I have to put this on a thread of it's own,
because I can never remember how to do it.
to check if there is an msn profile with an addy you type
members.msn.com/emailaddress
to see what you will get when there is a profile
You can also do an advanced google search on the nickname,
to see if it is used in other groups
then you type the name and after the name you enter site:groups.msn.com
example
nickname site:groups.msn.com