Sleeping useful accounts

I wonder if usernames eventually get "recicled".

No. Since people leave comments under their name in the forums, it would be confusing if they were recycled.

If you really want an account name, you could log a ticket about it and the Support team might be willing to rename that old account and give yours that name.

Sounds like you're only trying to be helpful there, but I wonder if that really would be a good idea.

Some trolls will figure out ways to use this for trolling and "reappearing" as old forum names. Is it really worth the trouble and drama this will cause just so someone doesn't have to add a number to a name that he'd like to take ?

It wouldn't hurt to ask: the Support team will almost certainly apply some checks, and I doubt that they would do it for someone who'd only created their latest account in the last few days that hadn't been participating in the forums; it's also the sort of thing where someone's membership level would probably be a factor ie. that sort of request from a premium member would have more weight than the same request from a basic member.

This is certainly a great problem. Please, deal with it most appropriately. 

Can I have the name "david" please?

Sorry - that account was inactive for nearly 8 years with zero games and zero content before a moderator acquired it as their "official" account just over 2 years ago, and it's been active ever since