Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but whom should I contact to have my user name changed? I have e-mailed several administrators over the last couple of months to no avail. Any suggestions anyone might have would be greatly appreciated.
On a related note, I want to drop the ‘9’ off my nick. I jsut searched and the user ‘Gyan’ doesn’t have a single post to his/her name. Seems to be a no-show.
Make sure the email address from which you are sending the requests is EXACTLY the one you registered with, otherwise, they will most likely not reply or take any action.
Gyan9, once a name has been registered, it’s permanently out of circulation, even if the user never posts with it. The administrators have said before that they do not recycle names. Sorry, man.
I can change names. However, lately it’s been VERY hard for me to stay in the administrator control panel long enough to do anything at all.
If you didn’t hear from any of us…
Did you put SDMB in the subject field of your letter? Any mail from people I don’t know is likely to end up in the bit bucket if it doesn’t have SDMB in the subject. Did you write from your SDMB address? You know, the one you registered with? I don’t know how many times I’ve opened up the admin CP, tried to find a user, and couldn’t because the email address was different. Sometimes I will tell people why I can’t change their names. Other times I put this on the back burner, where sometimes I get around to it and sometimes I don’t. Name changes are not my top priority, I will try to ban spammers and trolls first in any one work session, and then take care of other business. However, I only have so much time that I’m willing to devote to the SDMB. Anything that doesn’t get done, just doesn’t get done.
Write to more than one admin at the same time, and copy us on the same letter. Don’t write a letter to me, another to Tuba, and another to Noodles, without letting us each know that you’ve written to others. This is very aggravating. And we sometimes have to take time off from the board. Sometimes we know about this ahead of time. Other times, our internet connection may be down, or we might be sick, or something else might have come up that takes priority.
We will generally allow ONE name change. We have a lot of names that are already taken, and changing someone’s name means that they are taking up two names, since we don’t recycle names. Changing names is a royal pain, as we have to document it.
ONLY administrators can change names. So don’t write to a moderator to ask, because the only thing the mod can do is forward the letter to the admins. The mods have quite enough to do as it is, without forwarding letters.
Maybe this should be put in the FAQ, because, while reasonable, it’s not self-evident, at least to me.
Don’t you routinely dump email from unknown people unless it has a reasonable subject? I sure do. Almost everything I get from people I don’t know is spam, and frankly I don’t want to spend an hour each day opening my mail, determining that yes, it IS spam, letting the bug report back that the mail was opened, and thus get more spam.
Oh, while we’re on the subject, if you use a lot of HTML in your email, it’s likely to end up in a spam filter. That’s not my decision, it’s Hotmail’s, and just about every other email system uses that logic. So don’t use a lot of HTML…that means, use your default color, font, etc. I don’t check my spam filter nearly as often as I check my inbox.
I said I thought it was reasonable. The truth is I don’t get a lot of spam, so the thought wouldn’t cross my mind to make the subject origin-specific. Maybe there are other people whose mind it wouldn’t cross, so it would be good to mention in the FAQ. Just an idea.
I just logged out and brought up the registration screen to see what the rules for usernames are, but nothing’s mentioned (and I didn’t want to actually register a second time).
Anyone know?
What do you mean by “rules for names”? There aren’t many (may not be any.) We’re pretty flexible on what we allow – I would be less flexible than most mods, but we discuss stuff. Names that include racial insults, for instance, are not permitted.
If you want a name change, email the admins as per Lynn’s post above. Do NOT, repeat DO NOT, register again under a different name. That is a violation of the rule against having more than one name at a time.
We have some administrative guidelines on name changes – like only one per member, and we have to document it internally, etc. We don’t allow recycling names because the system doesn’t allow duplicate names, and while it’s possible to trick the system, it’s extra layers of tedium. Especially when the hamsters are going at such breakneck speeds.
On the question of subject line, I’ll echo Lynn – we get lots of spam. I will read subject lines that seem vaguely related to Straight Dope, even if they don’t say specifically “SDMB”. So, I’ll read a subject line such as “Request for name change”, but when I see a subject line of “URGENT BUSINESS REQUEST” I hit the ka-ching key.
C K Dexter Haven -
First be sure I’m not urging you to do anything. Especially right now.
