Renaming Dead Accounts for the Sake of Active Ones.

fancy

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Recently, Gabe tried to get his name changed to Geostigma, but couldn't because an old member who hasn't been seen in nearly 6 years already laid claim to the name. Even earlier, we had another member from the discord who tried to register as Aerith Gainsborough, but couldn't because Aerith was already taken by a member who hasn't logged in over 10 years and has made a grand total of 8 posts.

I dunno about you, but I think this is kind of lame. :monster:

Might a simple solution/easy protocol to follow be that those users who have not logged in over a year lose claim to their username? How would we rename things, you might wonder? Just put a 1 (or 2?) next to the old user. So, say, I disappear for an entire year, eh, and some random who isn't me wants to name themselves 'fancy'.

Just go to my user profile, rename me as fancy1, and the current, active member gets to claim the name they actually want.

Say I eventually return only to see that my username is fancy1 and I'm like "What the heck."

Well TOUGH LUCK I'll just have to suck it up because a lot can happen in a year.

Thoughts? :monster:
 
Cannon_Fodder

Cannon_Fodder

Pro Adventurer
As someone who came back to this site after a long break (8 years), I say absolutely I don't know why I phrased that like a testimonial. If someone wanted my username while I was gone, I think it's only fair that I lose my "claim" to it. If they become inactive though, they might lose it as well.

Should they have to differentiate themselves from the original user though? Maybe even something as minor as a little message on their profile, like "I'm not the original Yadayada, they're called Yadayada1 now." Might be a good way to prevent confusion so that old users don't think, "Oh yay, Yadayada's back!"
 
fancy

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Yeah, I was thinking about that, that's an excellent question! Yeah, if it's a username of an active member who used to be way into the community, they might be advised to put a disclaimer as a courtesy :tearsofjoy:

like imagine if a Kimble who wasn't Kimble kimbled their way into here :monster:

I reckon the confusion would only last for so long, as their personalities would be way different too I reckon. Again though, that would be good as a courtesy. :blush:
 
fancy

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Excellent suggestion! So the protocol so far with all things considered would look like:

1. Receive mimicked name change request
2. Check to see if original account has been inactive for a year.
3. In the case of NO, tough luck, active member needs to pick a different name.
4. In the case of YES, original account gets a renaming and pm explaining what happened.
5. Active user gets new name, but is asked to put a disclaimer on their profile as a courtesy (will probs be asked on a case by case basis. I don't think anyone is looking for OG 'Aerith Gainsborough' :monster:).

Yay discourse and progress.

Also, this might seem like a lot of fiddling about and fuss, but I personally don't think it's too much to ask given how infrequently this happens. :awesomonster:
 
Castiel Strife

Castiel Strife

Pro Adventurer
To me one year might be a bit too short of a time. I would say maybe 2-3. I do agree that those who haven’t been here after that should not be able to claim a username.

I don’t know how possible it would be, but what if it could be a system where it just renames you to something generic and then if you try logging back in you have to change your username before you can do anything on the forums? That might be a little too ambitious, but it’d be cool lol. Maybe you could even have some sort of note on their profiles signifying their original name.
 
Ite

Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
AKA
Ite
Questions:

1. How am I supposed to log in when my username has changed in my absense. How will I be notified? Perhaps something on the forgot-your-password page?

2. I am the only Mr. Ite on the Internet. I would like to remain that way, and don’t want no pretender besmirching my flawless reputation for being absolutely notoriously never wrong or out of line in any way. EVEN AFTER I DIE. If I take a leave of absence, must I log in once a year to prevent losing my user name?
 
Castiel Strife

Castiel Strife

Pro Adventurer
Mr. Ite said:
Questions:

1. How am I supposed to log in when my username has changed in my absense. How will I be notified? Perhaps something on the forgot-your-password page?

2. I am the only Mr. Ite on the Internet. I would like to remain that way, and don’t want no pretender besmirching my flawless reputation for being absolutely notoriously never wrong or out of line in any way. EVEN AFTER I DIE. If I take a leave of absence, must I log in once a year to prevent losing my user name?
Click to expand...

You make two very good points. As someone who had an original name on a popular MMO and had it stolen when I myself became popular, and then had those people try to claim they were original, I could see it being extremely frustrating if someone took someone else’s name just to try to copy them or whatever.

