Dynamic User Name

- Ovton said...
- User
- 4 Jul 2008, 18:00
Dynamic User Name

I want to suggest a feature. Just read in the FAQ that it is not possible to change a user name.

Is this due to the user name being used as a primary or foreign key in the last fm database or possibly in an LDAP server somewhere?

Or is it just because no service exists to change it?

I would like to see the feature of dynamic user names. That is the user name should be changeable.

Therefore a mapping of valid credentials (dynamic user name plus password) to a specific user ID would be needed I think.

What made me wonder about that topic is actually that I would like to change my user name from Ovton with a capital O to ovton.

http://www.liveleak.com

[quote][b][user]Ovton[/user][/b] said: I want to suggest a feature. Just read in the FAQ that it is not possible to change a user name. Is this due to the user name being used as a primary or foreign key in the last fm database or possibly in an LDAP server somewhere? Or is it just because no service exists to change it? I would like to see the feature of dynamic user names. That is the user name should be changeable. Therefore a mapping of valid credentials (dynamic user name plus password) to a specific user ID would be needed I think. What made me wonder about that topic is actually that I would like to change my user name from Ovton with a capital O to ovton.[/quote]

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- Damaged said...
- Moderator
- 5 Jul 2008, 16:10
1) wrong forum

2) this is suggested at least once a week and has been discussed to death - the admins have said it's not going to happen any time soon

Read before posting: SERVER AND CHART STATUS, How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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[quote][b][user]Damaged[/user][/b] said: 1) wrong forum 2) this is suggested at least once a week and has been discussed to death - the admins have said it's not going to happen any time soon[/quote]

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- gwalla said...
- User
- 7 Jul 2008, 17:29
There are way too many problems with allowing people to change username. Does it free up the old username for new users? If so, what happens with all of the old references to that username, in other people's posts and such?

[quote][b][user]gwalla[/user][/b] said: There are way too many problems with allowing people to change username. Does it free up the old username for new users? If so, what happens with all of the old references to that username, in other people's posts and such?[/quote]

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- Ovton said...
- User
- 7 Jul 2008, 21:03
Yeh, sure. That was partially one of my main points. The user name can only be dynamic if it is no fixed key, not used for references. That is inside the system there has to be an id for the user that is not the name.

Yes, I do know about the user tag element you may use in posts. Right. That should be a problem. With fast enough systems one could imagine a low priority database job correcting these after a name change. Since you can store the start and end point in time a name was used by a specific user, you could go and correct all relevant posts and adjust them to his new name. You know when a post was created, you know the time frame the user had the name, thus you know if it was his name or not. If yes, replace it with the new name. That would be some massive search and replace, and the job would be done.

Also there should be a smart scheduling of the jobs. For example, a job still running should be replaced by a new job taking into account the previous changes in process and the additional new one, processing all of them. That is for cases in which the user changes the name more than once in a short period of time.

If you do the correction asynchronous, you may get inconsistent posts for a while. But as soon the job is through, everything would be good again.

Another problem that comes to my mind now may be the name being used as login credential in external scrobbling applications. Well that would be ok though if the person had to change the login there to the new user name. And another person choosing the old name would not scrobble to the wrong profile due to the new id the name would then be associated with.

Well I am sure that is a deep topic, but nothing is impossible, it is all software ;)

Edit:

Another idea, you may also constraint the user name changing. Say a user may only change his or her name once a week. You could also say, if there are many changes already under way, the service is temporarily unavailable.

http://www.liveleak.com

[quote][b][user]Ovton[/user][/b] said: Yeh, sure. That was partially one of my main points. The user name can only be dynamic if it is no fixed key, not used for references. That is inside the system there has to be an id for the user that is not the name. Yes, I do know about the user tag element you may use in posts. Right. That should be a problem. With fast enough systems one could imagine a low priority database job correcting these after a name change. Since you can store the start and end point in time a name was used by a specific user, you could go and correct all relevant posts and adjust them to his new name. You know when a post was created, you know the time frame the user had the name, thus you know if it was his name or not. If yes, replace it with the new name. That would be some massive search and replace, and the job would be done. Also there should be a smart scheduling of the jobs. For example, a job still running should be replaced by a new job taking into account the previous changes in process and the additional new one, processing all of them. That is for cases in which the user changes the name more than once in a short period of time. If you do the correction asynchronous, you may get inconsistent posts for a while. But as soon the job is through, everything would be good again. Another problem that comes to my mind now may be the name being used as login credential in external scrobbling applications. Well that would be ok though if the person had to change the login there to the new user name. And another person choosing the old name would not scrobble to the wrong profile due to the new id the name would then be associated with. Well I am sure that is a deep topic, but nothing is impossible, it is all software ;) Edit: Another idea, you may also constraint the user name changing. Say a user may only change his or her name once a week. You could also say, if there are many changes already under way, the service is temporarily unavailable. [/quote]

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- fmera said...
- User
- 8 Jul 2008, 04:37
@ovton - i think having second thoughts about your username isn't quite a good enough reason to push this idea, much less a case change. (or perhaps case changes could be a concession?)

anyway, myspace seems to have no problems implementing this idea, in a way that 'display names' are tied to a permanent unique url/username and so can be freely changed on a whim. kinda analogous to email aliases to a primary email id in mail servers, i suppose.

but it still doesn't seem all that big a feature to me for the potential problems it could present. if anything, not having this 'feature' will encourage you to be extra careful with your choice of username.

mai daiz az a unsub, dey iz numbrd.
n i not knoe dat many numbrz :'(

[quote][b][user]fmera[/user][/b] said: @ovton - i think having second thoughts about your username isn't quite a good enough reason to push this idea, much less a case change. (or perhaps case changes could be a concession?) anyway, myspace seems to have no problems implementing this idea, in a way that 'display names' are tied to a permanent unique url/username and so can be freely changed on a whim. kinda analogous to email aliases to a primary email id in mail servers, i suppose. but it still doesn't seem all that big a feature to me for the potential problems it could present. if anything, [i]not[/i] having this 'feature' will encourage you to be extra careful with your choice of username. [/quote]

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- Ovton said...
- User
- 13 Jul 2008, 15:29
Ok, so, to me that feature would be just another of these features that keep a website modern. Last.fm is very cool, don't get me wrong. But I actually think that feature is worth it. There should be a vote or something.

http://www.liveleak.com

[quote][b][user]Ovton[/user][/b] said: Ok, so, to me that feature would be just another of these features that keep a website modern. Last.fm is very cool, don't get me wrong. But I actually think that feature is worth it. There should be a vote or something.[/quote]

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- PossibleNonsens said...
- User
- 13 Jul 2008, 17:32
I prefer not having this ability. It'd make it harder to keep track of people (ie to recognise someone you've vaguely talked to on site) and it's just more crap to keep the server busy. I guess I could see it being restricted to one change per year or something.

Let's make cover versions or music or whatever.

[quote][b][user]PossibleNonsens[/user][/b] said: I prefer not having this ability. It'd make it harder to keep track of people (ie to recognise someone you've vaguely talked to on site) and it's just more crap to keep the server busy. I guess I could see it being restricted to one change per year or something.[/quote]

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