Banned? Hacked? Database Error?

I'm not yet convinced this was an officially sanctioned LL action. Gaybot has been around going on 6 months now, and is an established and well liked member of the community. Suddenly, out of nowhere, with no prior notice, his account name is changed, by one letter, effectively preventing him from logging in. No, something doesn't quite add up here.

*slips back into the shadows and watches this unfold*

Who else could change his name?

It isn't inconcievable that some exploit could have been discovered somewhere, the most logical place in my mind at this point: The registration system. (which curiously is down for maintanence)

Pure, wild speculation on my part, I could very likely be way off the mark. (probably am, but I do love a good conspiracy)

Hmmmm I am not conviced that Faybot and Gaybot are the same person. Faybot was created in April. We already know the board admins here have the ability to change names without resetting post count and disrupting user profiles.

Looking at both user profiles I would have to ask Faybot why he has all new IM information and did not put in his current Yahho, ICQ, AOL, etc info??? Did you have to change THAT as well?

I smell an extended April Fools joke perhaps.
I could be wrong and it's just a theory. But I'm willing to bet that Gaybot is still around...let's hope so. Doing a search on username "Gay" I found many many users. Did LL change all their names too?

The last name hasnt changed.

hhhm you're right. wtf is up with that? Unfortunately we can't go look in the Last name list to see if it might still be available since the grid is down.

I am going to call in the morning, but I don't have much faith in this being resolved to my satisfaction. It would appear that my account and all of my assets have been terminated. This is very disheartening and depressing. My question is: has anyone ever experienced this? Do they send emails telling people that have used their service with no infractions that they have been banned and why? Does someone's screen name stay on a buddy's list after the account has been deleted/banned? Do the profiles of banned names become blank? Mine is not blank if it is checked from a friend's list. My account did nothing wrong, and they didn't mind me using the exact same credit card to verify this account. What is going on???

This . . . is completely nutty.

I can't believe LL would do something like this, much LESS not tell the person!

Do you have a Linden friend who might have done this (unwisely) as an April Fool's joke, Gaybot?

And about the word - it's also a girl's name. One of my friends is named Gay (no middle name, even), and her brother is actually gay.

There is something really, really wrong with this whole thing.

And what about the other person in this thread who said it happened to her and to her friend?

This is the sort of thing that would cause people to lose any and all faith in LL, or in any place that would ever do such a thing as this.

I hope a Linden answers.

coco

It does seem like a joke that a Linden friend might pull. The name Gaybot is hardly offensive. I thought the name was cute personally.

how did you ever figure out / think to try changing your name to Faybot to login and find this out????

Well Gaybot was on the Helpline a lot - so i guess they saw his name often

*grins* Maybe they saw it a little too often, then?

Either way, it's a bad deal all around. If it was a joke, it has gone too far and if it wasn't, they should have definitely emailed something! If it was a database error, then they really need to know about it, so for any reason, persistently polite calling until you get a live person is really in order. I don't care WHAT the Tao of Linden says about doing what they feel like, there is no excusing the lack of proper notification.

I doubt its a database error. Why would it single out just Gaybot out of so many accounts.

And totally agree; its time they started taking customer service seriously.