Pat, Maclolm Douglass suggested the help forum. That is the place for this sort of query. That said.

1. I see there is already a member Pat Cooksey and it looks fairly new to me. I suspect you succeded in creating your membership but have problems with cookies. Further attempts to join under the name Pat Cooksey will provide duplicate errors.

2. Unless things have changed, there has often been confusion between the terms used on the membership system. One I remember was it could tell you your "code name" was taken - code name referred to your user name not your password.

Jon