I know that this has been kicked around a lot, and that occasionally a thread in MPSIMS pops up with a list of changes, but can we PLEASE have a sticky thread where announcements of name changes gets posted. It’s really annoying to try and firgure it out, and cases for not making it public should be vanishingly small. So you want to maks a fresh start? Tough nuts, you shouldn’t heave been such a jerk under your original handle.
I didn’t change my handle due to any jerkishness on my part; I wanted a change. My handle’s still searchable, I don’t fool myself into thinking I’m hiding anything. Those who’ve changed theirs due to jerkishness are memorable enough to search for by those who wish to.
Someone would have to compile, update and maintain such a list and that time is better used for more important things on this board.
I assume you have some username in mind?
I don’t see what the problem in having a list would be- every time an admin changed a name, just post it in the name change sticky thread. And if I look up your posts, they’ve all been changed to your new handle, so I have to hope that I find a thread in which you’ve been quoted or you edited a post, which will still have your old handle on it.
And thus the reason why we don’t have an “official” list of name changes; some people prefer to be quiet.
It really is up to the person requesting the change to publicize or not, as they wish.
Isn’t that being a jerk?
“I’ll post here as Bob. Oh, no, I’m tired of being Bob because 1)I really wanted to be Ed, or 2)people are reacting negatively to me as Bob. But I won’t tell anyone, they’ll just have to figure it out for themselves, suckers.”
Either way, I don’t think you can justify leaving the rest of us in the dark.
Then take it up with the poster who brings those circumstances around. If they have email and or PM capacity checked you can ask them yourself; if they don’t we’re happy to forward your email request to them and they can answer you or not.
… I suppose we could ask each person making a change whether they would like us to list it, and we could list those who agree and not list those who don’t. That means an extra set of emails from admin to poster, it means filing the permissions somewhere (to avoid someone later crabbing that they didn’t give permission.) Basically, it still adds up to a lot of extra time on the part of the admins, and frankly it’s time that we don’t have.
Plus, think of the logistics. A single post with a list of names, alphabetical by what they used to be, showing what they now are? And every time someone changes their name, we’d edit that list to add the additional person in alphabetical order? OK, but you’d surely also want a list alpha be what they are now, showing who they used to be, so let’s double the amount of time it would take the mods.
But then you wouldn’t know when someone was added, since a thread doesn’t show up as having something “new” if an old post was edited. So we’d need to add a post for each name change, in addition to listing it twice, once in the “was” post and once in the “changed to” post. Great, so now we’ve tripled the admin’s time.
In short, the logistics require way way too much work for the tiny amount of benefit received. What happens now is each person is (usually) advised to announce their name change as they see fit, in a sig line, for instance, and people do what they want.
I think you’re over thinking it. My vision is that there is a sticky thread in ATMB, and every time you change a user name, you make note of it in that thread. As simple as
VCO3 is now TLDRIDLOFTW (or whatever the hell it is).
No cross-referencing, no need for permission- if they want to keep it a secret, then they have to make the case to TPTB when they petition for the change. If I then run into TLDRIDFTWOWTHII, I can then go to the name change thread and search for the new name, and discover the original.
Still no justification on how this behavior is non-jerkish. If they really want to start over, than kill the first account completely and make the poster re-register under the new name.
No, it’s not.
I realize you’re probably not calling me a jerk, personally, but I still don’t care for it.
I think that this kind of question smacks of some paranoia that somehow this poster is keeping a secret from you. Unless your goal is to dig up a poster’s old posts to prove/disprove something, I don’t see where there’s any real value in such a list. Maybe it’s the same morbid curiosity that leads folks to want a Banned Poster list.
CK’s not overthinking, he’she’s telling you that there are many steps that would be required that you have not considered in your ‘vision’.
ETA - Since when does our subscription fee guarantee us any personal justification?
Speaking in general: Lots of posters come up with brilliant ideas from time to time. We do try to think them through, and give them consideration. We don’t just reject them out of hand.
We do have enough people asking to keep the name change quiet, that we would indeed need to ask permission before posting it. Not huge numbers, but it doesn’t take more than one or two every year. We had a big brouhaha over confidentiality several years ago, and we learn from our mistakes.
