Username Reserving?

[originals]

I'm just a third person in this situation, but here's the story.
Someone used to have username Xyz, then changed to Abc. Later, Jkl changed their username to Xyz. Abc had "Please don't steal Xyz" in really small font in their username, and hadn't used the name in forever. Should Xyz change their username back to Jkl, or can they keep it? Thanks!

[blueshadowmoon]

Once you change your username you have no rights to it. You can't have control over two or more usernames. But if someone changed their user and was pretending to be someone that's when they can get in trouble.

[bubiza]

Once somebody's changed their username they can't own it, so it is free to be used by anybody, as long as they are not pretending to be that person. If somebody has that had that much of an issue with somebody using a username then they shouldn't change it in the first place.

Ninja'd

[Tawny224]

Just to sum up what those people said (xD) you can not own a username, so if I changed my username to Vendetta, and somebody took Tawny224 while I had changed it, I couldn't get mad at that person and be like 'you can't use my username'. You give up all rights to it, so I think your friend should go for it and change it back.

[Tess]

You can't take a username unless it's not currently being used. So if it's not being used then no-one else currently owns it and no regular members can tell you that you can't have it. If a member is trying to force you to change your username, report them to staff.

However if the username was taken for the sole purpose of annoying the previous user or pretending to be that user, then they could get into trouble. Similarly if the username is somehow inappropriate or offensive then you might be made to pick a different username.

If someone feels so strongly about keeping their username, they shouldn't be changing it to something else in the first place.