Cloned Usernames in SoulSeek

[CrumbCat]

Something helpful (I hope) for my first post:

Soulseek is a great P2P program, but there is one hazard which has come up, and that is the Cloning of usernames.

The cloning thing is a real problem.

Anyone with a user name containing either an Upper-case "i" --> I, or a Lower-case "L" --> l, should be concerned.

The two letters look different from each other here, but SoulSeek uses the font 'arial', and the two letters look identical in the chat rooms.

Thus, the name 'Slinger' and 'SIinger' would appear exactly alike.

'Guitar-Slinger' would then have (1) possible clone, while the name 'illegal' would have up to (7) clones - a real bummer for the user 'illegal'.

illegal
illegaI
ilIegal
ilIegaI
iIlegal
iIlegaI
iIIegal
iIIegaI

This is a problem if you hang out in a particular room and someone comes into it using the 'cloned' name, and begins to badmouth other users, who assume it is really their friend 'illegal'.

I have seen this problem too many times already, and it is my advice to all you users at risk and who have a concern of this happening with you user name to create the cloned name for yourself (you then can go back to your original name), then you never have to worry about this happening to you.

We (those in the room I hang out in and myself) have seen some pretty hateful things said toward others from some *ss-wipe who is cloning names of some of our 'regulars' in the room.

Whether you are a long-time user or planning to join in for the first time, I suggest you take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening to you.

I hope this helps some of you out, and that nobody else has to go through the same trouble Guitar-Slinger has gone through.

Tchau and good luck.