My nick being used at TripAdvisor
 

This is not exactly identity theft, and I know I can't own a pseudonym.

However, I noticed that someone is using the same nick at TripAdvisor that I use at this forum (and that I also use at several other travel forums). This person posted about Hotel Panda after I had posted about it on this forum.

I suppose there's a slight possibility that someone randomly chose the same pseudonym as I have, but considering the circumstances I doubt it.

I don't think anything can be "done" about it, except I'd recommend registering your nick at TripAdvisor so someone else can't use it, particularly if it's distinctive.

Sue the pants off that dirty low-down bast...d!

Only sue the pants off if the imposter is a female, please. If a guy, PLEASE sue to keep the pants on.

--Marv

I empathize with you on this, and although I need another forum to go to like I need a hole in the head, I appreciate the tip. Went and registered "Rex" just now.

Best wishes,

Rex

for those of us who use some versions of our real names, I run into this all the time. Sometimes I have to add a digit or additional letters to my name in order to register elsewhere because my original name has been registered by someone else.

Can't you be 'WillTravel2'?
Or "WillTravel#1'?

Sorry to hear about the identify theft, WillTravel, but you'll get used to it. I certainly have.

Dear will,

I am confused.

I looked up the Hotel Panda at www.tripadvisor.com and chose the one in Rome (I assume that was the one you reviewed).

There are no nicknames attached to the reviews.

They are listed as
"Reviewer: A TripAdvisor User, London"
"Reviewer: A TripAdvisor User, Los Angeles, CA"
etc

How did you find another reviewer using your nom?

elaine,

I think it is more an issue of not having the other person mixed up with you. What if they started being terribly rude and others thought it was you.

For example if Ke1th (note the middle character) on this board suddenly was doing something bizzare, I would rather they not confuse Keith and Ke1th.

Keith

Ira, here are the posts that are not made by me, but someone who registered my ID:
http://rome-hotels.tripadvisor.com/S...ome_Lazio.html

I have no interest in adding another forum either. And realistically, there are going to be very few people who will care in the slightest. It's just in this particular case it seems very misleading because I posted here at Fodors that I hadn't stayed at Hotel Panda.

Maybe I am *really* showing my age--but I cannot imagine it was in any way intentional!! Who else but someone old enough to remmember the series "Have Gun Will Travel" would even think of that alias?? And maybe this further illlustrates my naivete, but anyone that old would not be likely to be doing it on purpose to "get" you--unless you have made an enemy(?) on this board?? Just trying to explore possible explanations..... My "professional" curiosity always gets the better of me in matters of human motivation and behavior!!

Why would the nickname "WillTravel" have anything to do with "Have gun Will Travel"????? These are travel boards, it's a perfectly logical name to choose.

WT, I know it's hard for us to believe, but a lot of people who travel never come here and so will not know that someone else uses that nickname. Even if they did, Trip Advisor is a different place. You could look on it as flattery, but annoying.

LOL Anonymous. WillTravel, please don't take this the wrong way, but your name is not exactly unusual on a travel forum. We have GoTravel, WillTravel, and other variations as well.

HI--one more thing--that person on Trip Advisor has made spelling and grammar mistakes--so that makes it even worse for you!! He only just enrolled in Oct 2004. When one looks at his profile it says he is from San Diego--altho of course one can put down whatever one wants in those profiles. I grant you, it *is* curious. And the tone of his writing suggests youth, so I am also left wondering....In other words, disregard what I wrote above in the previous post about my theories about his age. However, I guess I am back with coincidence as an explanation.

Perhaps, but it seems quite coincidental that it happened just with the Hotel Panda posts, at the same time I posted about Hotel Panda here. If the person had posted about Zanzibar or something, I'd be more likely to consider it a coincidence. If I had used the name "Ann" or "Jane" or something like that, obviously I wouldn't think anything of it.

Is it possible that the other "WillTravel" used it first and is perturbed at you for copying?

JSmith, I doubt it. That person registered at TripAdvisor in October 2004. I've been using this nick on various forums since at least 2002.

