User talk:Alan Cox

Username
Hello, I noticed that your username, Alan Cox, may not meet Wikipedia's username policy because of similarity to User:AlanCox. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. As an alternative, you may file for a change of username, or you may simply create a new account and use that for editing. Andy Mabbett (User: Pigsonthewing ); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 21:00, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
 * How about because that was my old user name for which the password was lost ages ago and I was told to create a new one because there was no way to retrieve it ? Alan Cox (talk) 09:49, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, OK, thanks. It might be a good idea to mention that - and your former IP edits - on your old and new user pages;or to redirect the old ones. Andy Mabbett (User: Pigsonthewing ); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 10:52, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

This account has been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia because your username, Alan Cox, does not meet our username policy. '''Your username is the only reason for this block. You are welcome to choose a new username (see below).''' A username should not be promotional, related to a "real-world" group or organization, misleading, offensive, or disruptive. Also, usernames may not end in the word "bot" unless the account is an approved bot account.

You are encouraged to choose a new account name that meets our policy guidelines. Alternatively, if you have already made edits and you wish to keep your existing contributions under a new name, then you may request a change in username by:
 * Adding on your user talk page. You should be able to do this even though you are blocked, as you can usually still edit your own talk page. If not, you may wish to contact the blocking administrator by clicking on "E-mail this user" on their talk page.
 * At an administrator's discretion, you may be unblocked for 24 hours to file a request.
 * Please note that you may only request a name that is not already in use, so please check here for a listing of already taken names. The account is created upon acceptance, thus do not try to create the new account before making the request for a name change. For more information, please see Changing username.

If you feel that you were blocked in error, you may appeal this block by adding below this notice the text, but you should read our guide to appealing blocks first. -- Cirt (talk) 14:42, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't see any sign of a block and unblock "some years back". Was that on another account, apart from AlanCox and Alan Cox? However, if you really are Alan Cox then I can't see that the username infringes any part of the username policy, unless I have missed something. However, the username policy does say "If you have been blocked for using your real name, please don't take offense; we're trying to prevent somebody from impersonating you! You are welcome to use your real name, but in some cases, you will need to prove you are who you say you are. You can do this by sending an e-mail to [mailto:info-en@wikimedia.org info-en@wikimedia.org]; be aware that the volunteer response team that handles e-mail is indeed operated entirely by volunteers, and an immediate reply may not be possible." I suppose that it will probably be best for you to do that, to make sure. JamesBWatson (talk) 16:46, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I am much inclined to agree with Beeblebrox. An unnecessary block. JamesBWatson (talk) 11:12, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Happy to drop an email still if that would make people happier Alan Cox (talk) 13:23, 24 August 2011 (UTC)