Okay, enough with the identity theft already

Here's a disturbing trend in our community: Identity theft.

I've been proud to call Helia Melonowski a friend for some years. Like a lot of folks in our community, she's been really active sometimes, not so active others--but she's never really gone away--in fact, she still has a small website. That has not stopped someone from using a very minor variation on her name under the guise that it's a furry role-playing thing. Um, no. You don't just take someone's online identity, change a letter, and borrow it. There's no excuse for it, and there's no reason, other than simply not being creative enough to come up with your own idea. Helia's reputation is her own--she created it. Make your own mark on the community with your own name.

And speaking of which, my name is...known enough to get me some attention now and then, both good and bad. The latest is bad--a webmaster who runs a forum has apparently dipped into his registration records to fish out my password so he can go post as me on another site, from which he was personally banned.

What the hell is going on? When did this even become remotely seen as acceptable? Does our community really think so little of ethics that this is deemed an okay thing to do?

This is not enough to scare me away--but has anybody considered that shit like this DOES make artists and writers lose interest and log off?