I'm sorry you weren't able to pick the exact name you wanted ZapBrannigan. Over the years the forum software has changed several times. We've also had several types of software for the rest of the site. Integrating the two has not always been easy and special characters in usernames created problems. As did having different username and display name, which is why that is no longer allowed. There are a whole bunch of historical anomalies resulting from all this.