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If go to https://meta.stackexchange.com/users and find some f-words we can find a lot of users with such words in their nicknames. Is it legally now? If not why they are not renamed (automatically)? Or the answer from this Why is the f word still allowed in profiles? is still actual?

P.S. The question is about other sites of SE also.

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    We can find a lot of users with such words in their nicknames. Eleven is not a lot. And they all have zero rep (and visibility) anyway. And yes, I don't see why that answer would not still be apply.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Dec 20, 2019 at 10:23
  • @FrédéricHamidi if you try to search another words except the famous one you can find much more users in such case.
    – edem
    Dec 20, 2019 at 10:30
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    Famous example repeatedly cited in similar questions: Welbog's profile page
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Dec 20, 2019 at 10:36
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    Y'all. The linked answer says the F-word is allowed in profile pages. It absolutely does not mean it is allowed in user names.
    – sourcejedi
    Dec 20, 2019 at 10:37
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    @sourcejedi, true, but meh. I understand it is fashionable to get offended by anything nowadays, but this is harmless I believe. And it is a slippery slope -- I could argue that I was traumatized by Rise of Skywalker and as such your nickname is offensive to me, and you should change it. Litigation over user names will bring us nothing except more conflict.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Dec 20, 2019 at 10:41
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    There's an answer somewhere/sometime you can find saying that user names or profiles with no activity are (were?) not policed very actively. But let's not have people literally writing every post under the F-word, when it's not allowed in (most) posts. That isn't some dramatic change we need to debate to death. We didn't allow it 2012, and that didn't somehow cause the site to collapse. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/145795/…
    – sourcejedi
    Dec 20, 2019 at 10:51

1 Answer 1

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Is it legally now?

Well, it never has been illegal to name yourself whatever you like. In that sense we have been welcoming to everyone since 6 to 8 years.

Why they are not renamed?

Because nobody took offense? And because we allow a lot in display names and your about me. There are usernames that insult the Chinese government. Or call for action due to certain recent events.

Resetting display names becomes a slippery slope quickly. For example: Who is to decide what is really offensive, slur, a subtle put down? What if the political situation changes and Brexit forces us to reset all names that refer to cities in the UK? You will then go by the handle user315642.

Flag a post of your own to let a mod know a users displayname might be offensive and let them handle it. Don't be disappointed if the name doesn't get reset.

I would personally find it very funny to reply to an F* user with

@Fuck You got that totally wrong!

but not all users appreciate my sense of humor, nor does the CoC leave much room for jokes.

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    Really? Was the policy reversed just a couple of years after meta.stackexchange.com/questions/145795/… ? Even this famous post about offending in user profiles, says usernames are not as permissive as profile pages, so there must be some restrictions. meta.stackexchange.com/a/231362/194264
    – sourcejedi
    Dec 20, 2019 at 11:02
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    @sourcejedi We can have an endless discussion about this but I find those usernames meh. If you're offended by all means flag it but don't expect anyone to go pro-actively hunt down those users to prevent that you ever run into something that is off-limits by the community standards.
    – rene
    Dec 20, 2019 at 11:23
  • Sure! I understand how that works. I thought the start of your answer was unnecessarily confusing. Thanks for adding a much clearer comment.
    – sourcejedi
    Dec 20, 2019 at 12:31

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