Changing Your Username in Edit Profile?

[Mermaid Julianne]

Ok, so I was editing some info in my profile, and I noticed that there was a space for a username change.

Naturally, I was confused because I thought only administrators could change usernames, so I tested the tool and attempted to change my name from Julianne to Mermaid Julianne. To my surprise, it actually worked, but after attempting to change my username back it says my previous username is taken. Is that because we are only allowed one username change? Or did I somehow change my account? I only ask because the tool says "You have changed your username 1 out of an allowed 5 times."

But my main question is can we change our own usernames now? Has this been a thing for a while? Because I know that there is a username change thread that people are still currently using.

Edit: I just noticed there is a new tab on my profile called Username History. Is this permanent? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just really confused right now.

[SeaDragon Mermaid]

hmmm... im confused about this too.

[Mermaid Julianne]

Especially since theres at least 10 people in the changing usernames thread waiting for a change, if this is how it works now then I think they should be notified so they don't have to keep waiting. But I wouldn't want to do that until all the facts are straight.

[Luna Dreamtide]

Hmm confused too... I wouldn't think you've changed your account though because you still have all your info like number of posts and join date. I don't know. Would love some info on this if it's the new way of doing things...

Edit: I've found the new tab too.

[Mermaid Wesley]

OH NO YOU FOUND IT! Lol ok so the feature is there but is still being tested. It is not approved yet, so let's wait on using it until we get the green light from Iona and Nate, ok?

[Luna Dreamtide]

OH NO YOU FOUND IT! Lol ok so the feature is there but is still being tested. It is not approved yet, so let's wait on using it until we get the green light from Iona and Nate, ok?
Haha ok. Thanks thanks for the tip. I guess it'll be announced when it's ready?

[Mermaid Julianne]

Well, I already used it (sorry I'm a curious person) so should I try to reverse my name? I put a formerly known in my signature cause thats what usually needs to happen. If you dont want anyone else to know about it, should I have the thread deleted?

[Mermaid Julianne]

Thank god I didn't write something dumb to test like Spoopy. I'm having nightmares just thinking about it.

[malinghi]

Well, I already used it (sorry I'm a curious person) so should I try to reverse my name? I put a formerly known in my signature cause thats what usually needs to happen. If you dont want anyone else to know about it, should I have the thread deleted?

No, that's fine. So far it seems like it is working. Thank you for adding "formerly known as..." to your signature.


Thank god I didn't write something dumb to test like Spoopy. I'm having nightmares just thinking about it.

I am concerned about that. Users are only allowed to change their name a single time. Does the place where it lets you change your name mention that it can only be changed once? Because if it doesn't, I'm concerned that people might change their name impulsively without realizing that names can't be changed back.

[Mermaid Julianne]

Yeah it says you have changed your name 1 out of 5 alotted times. I actually tried to change it back to my original "Julianne" right afterwards but it said the name was already taken.

I figured once it said that that the rule of being able to change your name only once still applied, but like you said new people on the forum might not know that.

[Hollydell]

So I tried out the New Username in Settings. Above the square to put your new name it says "You can change this as many times as you would like"
or something along those lines.

[deepblue]

malinghi (http://mernetwork.com/index/member.php?1-malinghi) - here's a screenshot of the name change as I see it, without having used it.

35385


I do remember the rules being 'one change' but I also recall seeing Golden Pearl go to Mermaid Golden Pearl and then to Mermaid Oshun, after that rule was created, so I was wondering if it's a loose rule? I went from this name to another and back to this one, does that mean I can't change it again, even with the form to change it present? (I can accept whatever rule, it's not a big deal, but I feel like this name doesn't suit me anymore, either.)

[Mermaid Julianne]

Well I think you can change your name again if you donate to the forum or you welcome 10 people to mernetwork, at least thats what I remember it being.

[deepblue]

The rules are on page 19 of the 'Changing Usernames' thread (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?219-Changing-Usernames&p=148936&viewfull=1#post148936), where people have always requested the change


Users get one free name change. Our policy is now that if a user wants another name change after their first is used, that they can still have one more. You just have to do one of the following- 1) greet 20 new users in the Introductions section of the forum (this can take some time depending on how many users are joining) or 2) Make a small donation to MerNetwork (over $1 otherwise it all gets eaten up by PayPal fees). When you've done either of those two, PM an admin.

I'm asking Malinghi what I did in case there has been a change due to the new form.

Golden Pearl/Mermaid GP/Oshun was probably an oversight. My being allowed to go back to my original name was possibly because it was going back and not a second change, not really.

[malinghi]

Thank you for letting me know it says that. I've disabled the name change feature until I can test it more. Hopefully I can do that this weekend.

And as for name changes, it is possible that the people who changed names more than once paid a small donation, or it could have been an oversight. The current method of having admins make the change manually is susceptible to error.

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[malinghi]

Okay, I've now set the modification to allow users to change their names every 10000 days (or every 27 years). This in effect accomplishes the same result as setting the feature to only allow users to change their name once, but unlike setting a limit on the number of changes, it displays this information in a way that lets the user know that they can only change their name once.

Everyone, let me know if you have any problems with this. I made a new thread to discuss this feature. Questions and comments should be posted there.
http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?12589-How-to-change-your-username

[Mermaid Wesley]

Ok but can I change it again in 27 years ooorrrrr


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[malinghi]

Technically, I set it to only allow one name change, and then I set it to require a 27 year delay before people can try to change it again. I didn't remove the one change per person thing though, so after 27 years... you're still not allowed to change it if you've used up your one time only name change.

Seriously though we've talked about allowing additional name changes for a small fee that can go toward operations costs for the site. We'll probably do that, but I wanted to check with Winged Mermaid before saying it officially.

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[Mermaid Wesley]

Lol


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[Spindrift]

hmmm... im confused about this too.


SeaDragon Mermaid - I think your signature breaks the forum's rules on signature size. Sorry :(

You can see the rules here: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?365-Signatures-and-Restrictions