Change of login name.

[Nordoelum]

Who should I contact if I want to change my login name?

[Dragooon]

Login Means User name? I dont think so you can change it. But you change your appearence name.
Go to Profile > Account related settings.

[Gary]

The display name can be changed by doing what Dragooon said. For the username itself, that cant be changed as a regular member. You'd need to ask an admin on that one.

-ALM

[metallica48423]

You'd have to send off an email to [email protected] to contact an admin about this one.

I am not 100% sure if they'd even do it, though.

Why not just change your display name to what you'd like?

[edit: darnit ALM ]

[Dragooon]

[edit: darnit ALM ]

You posted after 11 mins........ SpaMZors.

[metallica48423]

hey, some of us have to eat breakfast too! (at 12:15 pm )

[Nordoelum]

I have allready changed my display name. Only want to change my login name, since it is easier to remember only one name.

[青山 素子]

I have allready changed my display name. Only want to change my login name, since it is easier to remember only one name.

Changing the login name is very expensive (in terms of server time - it causes a lot of changes in the db), but will be considered if you send a message to the info e-mail address along with a good reason for the change. (Hint: Changing simply because it is easier for you to remember isn't a good reason.)

[Rudolf]

Changing the login name is very expensive (in terms of server time - it causes a lot of changes in the db), but will be considered if you send a message to the info e-mail address along with a good reason for the change. (Hint: Changing simply because it is easier for you to remember isn't a good reason.)

Do you have any proof (benchmark) to support this?
Looking from the code there's no real difference between changing the user name and the display name. The only thing updated in the database is the user's record. The only difference is that a new password is generated and sent in email for the user. That's not expensive... or else the "forgot password" feature would be very expensive too.

[青山 素子]

Do you have any proof (benchmark) to support this?
Looking from the code there's no real difference between changing the user name and the display name. The only thing updated in the database is the user's record. The only difference is that a new password is generated and sent in email for the user. That's not expensive... or else the "forgot password" feature would be very expensive too.

I'd have to check, it may have changed, but I believe it updates all posts in the messages table as it also stores the user's name there.

[winrules]

Motoko I'm pretty sure the column in the members table is only used if a member doesn't exist so it doesn't really need to be changed.

[metallica48423]

motoko, IIRC it stores ID_MEMBER for non-guests

[SleePy]

motoko, IIRC it stores ID_MEMBER for non-guests

Until you delete the account
Then it does a massive update to the messages table setting the name and email of the deleted user.

Actually looking at the code. It doesn't do that. So it would have to store the information like Moto has said. Will look at that function as well.
It doesn't do what moto said either..

[Rudolf]

It works like this:
Everytime you post a message, the ID, the name and the email address is saved in the messages folder. The name and the email address is the  one at the time of posting.
When you update your username or email address those fields are not updated.
When you delete a member, if you don't choose to delete the posts, then it will set the ID_MEMBER field to 0.
When the ID_MEMBER field is 0 then it is a guest. In this case it will use the username and email address from the messages table. I repeat, these two fields are the ones at the time of posting and they are never updated. EDIT: Maybe they should be, but only as a maintenance option. Not every time you change name or email.

So, changing the username is just like changing the display name, except that a new password is created and mailed to the user's email address. It's easy to see why only admins are allowed to change it. Normal people can change their display name if they want to appear with a different name.
However asking to change the username shouldn't require a good reason, given that a person doesn't asks this every week.

[Xarcell]

Thanks for the smackdown Rudolf. This is good info...

[Nordoelum]

Just sent the mail.

[Kindred]

however, regardless of whether it uses server resources, it does require admin work...   which, quite honestly, could be better spent adminning the boards rather than changing the login-name of a user who wants to be lazy.

[Nordoelum]

How am I lazy? I changed my display name didn't I? It is easier to have one username across the net.

[SleePy]

Ah it would be nice, but saddly some of us have 3 or 4 with 20+ different passwords.. Don't ask me how people like me remember those..

But you should be able to login with your display name or even your email address