Some people like to namesnipe, which means to steal someone's username before they can take it. For example, there's actually a user named pianostar, which was my intended username when I joined. I'm not saying I don't like my username, but I don't see the point of creating an account and not using it so nobody can ever use the name.

Another example is my alt Lron_Fish, which I had to name because of a name sniper called Iron_Fish (my intended username). And JackyBorderCollie owns Appel_Fish because someone used Apple_Fish.

I feel like it would be helpful to have an option to report this so that people could reuse the name if they need to. Plus, it would cut down on the amount of accidental name calling (back in 2.0, someone called me pianostar, with an @, which made me find the name sniper in the first place.)

Another solution could be deleting the account if it doesn't have anything in it after about maybe 2 years.

EDIT: Okay, okay, I get that the delete account suggestion is rejected. However, I don't see anything that says a button to report them is.

From a old TOLORS:

7.5 Delete inactive accounts or delete name sniping accounts
The only potential benefit to this suggestion is that it would free up the servers; however, a Scratch Team member has indicated that there is not a desperate need for more server space. In addition, deleting inactive accounts might mean that the user's projects get deleted, which would be extremely unfortunate should they decide to return to Scratch.

This includes accounts that have no activity at all; that is, the account has no projects shared, favorited, or followers. The Scratch Team sees no need to take down any accounts at this time to “free up usernames,” especially since there is currently no system available to recycle usernames. Having the Scratch Team make such a system is not as much of a priority as are other issues with the website.

Pianostar4 wrote:

Some people like to namesnipe, which means to steal someone's username before they can take it. For example, there's actually a user named pianostar, which was my intended username when I joined. I'm not saying I don't like my username, but I don't see the point of creating an account and not using it so nobody can ever use the name.

Another example is my alt Lron_Fish, which I had to name because of a name sniper called Iron_Fish (my intended username). And JackyBorderCollie owns Appel_Fish because someone used Apple_Fish.

What if they didn't know you wanted to take up that name and forget about that account?

Pianostar4 wrote:

I feel like it would be helpful to have an option to report this so that people could reuse the name if they need to. Plus, it would cut down on the amount of accidental name calling (back in 2.0, someone called me pianostar, with an @, which made me find the name sniper in the first place.)

Another solution could be deleting the account if it doesn't have anything in it after about maybe 2 years.

for both, most name snipers don't know they name snipe, and they probably have a lot of work to do, so they don't have time to use their account, so they don't use it. Plus, read the sticky and see if it's rejected:

Za-chary wrote:

8.5 Recycle usernames
The only potential benefit to this suggestion is that Scratchers could reuse usernames. However, this is problematic in several ways. Deleting inactive accounts might mean that the user's projects get deleted, which would be extremely unfortunate should they decide to return to Scratch. Even if the account is already deleted, someone may attempt to impersonate the deleted user with the new username. In addition, there are reasons that the Scratch Team may need to refer back to the deleted account.

This includes deleting inactive accounts, as well as accounts that appear to have no activity at all. It also includes deleting “name sniping” accounts. The Scratch Team sees no need to take down any accounts at this time to reuse usernames.

Pianostar4 wrote:

Some people like to namesnipe, which means to steal someone's username before they can take it. For example, there's actually a user named pianostar, which was my intended username when I joined. I'm not saying I don't like my username, but I don't see the point of creating an account and not using it so nobody can ever use the name.

Another example is my alt Lron_Fish, which I had to name because of a name sniper called Iron_Fish (my intended username). And JackyBorderCollie owns Appel_Fish because someone used Apple_Fish.

I feel like it would be helpful to have an option to report this so that people could reuse the name if they need to. Plus, it would cut down on the amount of accidental name calling (back in 2.0, someone called me pianostar, with an @, which made me find the name sniper in the first place.)

Another solution could be deleting the account if it doesn't have anything in it after about maybe 2 years.

I 100% agree, I got namesniped when I joined. By @thesassyqueen (that was the username I wanted to use, but now I don’t even like my username or that one) it is so annoying when you want to make a fun username but someone takes it and it’s so toxic



Edit: oh wait I’m reading the other posts when I was typing this there were none and I don’t know whether to support or not

TOLORS wrote:

7.5 Delete inactive accounts or delete name sniping accounts
The only potential benefit to this suggestion is that it would free up the servers; however, a Scratch Team member has indicated that there is not a desperate need for more server space. In addition, deleting inactive accounts might mean that the user's projects get deleted, which would be extremely unfortunate should they decide to return to Scratch.

This includes accounts that have no activity at all; that is, the account has no projects shared, favorited, or followers. The Scratch Team sees no need to take down any accounts at this time to “free up usernames,” especially since there is currently no system available to recycle usernames. Having the Scratch Team make such a system is not as much of a priority as are other issues with the website.

TOLORS wrote:

8.5 Recycle usernames
The only potential benefit to this suggestion is that Scratchers could reuse usernames. However, this is problematic in several ways. Deleting inactive accounts might mean that the user's projects get deleted, which would be extremely unfortunate should they decide to return to Scratch. Even if the account is already deleted, someone may attempt to impersonate the deleted user with the new username. In addition, there are reasons that the Scratch Team may need to refer back to the deleted account.

This includes deleting inactive accounts, as well as accounts that appear to have no activity at all. It also includes deleting “name sniping” accounts. The Scratch Team sees no need to take down any accounts at this time to reuse usernames.

All suggestions here are rejected.

No support, namesniping does not break the guidelines

Also, not all unused accounts are namesnipe accounts. Maybe they're working on the offline editor rather than the online editor, but not getting in touch with the actual community.

By the way, the pianostar account is NOT a namesnipe. It's a 12 year old account.

No support

a namesnipe hunter (like myself would not want this)

An0therRand0mC0der wrote:

By the way, the pianostar account is NOT a namesnipe. It's a 12 year old account.

Yeah, they did not know that they would ruin someone else name 10 years later. And when you think about it, every account is a namesnipe.

I actually support this as it would free server space and it is unlikely they will come back to scratch

If we have rejected the ability to recycle usernames and the ability to delete name-sniping accounts for the sole reason that they are a name-sniping account, then I don't know what a reporting option for them would be good for.

We wouldn't delete the account, since that's rejected. We wouldn't change their username, because that is akin to recycling their username (as someone else could take the username then).

Alerting them wouldn't solve anything if they're inactive, and it would be confusing if they were. (What would we say? “Please don't name-snipe in the future”? What if that wasn't their intention?)

Banning them similarly wouldn't solve anything. Nobody else gets the username, and the user could be confused on why they were banned based on their username if it wasn't inappropriate. Since we have rejected deleting inactive accounts, this banned user would still be public, and therefore that doesn't solve the issues which you presented.

So, with all that, it sounds to me like an option to report an account for being a name-sniping account is also rejected, since it doesn't seem like reporting one would actually do anything. Unless you have some sort of use in mind which I am missing?

(And I didn't even start the discussion of “What constitutes as a name-snipe” yet…)

Half-support. When I first joined Scratch, all the usernames I wanted to use were taken. However, it could just be a coincidence.

People could easily abuse this by making an account with a name similar to an existing one, and then reporting the original. No support.

Like @Za-Chary said, it woudn't really solve issues, just cause new ones, and @ScolderCreations said that this could cause abuse. For example, someone could make a account could FreezeNova123 and accuse me of namesniping. I do see why you would want this feature though, as famous scrathers such as @-SapphrineDemon- and @-Orbitron- had their names sniped by @SapphrineDemon and @Orbitron. However because it wouldn't solve probelms, no support.