IMPORTANT! If your user name has a space in it or a non-alphanumeric character READ THIS

[engineer_comp_geek]

@TroutMan

ECG, have you checked if there are any problems with similar names that get converted to the same name? Users “engineer comp geek” and “engineer’comp’geek” would both end up with your username. I know you generally don’t allow usernames like that, but I bet the database has a few banned users who purposely created a name close to someone else’s.

ETA: In fact, there was a banned “Jonathan Chance” just from today with nonprinting characters in their username.

I just checked now.

We had a serial sock/troll that tried to copy my name once. Added a period at the end. That one ported over as engineer_comp_geek_1 so apparently if there are duplicates the second one added will get _1 or maybe just a 1 added to theirs.

If your name is close to another user name, or you know anyone whose name is close to another user name, let me know and I will check how they port across.

[Mars_Horizon]

I’d prefer to have MarsHorizon than the two words separated by an underscore. Is that doable?

[TubaDiva]

@engineer_comp_geek

Going to the new system (Discourse) we have noticed that user names with spaces or non-alphanumeric characters like apostrophes (anything that isn’t a letter or a number), that part of your user name will probably get converted to an underscore (this guy –> _ ).

If that’s ok with you, then you don’t need to do anything. Just be aware that you’ll need to use the new version with underscores once we switch over.

If this causes an issue for you, please contact us ASAP!

ETA: Two examples that I checked:

Omar Little becomes Omar_Little
Elendil’s Heir becomes Elendil_s_Heir

I’ve asked the development team about this. So hang on and let me find out what they have to say.

Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

[TubaDiva]

I just tried to edit a screen name in Discourse and got this message:

Username must only include numbers, letters, dashes, dots, and underscores

So we are going to have to bear up under this.

Yes, I can edit screen names both here and there. To a certain less extent on Discourse.

Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

[thorny_locust]

I guess I can live with thorny_locust, while feeling only slightly thorny about it (which will wear off in time).

I hope I can keep the no caps, though. I’ll feel slightly more thorny about it if I can’t.

If I understand you correctly the change will be automatic, I won’t have to do anything about it?

[engineer_comp_geek]

@thorny_locust

I guess I can live with thorny_locust, while feeling only slightly thorny about it (which will wear off in time).

I hope I can keep the no caps, though. I’ll feel slightly more thorny about it if I can’t.

If I understand you correctly the change will be automatic, I won’t have to do anything about it?

Yours ports over as thorny_locust

The change is automatic. It’s part of the conversion process from vBulletin to Discourse.

[Pork_Rind]

I’m going to miss my space. I recall having a problem with that back in the early early 2000s, but I don’t recall why it was an issue then.

[Senegoid]

When I signed up on the demo site, it required me to pick a password of at least 10 characters. My current 8-character password was not accepted.

My password contains only lower-case English letters and digits. That was accepted.

The various examples given by engineer_comp_geek are full of inconsistencies.

Dr. Winston OBoogie becomes “Dr.Winston_OBoogie” ? Why one space disappears and one becomes and underscore?

What Exit? becomes “What_Exit” and not “What_Exit_” ?

Are user names case-sensitive? If I sign up as Senegoid can I later log on just as well as “senegoid” or “SENEGOID” ? Or could those all be distinct names that different users could have?

[VinylTurnip]

@Mars_Horizon

I’d prefer to have MarsHorizon than the two words separated by an underscore.

Same here.

VinylTurnip r00lz; Vinyl_Turnip dr00lz.

[AlsoNamedBort]

@Senegoid

What Exit? becomes “What_Exit” and not “What_Exit_” ?

That’s pretty simple. It drops any ineligible character at the end of the name.

[Darren_Garrison]

Just as long as it isn’t all caps. I don’t want my straw man taking over my account.

[Grrr]

Can you do mine please? If it doesn’t work, I’d rather go back to Shakes.

Thank you.

[GreysonCarlisle]

On another board, we have a contingent of Finnish speakers. All of them had to get rid of the umlauts in their names–which changed the meanings of their names, often to nonsensical things.

There seems to be a way to enable full unicode support, but it evidently breaks a bunch of other features.

[Pork_Rind]

So before the number of individual requests in this thread becomes overwhelming, what is the correct way to request a name modification during the migration?

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@engineer_comp_geek

These appear to be the user name rules.

Minimum length: 3 characters
Maximum length: 15 characters
Must begin with a letter or number
All other characters can be a letter, number or underscore

If you want me to check how your name ported over, please contact me.

So, this is me contacting you.

[engineer_comp_geek]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

So, this is me contacting you.

Yours comes across as The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

[engineer_comp_geek]

@Pork_Rind

So before the number of individual requests in this thread becomes overwhelming, what is the correct way to request a name modification during the migration?

The migration is automatic. We can’t change things during the migration. You can change it now before the migration, or after we’re over on Discourse.

Either way, send an e-mail to our admin, tubadiva@aol.com

Yours comes across as Pork_Rind by the way.

[Beckdawrek]

I just changed my password yesterday from random number/letter combo to one I could be sure to remember. Of course it has none of the unique characters. Do I need to change it again?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

does this mean me?

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@engineer_comp_geek

Yours comes across as The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

Much obliged!