Hmmmm.....
 

Hey everyone.Is there a way the admin can change an acount's username?I seem not to like Crig anymore....I want Marty The Vykker.(Ever since I made my story,"A Vykker's Odd Life",in the Fan Corner forum,I've been wanting it)

Thanks!

In the past it has happened in rare instances. As the Forums have grown, the liklihood of it happening has decreased, and I can see why - both Alcar and Abe Babe are busy people, and I wouldn't like to see them get buried under a deluge of excited people requesting name changes. But I'm not sure why exactly the avoid such a relatively-simple operation. My advice is, don't get your hopes up, but sit tight and wait.

That's why I'm glad I came up with the username "oddguy." It describes me so well and I love it! Tee hee. :fuzsmile:

-oddguy :kiss:

I think you should personally stick with your name. Most people are probably used to you now by that, and Its not really given out very often. I myself was thinking about it a while back just going by Al, but for now Im still very content with it.

A name change also is given out in extreme situations most of the time too.

All that for just a name change?I better just keep Crig.Well,thanks for the info guys....


*Says to himself:Why didn't I pick Marty the Vykker..Golly...Sheesh..Makes me angry..grrr...*

I'd like to change my name too, but I really don't see it happening... Oh well. I want my name to be Gandalf the Grey, or something like that... :crying:

In some forums, they actually have the option of selecting a main login name, and then a screen name that you can change whenever you want.

The database logs all the previous names to give a name history, so that you can never change your name and "disappear" so to speak.

It worked well for that forum, so should be a positive step for this one.

For a long time, I've disagreed with the argument that changing names all the time would be too much work.

This is simply not the case, and more to do with laziness than anything else. My suggestion is, if you admins can't be bothered, give us the ability to change our names. Put rules in that disallow offensive names if you have to. But just give us the freedom to do what so many of us have been wanting to do for so long.

I actually like that Idea, its similar to MSN messenger how your email (net passport logs you in, but you can change your name on the messenger part anytime you want to.

It could work, you could have a little thing on their profile or under Location, etc that says their user/login name. :fuzsmile:

Yeah, that's basically the jist of it. I suggest we take this thread to FS&H.

The chance of your name changing could increase if we made another super moderator (cough) me! me!(cough)

Anyways theres a very low chance, and the idea suggested by death i dont have any opionion about it, but i think it would be kinda messy?

It's not messy. I've been on other forums that use that system, and it's worked perfectly.

The people on this forum have little to no rights or priveliges at all. You aren't allowed to change your name, you aren't allowed to change your title, you aren't allowed to do jack shit. It's about time we got some control over our accounts. Or at least, the more senior memebers, (IE me, ferill, Jacob, oddguy, ss, etc.).

Hey, us mods have the same control over our accounts as you guys, don't forget us...

Sorry hobo, I didn't forget you, I just wasn't aware as to what privelidges you had. :)

I like that idea, Death. Sounds like it would work great. I don't need to change my name, but the option to would make me feel all powerful! Alcar or Abe Babe should respond to this...they were already talking about senior members getting special features. This could be one of them.

*waits for them*

-oddguy :fuzcool:

Yeah. There's nothing like feeling appreciated! :D

Although... I've been a bit flamey in the past, so I might not be considered completely appreciated.

It's just suddenly occured to me that in my time here, I've written the equivolent of a short novel in posts! ... weird thought... whoa...

*coughcoughMEcoughtoo..cough* etc.

Especially us oldie oldies like me...:p

Well we could always do a vote, its probably unlikely, but you could put a little sub title underneath the changeable name what your real user name is.

Example: Al

and under it have Al the Vykker, or somewhere visible so you can determine who is who still. Dunno its just an idea though.

Updating one username is no sweat, but updating many usernames requires quite some time. You don't understand, that once even one name is modified, we have to use a tool to that updates every post, thread (etc) that uses a cached username.

As for the feature Death mentioned, about two seperate names. That is a feature in UBB, but it is not a feature in vBulletin.

It does confuse people, the instances where we do change names are where members are called by a different name, which is usually a variant of their original username (but is not always the case).

As for senior members getting more priviledges, I would suggest only extending more priviledges to veterans. Which, I would classify as people who existed on the OWF EzBoard. Which doesn't include myself, as I've never actually considered myself a veteran.

*moves to FS & H*

Alcar...

Oh...damn. I'm not special. :crying: Well, I guess I see your logic. If you made special priviledges to those with...say, 2000+ posts, it might encourage noobs to spam. But, maybe we don't have to tell the noobs. :devil:

-oddguy :fuzcool:

But they'd still work it out....

yay, i'm a senior! now give me my goddamn custom name.

Oh well, Ive been here for two years now, so I guess you and myself are Semi Veterans. :p

Changing ones own custom title is legitimate, I think. In fact, I would suggest we allow custom titles to anyone who want them.

Name changes though... It just seems sort of iffyish. On one hand, the person is still probably going to be called by their old username. If they have many posts then old topics may be comfusing. Then again, some people have legitimate causes.

I think that, if this could be implemented, you stick with the ranks, until you are awarded a title, which you can change at will. Of course, anything against the rules would get yo ass banned

The forums that use a login name / display name system are UBB forums. There is a hack for vBulletin that does allow for the user to change their own name ... but it does not allow the user to "keep" their name, which sucks if you decide you want it back later on and then you can't have it.

