About 8 or 9 months ago, my Pet decided she wanted to change her username on FetLife to bring it into line with how she saw herself. Not as merely my submissive, but she wanted to add a dominant ‘flair’. At the time she was feeling switchy, and wanted the username to reflect that as well as updating her profile. Naturally, when she changed it, the previous username became available to anyone else that might wish to use it. When I found out about it, I quickly created a ‘holder’ profile and used the old name, just in case at some point she changed her mind.
A little over three months ago, that happened. She wanted to change it back, but we ran into a snag. In the ensuing 5 or 6 months, the site had changed their policies in terms of usernames and how they can be changed. A fact that both of us was unaware of. When I changed the username on the ghost account to something else, and she tried to change hers back, the site said it was ‘already taken‘. WTF? Impossible. I just changed it; there’s no way someone could have snapped it up so quickly. Well, someone did, but it was the site itself. Apparently, they had instituted a policy where if you change your username, the old one is held by the site for 90 days. I didn’t find that out until several days later, after multiple attempts to get the old name back. Finally found the corresponding post on one of the site’s boards where others had encountered the same issue, and of course no one was happy about it. But like most websites, you’re forced to play by their rules, no matter what you happen to think about it. So, I set my calendar’s notification for 90 days and began to wait.
Last night, my Pet and I were on the phone and the topic of the name came up again. Technically, the 90 days was up yesterday, but when she tried to change it, the same error message popped up. Since it was 11:56 pm when we were talking, I suggested she wait until after midnight and try again. A few minutes later she informed me it worked! Vindication! We were back in business.
This has been weighing on me for the last three months and I’m damn glad to not have to worry about it anymore. I asked her not to change it again, and she’s agreed that she doesn’t wish to. On the other hand, if it hadn’t worked, we just would have managed as we had been, in between she had changed the name to something slightly different, but (to me) it wasn’t exactly the same and it messed a bit with my OCD. I just like things to flow in a linear fashion, and when they don’t it bothers me. And like a dog with a bone (or cat with a favorite toy), I can’t just let it go. And then I can get annoying. So, one less thing to be fixating on.