I've been playing for over 7 years and typed every single name out for most of that time. Any idea how long it took me to start shortening everyone's name after this was put in? I would say about 10 hours of playing.

I think nearly everyone can relate to having sent a tell to someone unintended by shortening the name. When I was Provost a couple of my leaders got shipped off to Seantryn Modan because someone attacked the wrong person because of a shortened name. That was their fault, but it's nearly impossible to explain these mistakes in character. Very rarely will this be a problem except with something very common, like "Self-".

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that names not be allowed to start with Self- (meaning allowing current characters to keep their names but not permitting any new ones to be rolled) and changing the name of the character Guar (because it is a violation of the naming guidelines).