Name Change Mania(A Suggestion)

[Enigma Zero]

There have been a metric ton of name changes in the short time I have been associated with this forum. Some people just change the spacing or capitalization in their names. Others make logical progressions while keeping the core of their name intact. Others, still, change it completely. Honestly, I'm getting lost in the mix here and can barely tell alot of these people apart.

 

It is for this reason that I would stronly suggest a mechanic that we employed on my forum several years ago when this became a problem. The "Cost" of having your name changed on our forum was two things. The 1st being that there had to be a decent reason. The second being that we only did name changes 3-4 times a year for 2 weeks(rare exceptions were allowed, but they were called rare for a reason). The final thing was that if you were the lucky recipient of a name change you had to add the following small piece of text to your Sig(not in a spoiler...in plain sight):

 

-The User Formerly Known as ______ -

 

This little tag was to be in a person's sig for a period of no less than 30 days so people had a chance to keep up with things. We also, as a matter of record keeping, kept a thread in the Mod forums listing all name changes. At one point, due to massive user requests, we copied that thread to the public forums so people had a list to keep track of friends and such when they went through the process of, "You changed your name how many times?!?"

 

I would strongly suggest adopting some, if not, all of our system to this forum. It would at least make keeping track of people easier for me...and I'm betting I'm not alone on this one. ;)

[HelioSpark]

I too get lost with the name changes....but I think everyone can still recognize me after I got mine changed, as I am the only wombat on the forum^_^

 

not a bad idea though

[Wyhe]

I too changed my name,but the "WYHE" part & the Raviel avii & sig that I dubbed as my trademark are such a dead giveaway.

[Enigma Zero]

Agreed, you two at least followed some kind of logical progression so it's easy to follow...others are not so clear cut though. Thanks for at least taking the time to reply. ;)

 

BTW...22 views and 2 posts? Come on, people. :D

[DragonMasterAman]

The name change thread says good afternoon.

[Larxene]

thats the reason the name change thread is there -.-

although a lot of people end up spamming there

>_>

<_<

but itd be the same w/your idea most likely

[Enigma Zero]

Not really. Since I actually use my idea, I can tell you it's alot easier than trying to keep up with one massive spam thread. ;)

[Chaos Demon]

I too get lost with the name changes....but I think everyone can still recognize me after I got mine changed' date=' as I am the only wombat on the forum^_^

[/quote']

 

What where you called before?

[Seta]

What where you called before?

He was called deswombat4ever. I too am going to change my name, but Ill keep the duelist part. And Im going to put my old name in my sig and above the signature ^_^

[CinnamonStar]

I agree with the fact that the sudden wave of name changes, which weren't all even justified and partially just acquired for the sake of it, caused some confusion and sometimes I have difficulties to remember who is who as well.

Therefore I totally agree with the first part which says that there has to be a decent reason to get your name changed, but on the other side, there would still be points one could argue about because the question about what can be considered a "decent reason" and what not would certainly come up. But again, this would be fixed by the staff team, so we wouldn't really need to worry about that.

I also agree with the third condition you mentionned. I noticed a couple of people who mentionned their name change in their title, but not many of them thought about it, so I guess just having to add a little sentence into your sig won't be very hard and will avoid a certain amount of confusion.

However, I'm not sure about what to think about the second part. If I understood your point, you meant that people were allowed to get their name changed 3-4 times a year, but only for 2 weeks? I can accept the part with the 3-4 times, but the second one doesn't seem very useful to me. Maybe it's just me and I didn't get what you really meant, but I understood that people's names would only be changed during those 2 weeks and then they would have to go back to their initial one.

Please correct me if I got something wrong (again, lol).

 

You mentionned some good points and I support the idea, except for the second condition, which I'm not really sure about.

[Enigma Zero]

Sorry if I was not 100% clear. What I meant is that, on my forum where we use this system, there is a time(roughly 3-4 times a year) where the oppertunity to have a name change occurs. This window of oppertunity is only open for 1-2 weeks, meaning you can only make the petition to have your name changed during that time...and only once per window. The name change, if approved, is perminant. It's not the name that has the time limit but the ability to have it changed which is limited.

 

This limitation has several benefits. The 1st of which is that it cuts down on the amount of chaos that would be caused by multiple and seemingly endless name changes. The second is that it prevents people from forgetting which of their 47 names they're currently using and having to make a new account just to PM a Mod and find out what their login is for their account. Lastly, since it's such a limited and rare thing...it makes the membership actually think before they ask and put real consideration into what they woudl like to be known as since it will be months before they have a chance to change it again. This cuts down dramatically on stupid names.

 

I hope this provides the needed information. If not, then please feel free to ask additional questions. ;)