Hi to Barbara--as I said it betrays my age!! To me "WillTravel" is only the second half of "Have Gun Will Travel". Maybe I have not been on here long enough, but are there names such as TomTravel, MaryTravel or SusieTravel? To me "WillTravel" has a certain oldtime TV allusion that maybe only I am inferring.

Gee, someone registering on a forum all about travel as "WillTravel", what are the odds? Maybe 75 out of 100? That'll teach you not register as "lxiywq785346"!

Regardless, thanks for the heads-up. I just followed rex's lead and snagged my name before someone stole mine and started swooning over the Olive Garden or something. :)

socialworker, I thought of "will" as a verb.

Not to drag this topic out, but I didn't know of the TV show. My husband later told me about it and started humming the tune. If anyone cares, "WillTravel" is a future tense form of the infinitive verb "to travel".

Anyway, to repeat myself, the problem is not that my nick was used by someone else, which could happen by chance, but just the timing of those Hotel Panda posts. I know it's a trivial concern in the grand scheme of things.

And I had always assumed you were a man named William.

Keith

For a while I was joining chat lines using a nickname, let's say "Faina". A friend of mine registered the same name with a dash "Faina-". Can you imagine how much confusion it caused when we both joined the same chat room and started to argue which one is the real me?

WillTravel I suggest you register on all possible websites, forums, chats, etc... And then 5 years later when you finish you can go back to travels.

And if there is a "Faina" registered anywhere please say hello from me.

Hello!! ((b))

This is for jsmith:

My best friend is named J. Smith, she really is. If you do not stop using her name, she will not only sue, she will have you prosecuted for identity theft and lack of imagination. And that goes for your friend J. Doe, too.

Seriously, wouldn't people assume that with the millions and millions of people on the Net, some of them will end up with the same screen names?

Of course, I always thought that Degas died long ago, but now I know that he's alive and writing, if not still painting. I'm confused. But I do know that Elaine is my cousin, Ira is the guy I had a crush on in college, and Rex is a collie I used to play with. After all, they have the same names. Small world, isn't it?

Hi Barbara--so was I referring to it as a verb--as it is in the name of the TV series. I guess I was responding *both* to you as to why I would think "WillTravel" would refer or allude to Have Gun Will Travel and also to the person who made reference to combining a first name w/a travel reference. Now I see in reading WIllTravel's response, that "he" is a woman!! I guess I had it wrong in every possible way!! Oh well....

My dear, this is the most unheard of thing I've ever heard of!

KT, what about me?? :(

m_kingdom7, is the latest reincarnation? ((a)) ((b))

Don't we have something similar on this very board:
DWoodliff is either Dan or Donna.
I don't understand how there can be two.

What about you, Scarlett? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!

(Apologies if this posts more than once. I seem to be having problems postin.)

Budman, maybe m_kingdom7 is not the real m_kingdom, but is illustrating how easy it would be to register with a name close enough to someone else's to cause confusion.

KT, you wrote :
I always thought that Degas died long ago, but now I know that he's alive and writing, if not still painting. I'm confused. But I do know that Elaine is my cousin, Ira is the guy I had a crush on in college, and Rex is a collie I used to play with. After all, they have the same names. "
so I jokingly asked, "what about me"..
never mind :D

Now what we need is the guy from the old Monty Python sketches who would occasionally pop in (in full military dress)and say, "Cut, cut, cut, this has gotten far too silly."

Scarlett, I was indeed answering your question. Or aren't you Scarlett O'Hara? Get it? Once again, it's the same name, isn't it?

Oh, never mind, tomorrow is a new day. And I don't know about you, but I'll never go hungry again.

I got it!! :O)

socialworker, I'm with you there!

Barbara, all you have to do is read the post and its content. I rest my case. ((a)) ((b))

I remember the show:Have a Gun Will Travel..
Nice music also..Of course now I cant get rid of that tune..

Gee, I hope that nobody use my ID also..

KT, duh :D
Yes, Scarlett O is me ((F))
and As God is my witness, tomorrow is another day, and I don't give a damn either LOL