https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mersenne_primes_and_pe...
If this happened the way you remember, it's really unfortunate, but it wouldn't have stopped the prime in question from being discovered, because GIMPS always at least eventually gives out numbers to multiple people to check, and doesn't mark Mersenne numbers as checked until a computer actively reports that they were checked.
However, your name could have ended up on that Wikipedia list as a discoverer. :-)
> because GIMPS always at least eventually gives out numbers to multiple people to check
For the 40th Mersenne prime, 2²⁰⁹⁹⁶⁰¹¹ − 1, for example, the status page on mersenne.org seems to suggest only a single check (and a handful of later NF checks later), but maybe follow-up proofs and proof certifications and reruns are omitted? https://www.mersenne.org/report_exponent/?exp_lo=20996011&fu...
Also, when you sign up, you're asked to provide an email address in case they want to get in touch with you, so even if OP didn't themselves do so, I imagine they would include their work just the same?
> However, your name could have ended up on that Wikipedia list as a discoverer. :-)
Along the same lines, since each (potential) prime is being worked on by many computers, some looking for factors, some running the Fermat test, some running proof certification work, who gets the "discoverer" title; just the person who ran the PRP test? If so, seems fair enough, since that's where most of the computational budget ends up, but on the other hand, it seems like that would disincentivize running anything but PRP tests. But maybe the people involved are just in it for the mission (or the GHz day leaderboards).