Automatic Name Changes

[BlueDragon91]

Might I recommend a automatic name change system that users can personally access with the catch of having to have your name be approved by a Administrator or a Moderator before the change is completed?
Just a suggestion.
I have been waiting to changed my name for a while, missed the last one, and really don't want to wait months before I can do so, and I am certain I am not alone.

I ask you please really consider this, and thank you for your time.

 

[Skip Class]

Might I recommend a automatic name change system that users can personally access with the catch of having to have your name be approved by a Administrator or a Moderator before the change is completed?
Just a suggestion.
I have been waiting to changed my name for a while, missed the last one, and really don't want to wait months before I can do so, and I am certain I am not alone.

I ask you please really consider this, and thank you for your time.

Hey there! It's a bit unfortunate, but I'm pretty sure one of the staff have mentioned in the past that if users were to change their names more frequently it would causes the server to have a hard time and can make it lag and crash. Don't think letting users to handle this would make it even better.

It was also voted by the community that the amount of username changes per year would be changed from 4 months to 6 months a couple of months back for various reasons.

 

[Hikamaru]

Adding to Zappy's post, the "lag and crash" issues was what caused name changes to be disabled for around three years, only to be reinstated in 2013 with tweaked rules. Given only one person handles the whole process, it would cause notable stress if name changes happened too often, which was why the recent vote to cut down the changes to twice a year ended up happening.

If you donate around $100 to become Platinum supporter, you can change names when you wish. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait until July for the name change.

 

[Nah]

I'm pretty sure that server lag/stress is not the reason for it any more and that was dealt with a while ago.

The reason why we have it so that you can only have your username changed at certain times of the year is so the admins (mainly Razor Leaf) aren't overloaded with name change requests. The name change system used to be that you could put in a request for a name change anytime during the year so long as it was at least 3-4 months since your last one. This however meant that there would be username change requests almost daily, and given the size of our member-base that means a fair bit of name changes. iirc there got to be so many at one point some of the admins sort of dreaded to look at CF&S/City Hall. So now we have it as is.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Nihilego]

It wasn't that bad. For years when Sylphiel and I were assistant admins we would do the changes pretty much every day, sometimes it would take a day or two if we were feeling lazy haha. It got annoying that none of the other admins at the time would help but it was mostly nitpicky, as it usually wasn't too much for the two of us to handle.

Idk if name changes were in lesser demand then or if you just had way more free time than any of the admins do now, but when I was adminned it was me and occasionally Jess doing all of them and it was a massive pain, and -

I'd be very happy to switch back to on-demand name changes

with respect, with the massive amount of stuff that you do coding here, you'd not be the person doing them.

I honestly dunno why we have it the way we do now. o.0 I think maybe because it "cuts down on confusion"?

We do it this way now because an automated system is nowhere near as flexible as a real person. Every name change period I get tons of PMs from people asking for the deletion of old accounts for names that they want to take which don't meet the name change rules exactly and I go through these and consider each of them individually and decide if the person can have the name that they ask for. 95% of the time, it's fine - and if we switched to an automated system, this'd be completely gone. I'd estimate that maybe 40 people each name change period ask me for this; that's a pretty significant portion of the people who ask for name changes who'd get blocked by an automatic system. Then there are people who have alts with names that they want, people who want their old accounts merged into one with one username, etc. etc. It's just loads of stuff that can't be handled by an automatic system.


I've been doing it this way because I think that the option to actually talk to someone who will do your name change is 10x more useful than a "yes / no" automatic system and because I don't at all mind spending a total of a few hours two or three times a year doing something for the users. It's part of my job. I don't want this automated system because honestly, I think that name changes are done pretty well right now and other than "but i want it now" there are no problems with the system at present that an automated alternative fixes, while there are a number of situations which require a real person than an automatic system can't cater to. It's an attractive idea, but I don't think that the system would work better if it was automatic.

 

[BlueDragon91]

I know of one other Poke'mon website with a automatic name change system.
They approve it first and it can only be done every so often, but if you want your name changed, it's better than waiting, and missing the name change dates, like I have, and I am sure others have.
Poke'community is a way better website in my opinion, though, even though they do not yet, and may not ever have a automatic name change system.