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Today I got this email from ArtOfCode, a Hardware Recommendations moderator, after he changed my username on HR from "Mͣͭͣ̾ Vͣͥͭ͛ͤͮͥͨͥͧ̾" to "user924":

Hello,

I'm writing in reference to your Hardware Recommendations Stack Exchange account:

https://hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com/users/924/user924

I've just removed your username and set it back to its default value, "user924". I've done this because your previous username made extensive use of "Zalgo" text, which is disallowed in usernames.

Please feel free to change your username back to something of your liking, bearing in mind this prohibition.

Regards,
ArtOfCode
Hardware Recommendations Stack Exchange moderator

And then he went on changing my usernames on every single community I have an account on! (Changed from "Matas Vaitkevicius" to "user924")

Why are moderators allowed to change usernames across all communities?

Btw, I would appreciate if someone would revert my username to the way it was before on non-HR communities (I am fine with user924 on HR).

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Yes, moderators can push changes to your account network-wide. They can't change your name to something arbitrary, only the default "usernnnn" format.*

Why? Because, if you chose to use a problematic name or bio or whatever, and decided to put it on 100+ sites, it would be a HUGE pain to grab moderators from all of those sites to get it fixed.

Solution: don't abuse Unicode. It's annoying, and makes people hate Unicode, which is unfair to folks who have actual names that can't be represented in ASCII.

I've restored your previous name network-wide. You'll have some trouble changing it for 30 days, and I'd strongly recommend not doing so afterwards if your only goal is to annoy people.

*: this is no longer the case, moderators now have the ability to change usernames to whatever they deem appropriate.

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    Hi Shog9, I don't have such goal. My user was in zalgo on Hardware for a year or so.... so it was long forgotten... Anyway thanks for changing it back... BTW could Art had changed it only on Hardware or it's nuclear option all the time?
    – Matas Vaitkevicius
    Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 2:54
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    @MatasVaitkevicius The moderator must have felt it was required to chnage it for all communities. I would agree even your username that was changed in your question body is annoying
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 4:17
  • @Ramhound So he felt that my birth name an surname on all other sites, were too 'annoying', and had to be changed but user924 looked better. I have no issue with him changing it on HR, the issue is that he didn't have to change it on every site, yet just couldn't resist showing his power.
    – Matas Vaitkevicius
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 4:58
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    @MatasVaitkevicius - Difficult to remember the reason something was annoying after nearly 3 years. I doubt this was a power play, but simply the fact, the Unicode characters were causing display issues for everyone
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 11:06

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