But I really don't like username changes. One forum I'm on allows it and it's a real annoyance. You get people that change their name every day, and you just don't know who is who before it occurs. One thing I like about here is that we all know who is who, so there is no wondering who the hell someone is because they've had their 1000th name change.

Although a more "controlled" username change would be okay ... but it would need to be something earned. Like you could do it every 100 posts or something like that.

On the other hand if there was a way to make username changing easy for legitimate reasons, I don't have a problem doing it manually. But if you get every second member saying "I'm bored of this name, change it for me" then they build up. Although I wouldn't say we are lazy ... I really don't have time to do lots of name changes and wait for the update process on the forums. I have just been 4 hours answering a backlog of emails that needed to be responded to from both Oddworld-Web and Advent Children.net. Every day I'm doing work on my sites ... so laziness is not a factor here, it's finding time in my day. I'm still trying to find time to complete the native and industrial layouts in there somewhere.

As for custom titles, I don't have a problem with it at all. I actually suggested it back on the old forums, but no one really wanted it. Everyone seemed to like the ranks system we were using at the moment ... so nothing further was doen with the suggestion.

Abe Babe...

Sorry Alcar, but that's total bullshit. There is no "tool". I've used the Administration Control Panel in vBulletin before and it does all that for you. I stay true to my word, when I say that you are just making excuses because you are far to ****ing lazy.

And don't make excuses about what forum type uses certain features. I've used forums that were scripted from scratch that had this feature - and if you're apparantly so amazing with PHP, why would you find it so hard to add?

The bottom line is this: We're fed up with all your bullshit excuses. You can gloss it over however you want, but it doesn't fool any of us. Especially those of us who have worked with vBulletin before. You can't predict how implementing this feature will turn out, because you haven't even tried it yet. What kind of moron would just say "no" to every good suggestion because they realise the slight possibility of it going wrong.

Who's to say any one of us will change our name every single day? There are only one or two of us who complain about our names, and even those few people have their hearts set on one certain name - I'm sure they'll stick with it once they get the chance to change it.

I know, from personal experience, that I am definately NOT the type that goes for a different username depending on what mood I'm in. I've been on forums that have the screen name feature, and after deciding on a name, I stick with it. Period.

Simply make it against the rules to change your name every day if it worries you so much. But don't cover this good idea over with excuses and reasons that don't even merit posting.

Excuse me, Death. But you have no right whatsoever to tell me there is no tool to do what I mentioned. Here, I'll even attach a picture. It was in both vBulletin 2 and 3, so you honestly need to learn your vBulletin. I'd look into things better, before you decide to jump on me.

As for the display name / login name thing. It doesn't come standard with vBulletin, and until Abe Babe mentioned that there was a hack to implement it, I was unaware vBulletin had such a hack. I'm not amazing at PHP, I'm just the resident guru.

"We're"? I only hear you. But I'm sure you have hordes of members who also complain, but don't want to speak about it publicly, so you're being their 'leader'. I don't feed anyone bullshit, Death. It's you that the bullshit comes from. Worked with vBulletin before? Obviously not enough, because you didn't even know about the existance of the update usernames feature.

The bottom line is, that names changes are only awarded on a very rare basis. However, this custom title idea, where people with custom titles already, can change them at will, sounds like a great idea.

Alcar...

This isn't going anywhere.

Alcar has clearly decided that this matter isn't up for debate. A shame, considering the amount of thought that went into it.

Clearly, suggestions about this forum are recieved on a "couldn't care less but I'll read it anyway" basis.

Everybody I'd suggest you save yourself the energy and just give up. Alcar isn't going to change your name. He'd rather you be unhappy with the name you've got, clearly because he has to arm-wrestle with this apparant "tool", which would be far too much work for him.

Of course it isn't going anywhere. When arguments are started with illegimate claims, you can't expect to have anything come out of it, except the truth. You claimed I was lying, and quite blatantly. I provided evidence to back up my point. Then you go and decide to end another argument. You can't do that. It annoys the heck out of me when you decide to end an argument. It's all too obvious that you do it when the heat is on, and you know you're wrong. Yet you're to proud to admit defeat.

If people have suggestions, complaints, or whatever else. They can post it in this forum publicly for everyone to see. Suggestions are taken into consideration, and thought through thouroughly to all extents. If we decline a suggestion, there is a reason, and we always supply a reason for such.

Our main reason for not changing usernames often, is because of it confusing members. Which is a reason supported by the claim, that we usually only change a user's name if that user if more so referred to that name than what there current username is. Thus, avoiding confusion. Majic_Abe, was often called Majic, so when he asked for the name change we agreed, as it would not cause confusion. Seeing as he was a Moderator, and an honest member, who also had some history we happily obliged.

The Oddworld Forums run on new suggestions, Death. As well as happy, and fun members. You, Death, do not fall into any of those categories. You aim to bring displeasure to our community, and you've done a great job. Congratulations.

Alcar...

I like that idea as well. You have to be a good, well behaved member to get a custom title, so only the good members get the ability to change their custom title. I like that idea a lot. I hope it is implemented.

-oddguy :fuzcool:

Tough luck Alcar. That's what you get for letting the grim reaper aboard your ship.