A question was just flagged for moderator attention, with the text "I wouldn't mind if somebody replaced this user's name. Seriously.", referring to this user.

I'm actually fairly open to such "enforced renames" but wanted to see what the community thinks. The relevant user did not provide a working email address, so can't be contacted directly. We could comment on their question pointing them to this thread, I guess.

This name is seriously unacceptable. I'm not easily offended, but this user should know better. It's probably a 13 year old boy who has much to learn in life.

I agree with Cam on this. The current username, kkk, I don't think should be interpreted as offensive. A guy shouldn't be punished for having his initials usurped by an unsavory bunch of people. I mean, for all we know he could be a descendent of Santa Claus.

Can someone clarify if the problem is based on some prior incarnation of this user's name?

I have no objection in principle to changing user names to avoid offense. Since there is plenty of evidence that this is offensive to at least some reasonable people, I have no objection to not changing it. You could always just lose one of the k-s, which with high probability would preserve the property of "being the author's initials."

It seems to me that changing someone's username without asking them is kind of rude. Do the mods have an e-mail address for kkk?

@David: From the very first post in this thread, I'd say the answer is no.

I think it may well be that, assuming the user is young and not American, that it has not even occured to the user what those three letters mean to the rest of us, given that the KKK hasn't been a big news item for the past several decades (I think?). Also, regarding names being offensive in some parts of the world and not in others, many years ago I met an Iranian woman whose first name was Nazi. It took some getting used to. Finally, shall we refer to Monty Python in The Life of Brian, and Biggus D…?

@Scott: How will he be able to log in, if you change his username like that?

Seems like a reasonable solution.

I see I'm clearly outvoted here, but for the record, I can't help but feel that we've just contributed, in our own admittedly rather insignificant way, to empowering a hate group by continuing to cede to them complete control over one of the scant 17,576 three-letter acronyms that could be better put to use elsewhere.

Possible explanation:

The Korean "ㅋㅋㅋ" is romanized as "kekeke" or sometimes just as "kkk".

"ㅋㅋㅋ" denotes laughter, something like "hehehe".

Not entirely off topic, I quite enjoy the Tolkien books, and my friend Dmitry has a friend on Facebook, originally from Kazahkstan, whose name is Nazgul'. Go figure.

Possibly off topic: why does the question have three votes to close? Were those purely because of the username?

"I changed the name to k3 and left a note." Scott, perhaps a link to the current discussion would have been helpful.

As a child kids found my initials amusing. The first and middle together are short for a sexual act and the first and last together are short for a swear word.

(and I was named after a Tolkien character as well...)

Shevek, are you willing to give your initials, or at least say which Tolkien character is involved? I have no idea who you are, but maybe I have just not explored all that the MO software allows me.

And to think I used to be proud of sharing a birthday with the Bagginses ... (though when I grew up I was more vocal about sharing a birthday with a famous physicist than two famous hobbits; now that I've grown down again, I think it's more fun to be a hobbit than a physicist.)

Andrew, let us know when you reach eleventy-one.

I wasn't aware that there was a second edition of The Silmarillion. I'll have to check it out; I wonder how much it was changed. I always really liked the Beren and Luthien story, but then again, I'm probably pretty seriously biased. Pretty interesting that Andrew lived on the same street as Tolkien. Let's all just hope that they do a good job of the hobbit movie.

I liked the bit in Children of Hurin, captive Hurin to Morgoth

But Hurin said: `You speak in vain. For you cannot see them from afar: not while you keep this shape, and desire still to be a King visible on earth.' Similar to Sauron fleeing the wreck of Numenor in spirit form, and never after being able to assume a shape pleasing to Men or Elves.

Somehow I got out of Lays that at one point Morgoth was rhymed with loath, same as American oath, both, growth. I liked the idea, but I may have just mixed them in my mind, I can't find it again. It helps to stretch out the second syllable a little. The 2010 World Cup was announced for ESPN by Martin Tyler and Efan Ekoku. When Ekoku said Martin, it was natural, the letter t in the middle was pronounced and there were two syllables. When John Harkes said Martin he really had to struggle, usually he said it the way I do, Mar'n, with what I believe is called a glottal stop.

Thank you, dear sir.

Well, it did not go over that well in this thread:
http://tea.mathoverflow.net/discussion/742/why-my-answer-to-this-question-was-deleted/#Item_30
I gave a copy to my father, but I think the Alzheimer's had at that point progressed past the stage where he could read.

With their whips of flame they smote asunder the webs of Ungoliant, and she quailed, and turned to fight, belching black vapours to cover her; and fleeing from the north she went down into Beleriand, and dwelt beneath Ered Gorgoroth, in that dark valley that was after called Nan Dungortheb, the Valley of Dreadful Death, because of the horror she bred there. For other foul creatures of spider form had dwelt there since the days of the delving of Angband, and she mated with them, and devoured them; and even after Ungoliant herself departed, and went whither she would into the forgotten south of the world, her offspring abode there and wove their hideous webs. Of the fate of Ungoliant, no tale tells. Yet some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last.

Hi Harald, yes, I had made the accusation entirely explicit in earlier posts here and on MO, that the user in question spoke (wrote) without caring whether he spoke the truth, that being my main impression of Frankfurt's description of bullshit. No effect, but things have calmed down. And really, in that user's mind those formulas and computer graphs are the truth. So I suppose all I accomplished was to affirm for everybody else that proofs are required, and at least I am less worked up about it than I was. Just need time.

first
http://tea.mathoverflow.net/discussion/714/my-question-was-closed-why/#Item_21

later
http://tea.mathoverflow.net/discussion/729/why-people-vote-to-close-questions-outside-of-their-field/#Item_20