About Username Changes

[No Lynch]

I left the forums a little while ago, and back then the time between username changes was 28 days, and I was planning to return to the username of my true internet persona when I came back, then when I finally came back, to my surprise, the username change time limit had increased to 90 days. May I ask why the limit was increased? I'm not meaning to complain or sound rude, I'm just inquiring as to the reason so my range of understanding on this matter can widen.

 

[Fig]

Simply put, we felt that a lot of people were abusing name-changing, and creating a lot of confusion along the way. It gets very tiresome, as a staff member, to try to remember when discussing with your fellow staff member which user "Joe-kun" is, and who he was last month, and who he was the month before that, and so forth. Checking profiles every damn time we have a conversation about a user just is not an option.

Name-change is not an option we want to shut down, but it's not an option we want users to take lightly either. It's a fairly significant hassle for us, and we wanted it to be something users would give a little more thought to, instead of something they'd do over the first fad that came their way, secure in the knowledge they could just change it again four weeks later once they had time to tire of the fad.

 

[Windfall]

So you might as well make it to where we can't change them at all. Waiting 1/4 of a year to change your name just seems awful. I change mine periodically, and there has never been any confusion about it. I feel 45-60 days would suffice.

 

[Fig]

Changing name every month or every two months is just not something we want to see, Avarus Cantus. I'm sure it's cool to you, but it's hellish to us trying to remember which user is which all the time.¸So no, we are not going to reduce the time.

At the same time, we feel the option to chanlge your name in very occasional circumstances should be there.

Of course, if/when we organize events that involve name-changing, we'll make exceptions to this whole thing. No one wants anyone stuck with event-names for three months.

 

[tyler212]

What about around holidays, I know some people like to get in the Christmas spirit by changing there names. I would suggest a reset allowing people to change names on Jan 1st even if it's not a sponsored site event.

 

[Soulmaster]

What about around holidays, I know some people like to get in the Christmas spirit by changing there names. I would suggest a reset allowing people to change names on Jan 1st even if it's not a sponsored site event.

Must of the time some of the admins are nice enough to change the username back if you did it for the holidays or something of the like.

 

[Kouzan]

So I can still ask a staff member to change it at anytime?

(just wondering cause I kind of want to change back now but I'm willing to wait another few weeks)

 

[Musashi]

We'd prefer you guys wait unless it's something like you misspelled the name.

 

[Windfall]

Mods will be party poopers. Always are. This 90 day thing should've been expected.

 

[Fig]

For major holidays we'll be understanding, of course.

 

[H-con]

Mods will be party poopers. Always are. This 90 day thing should've been expected.

Yeah well, to be honest, you're pretty much your own party pooper if you change your name around too much, and then realize it's 90 days to change it....

 

[Derier44]

I honestly dont get the thing with constant username changing. I mean, your Username is your identity and its what people know you as. Sometimes Ill go away for a bit, come back and see these "new" people in threads I inhabit and it turns out its a person that just changed their username and everything and I can defiantly see how to Mods find this to be a problem seeing as they have a whole site to Moderate when I get confused in just a few threads.

People will argue changing it because they want to redo their profile to suit their recent likes in a certain subject. But even then isnt that why you have an Avatar, User Title, and Signature? I dont know, thats just my take on it.

 

[Windfall]

Mods will be party poopers. Always are. This 90 day thing should've been expected.

Yeah well, to be honest, you're pretty much your own party pooper if you change your name around too much, and then realize it's 90 days to change it....

I disagree. If I enjoy changing my name, and it is an option, why should I be at fault when the amount of days change without my knowledge?

 

[Fatima Shadow Frost Witch]

^What of those lesser known holidays like Australia Day/ID4? will those that change names then be allowed to have them reset/changed to original name?

 

[Fig]

It will depend on the holiday. Probably in those cases it would be best to check with staff beforehand.

Avarus Cantus: if you intended your current name to be temporary and were "shafted" by our change in the minimum time, the staff will be happy to help you settle on a new one. Once.

If you're just complaining because you want the ability to namechange whenever a fancy strikes you, or a fad pass by you, or any other equally bad reason to start the sort of confusion that name changing bring about, then you will have to deal with it.

 

[Windfall]

It will depend on the holiday. Probably in those cases it would be best to check with staff beforehand.

Avarus Cantus: if you intended your current name to be temporary and were "shafted" by our change in the minimum time, the staff will be happy to help you settle on a new one. Once.

Just posing the question. I'm sure it happened to someone. I'm content with my username.

 

[Pain Split]

I happen to support the mods' decision. It's fairly annoying when someone changes their name constantly. I mean, think of your Username as your Real-Life name. Would you constantly change your Real-Life name every few weeks just because you wanna be called something new? Other people would probably be annoyed. Also, if you haven't noticed, I sometimes see users here giving nicknames to other users, and when those users change their name, they usually keep the nickname, causing even more confusion when you see someone with the name "TurtwigMaster" or something, then you see them being called something completely different, like "Womp-Womp". The increased amount of time is just something to ease the confusion, and it's for the better.

 

[Italy-kun]

I don't get what's good about 90 days rather than 28. I can understand not letting someone change it, like, every week, but...ehhh. Also, what's the character limit for usernames?

 

[John Understands]

I kinda agree with the changes from 28 days to 90 days, but I kinda think 60 days is better than 1/4 of a year.

Before you know it, Bulbagarden will be like Pokécommunity!

 

[Catilena1890]

Personally, I don't like people constantly changing their usernames for the same reasons stated by staff. I wander away from Bulba from time to time and when I come back I feel awkward and alienated slightly by seeing new people in threads I used to get into all the time, only to find out that they aren't newbies, they are just my old friends with new names who feed off my misery and woe, you assholes XD. I get over it and learn to match old name to new name, but then that's kinda hard when one friend keeps changing his name.

Also stated earlier, a username is just that, a name of a user, how people ID each other. I can understand varying your usernames between websites, but why do you need to change it on one website every week? That's like changing your real name in the real world every week. No one knows who the hell you are and can't keep track of you. Without a static name, civil society crumbles because we can't keep track of who is who. This sounds exaggerated but think about it, makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

I suppose you could put your old username in your sig/user title so people can keep SOME track of you, but then what is the point of changing your username? if Herp decides to change his name to Derp and then puts "Formerly known as Herp" in his sig or user title, then why did he bother changing his name to Derp in the first place? Why can't you invert that and say your name is Herp and put something along the lines of "A lovable Derp" or some crap like that in your title? I mean, that's kinda WHY we get the option of having a title in the first place, isn't it?

Given all that, I support the new cap on username changes. If you are truly uncomfortable with your name and want a new one, then go for it! But don't go crazy about it. There are plenty of ways to express your interests and individuality without screwing up the rest of us. make a pretty or funny sig, change your title, customize your profile page's appearance, customize your blog. You don't need to go from Herp to Derp to Herpaderp just to express your love for it. That ain't fair to your fellow members and it's not fair to our hardworking staff who are trying to make sure our garden stays nice and peaceful for the rest of us.