I imagine Andy (admin) has been trying to sort out the problem reported to him by Bill.
I expect he is still working on things as the problem is still there, if there is a need to change your username then he may contact you but it looks more like the original @** is where the problem is not the actual username so he may well be able to revert it to “me”
As you said in the other thread PMs have been working I suspect it is a recent problem due to some change in software, plug-in etc
I’m happier that Admin are trying to sort things out then just ignoring the reported bug
Not everyone had a number added there are quite a few without including myself
Only admin can change a user name, Moderators can’t and certainly not other users