So, the perfect username I wanted was taken. No surprise. But it was important enough for me to actually try to PM the person and ask if they'd be willing to part with it.

I got an error because apparently, after making the account almost four years ago and doing nothing with it, they couldn't even be bothered to confirm their email.

I mean, for all I know, they wouldn't even have checked the email associated with such an old account, but I thought I'd try. And then that!