Name Change Notification

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=Purple]I've noticed that membes loveto change their names. Even I thought about having mine changed to Hug_Monster. But then I realised no one would realise I was the same guy.

So I thought, OB should have some kind of section that lists the newest name changes! When someones name changes, you guys just put it in the notification place/forum/page/thing and we can all see it.

C'mon, ya can't tell me this is a bad idea![/COLOR]

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]When you get a name-change, it is customary to make note of it in your signature. Additionally, your previous username is also displayed in your profile. If you maintain the same banner and avatar for a few weeks after that, the transition should run pretty smoothly, heh.[/size]

[Dagger]

When name changes are made, we usually stick a little note about it in your signature. Most people are good about leaving it in for a while, but some seem to erase it as soon as they can...

Anyway, as Baron mentioned, previous username(s) are also shown in your profile.

~Dagger~

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=Purple]:animedepr You guys just love shooting down every good idea that comes up, don't you?

But seriuosly, how many people are going to actually click on the profiles? Its not like they'll think "oh they've changed their name, better check out the profile" becasue they won't know the person changed their name! Are you following cuz Im losing myself a little >_<

I know its not a perfect idea but what harm could it do? And don't even say "the site will blow up"[/COLOR]

[Petie]

[quote name='ThoraxtheImpaler][color=purple']I know its not a perfect idea but what harm could it do? And don't even say "the site will blow up"[/color][/quote][font=Verdana][color=blue]While the site wouldn't blow up, it would have to be a custom add-on to the forum. Those usually take a lot of time to make.[/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue][/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue]And if you don't want to look at the profile, Baron and Dagger both mentioned one important point - the name change is mentioned in your signature and usually, the person whose name was changed will leave that note there for at least a little while.[/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue][/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue]With something like that, there doesn't seem to be a reason to add a section for it. Plus, are people any more likely to look there than at the profile of another user? And if it was displayed on the main page, how long would it have to stay before it was taken off. Chances are, there would still be some people that miss the notification.[/color][/font]

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=Purple]Fine, whatever, but at least have the site administration pass the ides around. If one of ya'll gets some extra time, here's a way to occupy it.[/COLOR]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]It's not really that this is a bad idea, it's just that it's one more thing to do. And, as mentioned, a new page would have to be made for the list.

Here's a tip for recognizing people that have had their name changed recently, though, in case the profile or signature note doesn't catch your attention: If you see a new name but they already have the "Member" title, instead of "New Member," there's a decent chance that they've had their name changed. And from there, you can check their profile to see who they were.[/color]

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=Purple]Well I thought of the idea becaue I left for a while and when I came back I didn't recognise anyone. I thought there had just been a lot of new members whoo worked their ways up in my absense, but half of them are jus people with name changes >_<[/COLOR]

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think two things are really critical here.

One, we need to make it so that people can change their own usernames. The less time my two Administrators spend on tasks like that, the more time they will have to deal with significant site issues.

Two, it needs to be absolutely clear what a person's previous name was, to avoid any confusion. Although we do include it in the profile, that is clearly not good enough. It needs to be visible on the postbit or somewhere more prominent.

I suspect, however, that we may do something like this for the next OtakuBoards site. I am sure we can do something to improve the situation on V7, but right now our resources are stretched incredibly thin. I am saying that a lot lately, but it's very difficult to allocate resources to OB when we have so many other important projects in development.

I mostly wanted to reply to let you know that I totally understand your concerns and it's something I've been thinking about for a while now. ^_^[/font]

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]But really, is allowing members to change their names themselves such a good idea? I think it would actually be rather annoying - if you give people added facilities to do something like this, there is always the concern of people who will change their names every day and abuse the feature. The fact that they need to PM an Admin to have their name changed, means that they won't be changing it every day, in a way, because the administrators will tell them to cut it out. Usernames should, to my mind, be a relatively permanent and long-living thing. It defeats the purpose of recognisability to change your name three times a day, just because you had this cool new idea.[/size]

[Dagger]

I imagine time-based restrictions could probably be implemented, though. If anything, they would be more accurate than what I do now (which is glance back through my PMs to see if the person in question had another name change recently, heh).

~Dagger~

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Interesting, most interesting.

To respond to the original point of the thread, I don't think it's really necessary to have a whole section of the site dedicated as a notice board where people can look up who's changed their name recently. As has already been said, the Admins add the little note to your signature to inform people of your previous username and then of course you have the fact that most people's avatars and banners remain the same before and after the change. I don't know how many people change their name on average per day so it might be worth just having a segment at the bottom of the Index, like the "Who's Online" feature.

As to the idea of granted members the ability to change their username at will, I must admit I'd be against the idea. As Josh pointed out, unless there are safe-guards put in place to prevent changing from occurring too regularly, which we can be sure there will be if it goes though, the potential for abuse is rife. I mean I'll admit I've changed my username a few times over my four years stay on OB, but I still feel the current system of PMing an Admin to do the job is better than allowing members themselves do it. [/SIZE]

[James]

[QUOTE=Dagger]I imagine time-based restrictions could probably be implemented, though. If anything, they would be more accurate than what I do now (which is glance back through my PMs to see if the person in question had another name change recently, heh).

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Precisely. I do [i]not[/i] want to maintain the current system, where people have to request it from Administrators, who do it manually. That just isn't good for a whole variety of reasons.

