>>I can't imagine why you permit duplicates...
Well, I'm a programmer too, and I confess to a similar
reaction. But we're also a collection of human beings
enjoying social exchange. Did you ever meet anyone else
named Gold? Or more than one Smith? How did you
distinguish among them?
I admit my first reaction to duplicate names was very
close to yours. But on reflection, my conclusions were
different (yep, surprised me, but there you are):
The alternative is to deny people their chosen identities.
I rather like the humanistic view of things that has been
adopted here. We should, I think, take responsibility
ourselves for knowing to whom we're speaking rather than
expecting the SI "government" (Jill, Brad, Jeff) to
prevent us from being responsible for our own lapses.
A number of times in my life I've asked, for various
reasons (owing to vague intros, crowds, etc), a question
to the effect of "are you the Jane Smith who wrote the
article in Pantomimes Today about ...?" In fact, I got
just such a question myself today, something like: "Didn't
we talk on the xxx thread ...?"
So why should we not take that responsibility ourselves,
and let Dan be Dan
and all the other Dans that register later? (Of course,
the idea of more than one Spots is a bit scary. I'm
quoting my wife here ...).
IMHO, anyhow.
Regards
Spots (far as I know, the only one of us in SI) |
