 2005

Represent for the Dirty South chiababe!

I have to say things like that occasionally in honor of my username being my rap name.
posted by ND¢ at 9:03 AM on November 17, 2005

I think it's a very clever name myself. Though, I too didn't get it until it was explained upthread.
posted by chiababe at 9:07 AM on November 17, 2005

Gator and frykitty - thanks for asking. Took him to the vet and suggested FIP, he agreed and took some fluid which is away for testing. Looks like it is FIP, but the vet says he has a great chance because he's a pretty resiliant guy (on life number 12 at least) and it's treatable with interferon now. He's really coping well. So, we'll see. I'll post an update on the thread and mark off answers when I know. Your input was much appreciated Gator, as soon as I read about FIP it seemed the likely cause.
posted by fire&wings at 9:37 AM on November 17, 2005

yep, even corrected my typo, languagehat. cheers
posted by terrapin at 10:50 AM on November 17, 2005

Psst, ND¢, add some contact info to your profile.
posted by chiababe at 10:59 AM on November 17, 2005

ND¢, you're not alone. My present username is a derivative of an old rap name I had while I was holding out for God-given emcee skills, too. I hope you have more luck than I did.
posted by nthdegx at 11:54 AM on November 17, 2005

Cos I'm white, y'all/yes I'm white y'all/I'm whitedy-white yes I'm white, y'all
posted by nthdegx at 11:56 AM on November 17, 2005

Puts hands in the air.
posted by elwoodwiles at 12:41 PM on November 17, 2005

This is all hillarious, because I'm looking at this at an internet cafe in China that caters almost exclusively to Korean expats, so I honestly couldn't see the problem with 김치's name before I thought about it for a while.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 12:42 PM on November 17, 2005

I thought ND¢ was a sockpuppet for NortonDC. Really. I have no idea why I thought so, except that ND¢ kind of looks like an abbreviation of NortonDC, except with "¢" instead of "C". You do have to admit you've never seen them in the same place at the same time. You know, like Lois Lane and Michelle Pfeiffer.
posted by TimeFactor at 12:52 PM on November 17, 2005

In the other thread I was wondering why so many people apparently had a hard time seeing Hat Maui as a play on #1, as more people wrote in I began to feel the slightest bit clever since I had seen it right away. Then I come over here and I read that the user name I've been parsing as "What a weird and random collection of characters that username is" turns out to mean something which I totally missed. Nice nick. Stupid Omie.
posted by OmieWise at 12:54 PM on November 17, 2005

Wait....Lois Lane is Michelle Pfeiffer? So...Miss Pfeiffer is a fictional character? Or is Lois Lane real? I'm so confused.
posted by graventy at 1:30 PM on November 17, 2005

Thanks for the mini-update, f&w, we're keepin' our fingers crossed for you.
posted by Gator at 1:31 PM on November 17, 2005

I thought ND¢ was a sockpuppet for NortonDC. Really.

Don't feel bad, I also thought this. Or, feel worse. I'm kind of a git.
posted by frykitty at 1:56 PM on November 17, 2005

I resent these accusations. I don't even know this ND¢ person, and there is no way...

Wait. Which one of my accounts am I in right now? Oh Crap.
posted by ND¢ at 2:15 PM on November 17, 2005

Huh. I just realized "nthdegx" is "nth degree x". To my eyes, it was always just a name like "xquyzphr" or whathaveyou, just a random splort of letters that starts or ends with x. Next I'm going to find out that xyquzrpr means something.

I got ND¢ pretty soon after first seeing it, though.
posted by Bugbread at 2:20 PM on November 17, 2005

Next I'm going to find out that xyquzrpr means something.

I always thought that maybe it did, and I was just missing out on it.
posted by chiababe at 2:27 PM on November 17, 2005

It's XQUZYPHYR. I always assumed the last part of the word was representative of the word zephyr but I may be wrong.
posted by nthdegx at 2:44 PM on November 17, 2005

XQUZYPHYR, 'splain yourself.
posted by chiababe at 2:51 PM on November 17, 2005

It's pronounced 'Steve.'
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 3:44 PM on November 17, 2005

I read it as excuse-if-er.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 3:52 PM on November 17, 2005

Nice nick. Stupid Omie.
posted by OmieWise at 12:54 PM PST on November 17 [!]

Until you said that I was reading your name as "OmniWise."

Huh. I just realized "nthdegx" is "nth degree x". To my eyes, it was always just a name like "xquyzphr" or whathaveyou, just a random splort of letters that starts or ends with x.

Me too.

::shoots self::
posted by ludwig_van at 3:57 PM on November 17, 2005

Can we just start up a "nicknames I've borked" thread already?
posted by cortex at 4:00 PM on November 17, 2005

Huh. I just realized "nthdegx" is "nth degree x"

Is that what it is?! I've always pronounced it 'On the decks' in my head, assuming he was a DJ. I like that better than 'nth degree x', whatever that means, so will stick to it, if that's okay, nthdegx.

God how I wish I had a username that wasn't just the first six letters of my real name.

FYI, my hip hop name has long been Game E. Flava, but I never got around to recording a concept album about pheasant shooting as a metaphor for the the effect of gun crime on inner cities. I would've worn a waxed cotton Barbour jacket with a glock in the poaching pocket and everything. I got does in every area code, etc.
posted by jack_mo at 5:31 PM on November 17, 2005

::shoots self::
posted by ludwig_van at 3:57 PM PST on November 17

Damn, I just realized that ludwig_van refers to a famous composer!
posted by languagehat at 7:08 PM on November 17, 2005

Thanks for the mini-update, f&w, we're keepin' our fingers crossed for you.
posted by Gator at 1:31 PM PST on November 17

So small I didn't read it once.

What is all this about punning usernames, anyway?
posted by dash_slot- at 7:24 PM on November 17, 2005

I vaguely thought it might be read as "in dissent." No clue why "indecent" didn't occur to me. I think I'm too damn tired.
posted by ubersturm at 8:49 PM on November 17, 2005

Nice nick. Stupid Omie.
posted by OmieWise at 12:54 PM PST on November 17 [!]

Until you said that I was reading your name as "OmniWise."

I was too. In fact, I was reading it as OmniWise up until I read ludwig_van's post about reading it wrong. I blame the auto-correct in my head.
posted by Godbert at 9:37 PM on November 17, 2005

ND¢

I got it the first time I saw it, but thought it would make me look lame to get all gee-golly-gosh over getting it. Now I look lame for explaining why I didn't get all gee-golly-gosh over it.
posted by jenovus at 10:31 PM on November 17, 2005

Now I look lame for explaining why I didn't get all gee-golly-gosh over it.

You really don't.
posted by nthdegx at 5:21 AM on November 18, 2005

Anyone who knows me can vouch that I'm not omni- anything. I'm glad that got cleared up before it did any damage.
posted by OmieWise at 5:53 AM on November 18, 2005

In my head I say "Exquisi-fur"
posted by chiababe at 12:42 PM on November 18, 2005