When I initially joined E2, this username wasn't available, so I picked my other favorite handle, shallot.
After a while, I checked up on the user joy and noticed that there wasn't any activity. A few months after that, there still was no activity, and in fact no record that the user had ever logged in or done anything.
I started a short discussion in the chatterbox about this and one of the admins, Lord Brawl removed the old joy account so that I can take it. He said that user renames are seldom done because they are too complicated. I didn't want to migrate manually because that would be a tiring process both for me and the editors, and I'd lose the reputation that I had already gained.
Therefore, this node will stay mine, but I will continue noding as shallot. Unless some other admin thinks I'm taking too much usernamespace, or something like that :) I would, of course, accept a real username change if an admin wishes to make it happen.
Thank you for listening.