Just mentioning that it could be time for easing that rule on recycling names. It seems to “protect the rights” of people who don’t post here now and never did.
What Gyan9 was asking about was that he’d like the name Gyan, which was signed up for over 4 years ago and never used.
This reminds me of the time Bill H. wanted to be just Bill, a name never used in 5 years.
It’s not really that much of a “trick” to accomodate these things. Change the name Bill to Billxxx and then Bill H. to Bill
Now’s not a good time, with “the troubles”. but eventually there will be a lull and you can reconsider the rule then.
It’s sure to come up again.
I have seen people make their first post after being registered for two or even three years. How would you feel if you finally decided to post with your carefully-chosen username, only to discover that it no longer worked? Oh, and what’s this in that email account you haven’t checked in years? Why, it’sanice note saying “Sorry, we gave your name to someone else. Here’s your NEW name!”
I wrote from my SDMB mail address, which is the one in my user profile. It is not the one I originally registered with, because I don’t have access to that one anymore. But it is the one I’m registered with now. And I also did mention the SDMB in my subject line. So it sounds like I did it right but probably slipped through the cracks or something. I’ll just try again.
Thanks for the information.
<< It’s not really that much of a “trick” to accomodate these things. Change the name Bill to Billxxx and then Bill H. to Bill >>
Sigh. I didn’t say it was much of a trick. But I did say that it takes TIME – that’s making two name changes, not one, and each name change can take from ten to fifteen minutes depending on the hamsters. For most of us, an extra ten minutes of pure tedium (multitasking during the process can screw it all up) is just not worth it. It’s not about “protecting” the rights of banned names, it’s about making life easier for the administrators (an unpaid job, you may recall.)
There are wonderful people called lurkers who never, ever post but keep an active account so they can do things like check profiles and run searches. They may not directly add to the database of posts, but I for one always post keeping in mind that more people may be reading it than is evident, so they contribute indirectly. This doesn’t apply to banned users, but it’s another reason to maintain old names; you never know who might actually be using their account. And sometimes they do finally post like Q.E.D. said. (Although, if they want to keep valid accounts, they should keep valid email addresses that they do check.)
Yeah, I figured the “protecting the name” thing was bogus, since nowadays, if you don’t use Yahoo for four months or Hotmail for one your email is trashed. So anyone coming back after 4-5 years would not be surprized at all.
[What’s with the Banned reference- None of these people were banned, not Gyan or Bill, who never even posted, and JBirdman was never even registered. Can’t think anyone would want a banned name, but I suppose someone must have asked for one before and it’s on your mind.]
But, as to your being overworked, which I believe, as Lynn said the same thing on another recent thread, I have the perfect answer:
Q.E.D. has been begging for a job. Let him take that extra 15 minutes off your schedule as often as it arises. You deserve a break today, and name changes don’t need any special “people skills” to be evaluated. After a while at that job, I bet you’d let him do the other stuff, too. We all know he can.
“Begging”? I wouldn’t go that far. He’s been dropping hints, as have I, but it seems both of us are mainly just waiting for the official invite.
I meant technical rules, like 6-14 characters, no special characters…etc
Those kinds of rules. What are they?
I don’t think I’ve even mentioned it publicly more than two or three times, in fact. Yep, it’s their call now. I’m not campaigning, and TubaDiva can tell you I’ve only ever emailed her once, maybe twice about it. It’s been so long, maybe she’s forgotten. 
Heh. Yeah, I saw that last night. A litle birdie told me about it. It’s not worth getting bothered over, really. What folks decide to do offboard, I couldn’t care less about.
But, the phrase “thin ice” comes to mind. 
These are the rules I know about:
Characters are OK, and some people have ! or <> in their names. But it may create a broken activation link. [That’s just for new names. For Administrators to change your name there’s no link created, so anything goes.]
Characters are not interpreted as html, so <i>ABC</i> will not give you an italic name.
Number of characters is now set at 3 or 4 minimum [Again, new names. An Admin can set it to 1 or 2 if they really wanted to for some reason.]
Max is 30 characters, but people will whine and you might be asked to trim it.
Leading, trailing, and multiple blanks are not allowed.
Bad words and names that are just ads (VisitMeAtPerv.Com) will not stay around.