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AT&T Kills "Bad" Username

By Live Gripes, Section Live Gripes
Posted on Tue May 30, 2006 at 12:52:53 PM PDT

I recently received an email from AT&T/ SBC informing me my username must be changed to conform to their new standards. After reading their requirements, I was perplexed. My username met their criteria. After four days and 10 emails going back and forth, I got a phone call from AT&T.

"You have a problem. Part of your username (which is basically my last name) is on the banned words list (profanity, etc.). Your last name contains the letters K + I + L + L. And we all know that 'kill' is a bad word."

When I asked for a list of the banned words as part of a user name, I was told it was a secret. I thought it was a nightmare, I would wake up and it would all be over. But alas, my name is banned as are the Lakes of Killarney and anyone that is skilled. The agent told me they were having this "banned words" problem with more than a small number of customers.

< DESPERATE! AOL HAS TAKEN OVER MY COMPUTER | A Nestle SweeTarts Conspiracy >


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AT&T Kills "Bad" Username | 12 comments (12 topical) | Post A Comment
How can they ban words no one knows about?[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by Anonymous User on Wed May 31, 2006 at 07:23:08 AM PDT

If they used a standard list from say, the DMV, of words banned from license plates then someone could figure them out. But to make a list that the public is unable to access? I'd try and get this to a local media outlet to embarrass them into either providing a list or giving you your user name.

[ Reply to This ]


Funny - they bill you with "k-i-l-l"[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous User on Wed May 31, 2006 at 07:27:42 AM PDT

in your last name but you can't use it as a user name? What about someone with the last name Dickson or Ho or Dorkman etc?

[ Reply to This ]


Totally unreasonable[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by LasVegan on Tue Jun 13, 2006 at 09:00:00 AM PDT

After all, we have female pubic hair and a male reproductive organ in the White House. They should be embar***ed to have such a policy.

[ Reply to This ]


All these people are in trouble too...[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#10)
by Anonymous User on Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 01:42:26 PM PDT

Several of my friends are having the same problem. Ken Matsushita, John Atwater, and Dennis Crew are so mad! My co-worker, Bo Obson, has also been put on notice. Oddly enough, another friend of mine named Olaf Uckermann hasn't received anything.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


This has got to be a joke[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#4)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 11, 2006 at 12:07:32 PM PDT

Nobody can be that stupid, can they? That policy is absolutely assinine, right up there with the city council person who filed a suit because someone used a word meaning "parsimonious" (I won't post it here because I'm posting from work -- they might be stupid here too)in its proper context. That means people with the name "Grass", for example can't use their names as user-id's? How low in parsing do they go? There are some two or three letter combinations that are very common in words, but by themselves could be considered offensive. Sounds like AT&T needs to get beyond purely automatic rejections and apply some "human sense" filtering (if that exists at AT&T)

[ Reply to This ]


How unfortunate....[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#5)
by Anonymous User on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 10:09:42 AM PDT

I have a co-worker whose last name is "Kill". I suppose they're out of luck if they want an account there, eh?

[ Reply to This ]


AT&T doesn't know Dutch[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#7)
by Anonymous User on Mon Oct 30, 2006 at 06:53:56 PM PDT

AT&T's policy of banning usernames containing "kill"  is going to anger people who know Dutch. In Dutch, it means "creek" or "stream" and is a part of many place names. Near New York City, founded by the Dutch as New Amsterdam, we have Peekskill, Fishkill, and Kill van Kull.

Just about every pronounceable string of letters is acceptable in some language. The F word is a common syllable in Dutch, and the S word is common in Japanese and Hebrew.

-- Josh Rubin, who has some Dutch ancestors


[ Reply to This ]



Dutch[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#8)
by rhayashi on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 01:28:25 PM PDT

As a parent I have Aa problem with "RUB-IN" : )

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


A choice to make[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#9)
by Anonymous User on Tue Aug 14, 2007 at 11:58:34 AM PDT

This might be too obvious, but it seems to me that you can either fight or switch.

Switch pros: Sure their policy might be stupid, but do you want their stupidity dragging you down? Come up with any different and acceptable user name. You could use your middle name, or drop a letter, or switch a vowel. Make something completely and obviously fictional, like LittleRedRidingHood. You wouldn't be the first to do so!

Switch cons: Just because you CAN go along, doesn't mean you OUGHT to go along. You could gently persuade them, or go hardcore and pick a fight.

If you choose to fight, one possible way to approach it is to suggest that they are discriminating against you. Think about it--are they not suggesting that your name, and therefore your heritage and birthright, are offensive?

I've seen lots of names that, with little or no imagination, are silly on the face of it. Heck, my own name has been the source of teasing. But that is mostly childish pranks. This is corporate harassment, which places it in a whole different category.

[ Reply to This ]



Kill isn't an offensive word[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#11)
by Anonymous User on Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 12:10:50 PM PDT

Everyone kills things every day. Wash your hands or your clothes and you kill a bunch of germs with soap. Eat a chicken or a carrot and if you didn't do the killing yourself, some slaughterhouse or farmer did it for you. Unfortunately, while this makes AT&T look like fools, the only thing they care about is that it doesn't kill their stock price - and that is unlikely.

[ Reply to This ]


Yikes[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#12)
by Boyd M on Fri Feb 29, 2008 at 02:34:13 PM PDT

They must have a whole bunch of customers with forbidden usernames in that case since lots of names and so on contains that letters... However I think it's really weird to have a secret list of banned names, why not make it public? It would be much easier for the customers.
Boyd, Programmer currently working on the herbal prostate health project.
[ Reply to This ]


not offensive[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#13)
by Anonymous User on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:48:07 PM PDT

Yale acomplia viagra alternative Google buy viagra Google UK Yahoo! zoloft Stanford buy propecia Google Org

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


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