Members will be able to change their own name, but of course, there will be restrictions. I don't know what those will be, but I have a few ideas (for example, you may be able to change your name only once per month or only a handful of times in one year). Obviously if people were changing their name daily, the purpose of listing their old name would be defeated...which is why we wouldn't allow name changing "at will". There would be sensible controls in place.[/font]

[Semjaza]

Once per month is way, way, way too often. Honestly, I think once per year is enough. If people can't decide on a decent name, I don't really think every one else should have to try and figure out who they are every time.

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]That's why we'd have a much more visible way to see someone's previous username. I mean, even if they changed their name once a month, you'd still have an entire month to see the previous name.

In any case, I'm really just using that as an example to demonstrate what could probably be done. I suspect that in the end I'd probably settle on a happy medium. Maybe three times a year or something like that.[/font]

[Stuart]

[quote name='James][font=franklin gothic medium']Maybe three times a year or something like that.[/font][/quote]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS]Then that may leave some people with regrets after using up their three times, and they end up getting stuck with a name they'd really like to have changed. But, if you're having even 3 name changes a year... Well, I just think that's a bit too much. I feel that the system we currently have is fine, but I do agree in saying that I don't often like to see people constantly changing their usernames.[/FONT]

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=Purple]Well I change my name every 500 posts. I only got rid of Thorax early cuz it was too viiolent and I am now anti-violence.

So why not just make it 1 name change per 500 posts? Am I a genius or what![/COLOR]

[Goodbye, Face]

[font=trebuchet ms]Then we'll have members spamming up the place in order to get those 500 posts. They did it for titles a few years ago.[/font]

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=Purple]>_< true that. But they don't have to know its every 500 posts. Or you could make it once every 6 months, I dunno.[/COLOR]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, I do pretty much the same thing as Dagger. I try to keep track of name changes around the site and, if I know someone's had theirs changed recently, I'm not going to change it again right away. Not that it's come up yet.

Myself, I think one change every three or four months would be plenty if a system for letting members change their own names is implemented. A username -- the main thing that identifies you on the forum -- should be a more permanent than a signature. Which they wouldn't be if people were able to change them once a month.[/color]

[Baron Samedi]

[quote name='Hug Monster][COLOR=Purple']>_< true that. But they don't have to know its every 500 posts. Or you could make it once every 6 months, I dunno.[/COLOR][/quote]
[size=1]And then you'll see people going "heeey y cant i change mi name its not fair i dont no how 2 plz tell me now i wanna change it!!!1"

Really, the name change system should be designed for fair use. If a person attempts to change their name three times within, say a month, then the system blocks them from changing for six. The only thing I'm concerned about with time limits [which appear to be the only other fair way] is that it will become a sort of "as soon as I get my next name-change set I'm changing to _______ ".[/size]

[Sandy]

It's of course easy for me to say, having changed my screenname only once, but I really don't think people [I]need[/I] to change their online-names as often as some of them do now. They just mostly do it because it's fun (and it really is, and refreshing too).

I agree with the once per 6 months limitation, it's hard enough to keep track who's who as it is.

I'm just not sure how the system would react on free name changing, with so many registered screennames here already. Would the abandoned names come free to use for the future new members, or remain registered and thus taken? I sense problems arising in the near future, when all the most common and popular names are taken, and people will have to resort to "dfjkgu26374"-type of solutions. Of course it is quite utopistic to think like this, when there are cazillions of possible names out there, but who knows...

[size=1]Hrr, it's scary to think that one day we might all be known as a random series of letters and numbers. X/[/size]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]I suppose if we are to give members the right to change their names, a sensible change period would be about once every three months as Des suggested, though I myself think that most members wouldn't change their username that often. [/SIZE]

[quote name='Sandy][size=1']Hrr, it's scary to think that one day we might all be known as a random series of letters and numbers. X/[/size][/quote]

[SIZE=1]Well if such is the case I'm claiming TK-421 before anyone else does, or perhaps THX-1138 though without having actually seen the movie the former would make more sense. [/SIZE]

[James]

[quote name='Stuart][FONT=Trebuchet MS']Then that may leave some people with regrets after using up their three times, and they end up getting stuck with a name they'd really like to have changed. [/FONT][/quote]

[font=franklin gothic medium]That's just bad luck.

The truth is, no matter what we do, we can't satisfy everyone. Those who are fine with the current system don't have to deal with the constant PM requests and the monotonous work of changing many names all the time (when they could be doing something far more useful).

The fact is, there are a lot of places that don't even let you change your name at all. Being able to change it a few times a year is a good balance. It's enough that you can change it if you want, but it's restricted enough so that you really are forced to think about choosing something you like.

We already allow people to change names, so people are used to having that ability here. I won't simply get rid of it; so that's the first thing to bear in mind. However, it's not ideal to have Administrators changing names manually, particularly as the site grows and more people request it.

Some people on here have changed their name many times in a year, but there haven't been very many complaints. If we introduce a more controlled automated system, you'd have [i]less[/i] frequent name changing but far more flexibility at the same time. It's the best type of system for OtakuBoards, given our history and given that people are used to having that ability - rather than taking it away, I'd simply want to put it under tighter and more reasonable control.[/font]

[Hevn]

This is actually the only site or system that I know of that allows users for a username change. I'm personally not against name changing. I used it once, just to change my name from `hEvN to my current one. I'd be fine if I couldn't change it. I just really don't think it's necessary, but as James said, people have been used to it and it will be hard to get rid of it because people would whine.

I think the admins shouldn't have tolerated name changing in the first place. You won't need something if it wasn't introduced or allowed in the first place.

Anyway, I'm going with the once per year. Make it like an annual event and name it the Name Changing Day or something. The feature for name chagning can be enabled on that day.