Most posters are told when they make the name change that all prior posts will reflect the new name. It’s only rarely that there are special circumstances where this doesn’t happen, but those special circumstances are usually pretty dire, potentially involving safety (a jealous, crazed ex-spouse stalking someone, f’rinstance.)
Sorry, again; we’ve not just rejected the idea because we hate all change, we’ve rejected the idea because it’s more work than it’s worth. Because we know full well that if we implemented something, the next person with a great idea would want it to be alphabetical, and the next person would want it to be… and we’d wind up with way more work for the admins.
We prefer less work for the admins, and putting the burden of announcing a change directly on the person who asked for it, to the extent she/he wants.
People make refrences to their lives and experiences, and sometimes those are quite germane to the topic at hand. So, I tend to remember that chowder, Malacandra etc. are posting from Brit POV, which might explain the shade of meaning in their slang, just like Una has more cred when it comes to coal, etc etc. Willy nilly name changes make that a bit difficult. Plus there’s the whole “how did I not notice a poster with 3k posts from 2005?” aspect.
That’s one of the reasons I like SDMB- you have one single identity, which helps to foster community.
If the rule is, “All name changes will be posted in the name change thread unless there are demonstrable extenuating circumstances (ie webstalking)” and the admin makes a 3 word post, that’s one more (small) step in the proccess, unless the poster wants it to remain a secret, in which case, there’d be the time to consider that.
And admins/mods give justification frequently, in order to explain the rules.
Howzabout I make a sticky in MPSIMS, and it’s up to the posters who have had their usernames changed to make a post in that thread? That way, those who want to let it be widely known that they used to post under another name can shout it from the rooftops. Mods? Posters? Any objections?
Or, alternatively, Great Dave could just check out this thread: The Definitive List of Dopes Who Have Changed Their Usernames. if enough people are interested in this issue, the thread will stay current without the need for any action by the mods. If there isn’t enough interest, it will gradually drift down with the leaves of yesteryear.
I also don’t get the hostility Great Dave is expressing, and assuming that a change in user-name is jerkish behaviour. I changed mine years ago (from jti00) because I was bored with it, and because other posters told me that it didn’t have any personality and they had trouble remembering me. Presumably, the fact that you have to go through the mods to get a user-name change is enough of a check on jerkish changes.
I’m concerned that something that starts out as voluntary becomes something posters are pressured to do and judged if they don’t. Don’t post your username change? You must be hiding something, you jerk.
I think a sticky thread will create tension we don’t need. People who want to already make the choice to reveal their former username in their signatures.
I don’t like the idea of people being challenged on screen names overmuch anyway. If it bugs you so much you should send 'em an email or a PM; putting them on the spot on the board is rude.
As for the sticky, I’m against it on general principles. Usually if people change their name and want you to know, they let you know. We trust them to do that as they want and need and don’t want to bug them if their don’t.
I agree with leaving the name change announcements up to the individual posters. Sure, there are some people who are willingly jerks who then change names to avoid the consequences of their actions. But then there are some people who just make a stupid mistake (or a few) and are hounded about it for ages.
There was a poster who was not deliberately malicious, but who posted a few separate things that were pretty stupid. After the brou ha ha had come to a head and she’d seemed to realise what she had done/was considering doing was wrong and seemed to change her mind about her actions, there were certain posters who just would not let it be.
I don’t blame her for having changed her name and not made an announcement - she’d come to the realisation that her actions were wrong, yet people were still trying to rub her nose in it. In fact some people still do so, even though she’s trying to make a fresh start on the board.
Besides, if you have a habit of being a jerk then changing your name to run away, because the admins have to action all name changes I’m sure they’d notice sooner or later and put a stop to it - either by forcing you to keep the same UN or in extreme circumstances suspending or banning you.
I think that works. It will remind people who change that there is such a place to note it if they want to- people like me (formerly BigDaddyO) and N. Piper who have no reason to hide the fact that we don’t really care for our original handle can let the board know, in the hopes of reducing confusion.
And that action should be reported to moderators and dealt with accordingly. That’s another reason why so many of us enjoy it here- the generally stellar moderating/admining. [/kissup]