If you rejoin under a new name, and do it by changing your existing membership name, all your old posts will show under the new name, so if you plan on laying low you can't do that.

Multiple memberships, tho, are a no-no, so you would need to ask Joe Offer or Pene Azul to label your old membership "inactive." It is still a "live" membership, and you can still check PM's and send PM's from there. But someone wanting to PM you, who does not know that you are checking the box, will try to PM you and see the "inactive" label and, presumably, know you are not likely to respond.

Trust around here is a funny thing. I would hope you have a pile of saved PMs so you can PM people wioth whom you have been friends, and let them know your new ID. So they don't feel weird about you when it all comes out.

And that brings me to the last part I want to say about this--

It WILL come out. Mudcat is too small for anything to stay quiet for long. So the question becomes, I think-- do you want it to come out as YOU want it to be known, or do you want others to tell your story, their way? Is this person you want to avoid someone you actually have cause to fear-- in which case any invovlement here will be a bad idea? Or is it a mess you have not yet been able to clear up, due to your lack of ability or theirs-- in which case involvement here will probably lead to clearing it up eventually? If that is the case then a PM to that person, outlining your preferences about communication, might be in order and might forestall any nasty surprises all around.

~Susan

PS-- In the unlikely event that this thread was started by one person in particular, whose situation (as they know) I am aware of, I will close with a personal word. If you are that person, then you know that I know the matter you are referring to. That ball is in YOUR court. Clear that problem up.