Here's the scenario:
- I have a Canon character, Samus. I'm in main chat all the time.
- Someone else makes a Samus. They go into Main chat, talk a bit.
- My last message was yesterday and it's out of the backlog so numeric IDs don't show up.
People might reasonably assume we were the same person. If they act up, maybe it'll tar my reputation briefly, or maybe they'll confuse conversations with them with conversations with me. I don't think much bad will really happen, but I think on a site that supports the idea of users sharing names (which is good!! I love this), it would be responsible to provide users with the necessary means of distinguishing two users fairly well. Mistaken identity will be frustrating for all parties involved.
Now conveniently for me, the two Samus Arans on the site have also used the surname (so I'm "Samus" and they're "Samus Aran"). But a case of mistaken identity is still plausible for other canons or people who share a name.
Not that it'll solve things completely, but it'll help: if my friend is talking in chat, somewhere in the grey timestamp/ic/ooc metadata area beforehand, can there be a ★? That way if someone I'm friends with starts taking to a Samus who doesn't have a ★, they might be clued in that something's up - oh hey this is a newbie not my pal!