Miscellaneous Forum Help

i doubt there are any mods as it is a stupid feature and nobody would want it/ waste time making it.

I dont know if there are any mods like that for VB as i dont own a licence and cant access the vbulletin resource forum thing. And IPB mod sites are now starting requiring you to have a licenced copy of IPB before you can download mods. etc

Having re-read this thread, no-one's been rude here.

Again, having reviewed, I can't personally see anyone posting uptight replies.

Don't give up. As BurningSnowman says, put forward your way of thinking - you've not done that yet in enough clarity for people to understand. I'm certain people are interested in what you clearly hold as strong views about it, and they'll respond reasonably. That's not the same as disagreeing though.

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OK then, you all say that you can't trace people because their screenname changes. But honestly, that isn't true because people retain the same username and the same url to their profile, etc. And of course, you remember things about a person. For example if I could change my screenname now to "Bob", you would all still know it was me because of my signature, my avatar, my custom title and all those other features, but primarily, you would still know it was me because a) I would have the same username and profile url etc and b) because my name will have changed on my posts, you would see that I was the same person (for example the name on this post would change from Mithrandir to Bob).

It doesn't suddenly make me annoymous or untraceable, does it? On other forums there isn't a problem at all because you keep your username which means you just look for that username (and often they are easy to spot as you remember whose posts people's were).

And of course, you mention to me about Custom Titles. But to me, Custom Titles are a privaledge (and in my experience, even on other vBulletin board only awarded to people for being a good member). People aren't going to look at your Custom Title as a secondary name, are they?

This should also be looked at from administering the board. I run a couple of boards and moderate on another. I spend enough of my time checking posts to see that all is 'legit' without having to spend more time finding out who the name I don't recognise belongs to - the user changes their name once, the Mods/Admin may have hundreds or even thousands of users they have to check out.

As an example, imagine what would happen if everyone changed their name? Or you are chasing problems and have to do a search because you can't remember if 'Joe Soap' used to be 'Fred Bloggs' who you helped before with a similar problem before.

Sorry, to my mind, the advantages are heavily outweighed by the disadvantages when running a board (and don't forget that most boards are manned by unpaid volunteers!).

Again, use MSN if you want to change your name, or deed poll. The advantages/disadvantages have been discussed by yourself and others, and clearly the concensus is that this idea is impratical, and eliminates the familiarity that is achieved with forums, when i come on here and see a burning snowman avatar, and a name that says burning snowman, i beleive it is burning snowman, and it normally is. Imagine my suprise if i came on to find a user with a HU avatar, called "Big Beer Guzzling Scotsman", who had annouced that HU are increasing bandwidth, id think sum1 was takin the p*ss, but in your suggestion that could quite possibly be Dougie.

My point is the confusion is far to great, and msn often poses this problem, but its countered by the fact you have two way conversations, so you can work out who the person you want to talk to is called at once, rather than going through a whole list to work out everybody. A forum with screename changes, is the same as going to a fancy dress party, you have no idea who people are until you make the effort to find out, and lets be honest, who can be arsed to view a user profile to confirm an identity? Not me, and proberly not people with a 28k modem.

Sorry to drag this out, but i really do feel that the issue is illogical, and cannot understand your reason of thinking, and i apologise if this offends you. But i compliment you on starting a topic that has arroused an interesting debate, which is wot forums are about

Long winded and perhaps pointless, but theres my £2.40...

Carlos Out

Edit. Just to add to my argument, does any body here remember "True"? Now known as Barry? i got so confused when he became a moderator by his name change, the same happened with when Robert changed, imagine all 5000 members chaging... crazy

Potential flame thread, gonna close this