Also in the case of death. I mean, I guess you’re dead and don’t care anymore, but that does seem disrespectful for sure.
 
fancy

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
omg i didn't even think about the logging in thing SHIT lmao.

might it be possible to alert user via their email then? yikes.

re: the only unique user on the internet, well, I reckon you can log in once a year (or two, or three, however long) to ensure that no one can start to catfish you... but honestly, I don't see the likelihood of that happening being very high. It's just so specific. Loads of us have unique identities, indeed, but I simply don't see someone lurking around in these forums, taking notice of a particular member's absence for one, two, three years, then deciding that they're going to catfish as them.

But then, I can be a naive little shit :monster:

Hmm, this whole idea might not work at all though because the inability to log in is a legit obstacle and I'm not sure how we'd overcome it.

peobt.jpg
 
Makoeyes987

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
Those forgotten relics of the past are my people. They will never be a memory.

I remember Geostigma. They were active back in my day. I had many battles and shared many smiles with them.

No one deserves to even attempt to fill the account of their username. It is a sacred name belonging to one of oldest and most prolific posters from an ancient era.

An infringement on these sacred names would incur the wrath of these old ones. A curse so terrible it would be calamity upon this forum. You would never know when their restless souls would seek to incarnate within this realm again. And upon realizing their flesh was taken, their wrath would upset the very cycle of souls...

Maybe vessels of very little substance, say below 10 or 20 posts could be purged and forced to return to the planet to make room for new life. But vessels of massive size and Post count should not be replaced...
 
Rydeen

Rydeen

In-KWEH-dible
Yeah, I think post count and contributions should be taken into account. There's a lot of folks who ain't been on here in years, but people still remember them. Like Pixel leaving - if he doesn't log in for over a year, I don't feel like someone should be able to take his username - he was behind some major projects in TLS history. I also feel like one year is a bit short - a year can pass by like nothing. I propose something like 3-5 years coupled with a post count under 50 or something.
 
Geostigma

Geostigma

Pro Adventurer
AKA
gabe
fancy said:
Yeah, I was thinking about that, that's an excellent question! Yeah, if it's a username of an active member who used to be way into the community, they might be advised to put a disclaimer as a courtesy :tearsofjoy:

like imagine if a Kimble who wasn't Kimble kimbled their way into here :monster:

I reckon the confusion would only last for so long, as their personalities would be way different too I reckon. Again though, that would be good as a courtesy. :blush:
Click to expand...


What's funny is Kimble actually did that to me while I was gone and absconded with my dear name of Gabriel.

What a shameful act!

edit:

Mako, the Geostigma on this site is not the same Geo from ACF days :monster:

And by the Geo on this site I mean the Geo I stole the username from not me... Ha.


As far as OG Geo goes, I'm not entirely sure she ever joined TLS?
 
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fancy

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Haha okay so given that a couple of folks have spoken up on it, I reckon legacy should could for something. Some names shouldn't be touched, and it shouldn't be too hard to distinguish who those folks are.
 
Master Bates

Master Bates

Do you enjoy your life?
AKA
Mr. Koiwai
I am posting in this thread as contingency measure in case I again become inactive for a few years, so that I can then go back to this thread and see what my username has become when it has been changed without my notice.

Although I doubt someone will dare appropriate this username in the first place, but I can never be too sure.
 
Castiel Strife

Castiel Strife

Pro Adventurer
There are forums that delete accounts with zero posts who haven’t logged on in several years. It varies from forums. After reading everyone’s view points I think that it would be best to just keep it at a case by case basis, and not have a universal method of purging old usernames. If someone wants a username that is taken, the mods should look into the username and see how active the member was, how many posts they have, and how long it has been since they logged in. If they then decide to grant the new user the username, something like adding a number to the end of the username might suffice.

But then when you really think about it, if someone wants a taken username they could always be the ones to add a number to the end of their name too.
 
Fangu

Fangu

Great Old One
I remember Geo/ Geostigma too. I actually thought she was back when that nick popped up on Discord and I was so confused I even messaged Lex about it lol. (Why is some random old member back being in charge all of a sudden?) No seriously I thought she got back by being some Discord Queen randomly passing by Yop or some of the older mods whose help we wanted or something :monster:

Anyway I'm just here because Mako's post made me all nostalgic and now I feel like that gramma from Titanic.
 
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