Question: Username changes?

[Nick]

Username changes were sporadic when they were done in the past. The last time name changes were done, it followed the same fashion that they are going to be given now. They'd be done at a time in which not many people are on (3 AM EST was the specific time) and the forums would be shut off for members. Only administrators would be able to access the forums, and they'd turn on the forums when they were done. There would likely be a notice regarding name changes coming up so that members would know when it was coming as well, as opposed to when we did username changes before the last one and they were changed whenever an admin got to it...

 

[Livewire]

Please, for the love of kittens...Do NOT bring this back. I think we can all live without changing our names. I, for one, CANNOT live if this site is constantly down or lagging.

A few hours won't kill you. And it'll be at 3Am, when you're supposed to be in bed. There are a lot of members here who would disagree and want a namechange. Let's weigh all the issues. :>

 

[Taemin]

Please, for the love of kittens...Do NOT bring this back. I think we can all live without changing our names. I, for one, CANNOT live if this site is constantly down or lagging.

Think about that for a second. xD;

We thought to bring back name changes this way, to raise more money. We're trying to reach a point where we can afford to pay for the forum to run better. Think of it as upgrading, if you will. Our main goal for this, is to one day make it so PC won't have to lag at all, or have to be taken down when name changes are done. Changing usernames is a basic forum function, that some community forums can preform without blinking eye an eye, yet they cause PC to crash. We want to be able to save up enough money to stop that. (To help it's over functionality, not just so we can change names..)

Don't think of this as just "oh god, name changing is annoying D:", we all have to think of the long term effects.

 

[Vrai]

I think that most people who are willing to pay for name changes won't. Just because I am willing to bet that most the forum has no way to actually pay themselves.

Most people here are just saying they support the idea. Not whether or not they'd actually do it.

...and if no one's going to do it, no harm done by offering it, right?

If it's offered, there are a few outcomes in my mind: a) no one really actually pays for name changes, meaning whatever server strain introduced is minimal and PC still gets money for those few changes; b) a lot of people pay for name changes, introducing a lot more money into the server but since they're changing names during a select time and all at once, not sporadically as Patchisou said the server strain is also likely minimal.

I honestly just don't see a downside to offering this. If you don't want to change your name, that's cool. If you want to, that's cool too. PC is supported by the money, the strain on the server is minimal because of how it's going to be approached. Is there another downside here that I'm missing? I can't see any reason why this shouldn't be around, imo.

 

[Barn]

I want to change my username, but.. eh. I don't think it's worth paying for.

 

[Alternative]

I have one query. If the forum get's shut down for a while for name changes at 3am Standard American Time or whatever that is, what does that mean for those people from other parts of the world, like Europe or Australia, where it's during the middle of the day and we have access to it. It doesn't seem fair that way, if it's mostly going to revolve around that sort of timezone.

 

[Kenshin5]

Well if they have to do it multiple times then they can just rotate the time slot they do it in. It's not going to be fair any way you look at it, regardless of when it is done it will effect members in one time zone or another across the world. I am sure they came up with 3AM because they noticed that the fewest members were on during that time compared to any other time of the day.

 

[moments.]

I was thinking the same thing as Alternative...
Can it go on rotation or something? Yes, perhaps the majority of people are in America and less affected by having the downtime at 3am or whatever, but there are plenty of other members who will suffer from it. Yes it's only a few hours, but is it not worth putting it on rotation, even if it benefits the American members more often than the rest of us, but perhaps like a 70-30 split or something like that.

Just a thought.

 

[Taemin]

Well, regardless of what time we shut it down, plenty of people are gonna be online because of how popular PC is. Though, this isn't something that would happen every single day. It would happen for a couple of hours, for one day / night (depending on timezone), on occasion. It might be annoying at the time, but a few hours or a day without PC isn't going to kill anyone. I have faith in you guys, you'll make it. xD; I think it's worth the end result.

 

[Meganium]

I guess it depends on *how much* will it cost. If it's at a reasonable price, I'd go for it. Besides, I've been looking forward to a name change for a while now so that might save me a bunch of time by creating a new account so I can get rid of the 90 on my username.

 

[Platinum Lucario]

Just as soon as I noticed on the index in where it said the latest post in the CQ&F forum, I thought it was going to be another person asking about changing their user, I laughed just before I realized that the thread was made by a staff member and was stickied. And I was like... "huh?". xD Then I looked at the thread and then I was like "oh I see". xD

Anyways, for name changes? Certainly! Here, I could give you as much money as you charge for a username change. Everyone surely does hope for the username changes to come back, and that's exactly why they said in that announcement about the username changes being closed that they might bring back the username changes. I could be eager enough to change my username back to "Platinum Lucario" again. Because I only changed it back because since the username changing privledges was going to be removed, I thought going back to the username I registered with was an excellent idea. I'm actually quite attached to my most common username that I use for any website. You just have to search "Platinum Lucario" or "PlatinumLucario" into Google and you'll see all the different kinds of websites I've registered on.

Oh and I have a suggestion, I'm sure many people have already suggested this, and it wouldn't be fair though... but what about having the username changes thread for supporters only? So only those who donate to PC could change their username? :/ I could say this would be unfair to the normal members... but lets just see how it goes. ^^

 

[Vrai]

Oh and I have a suggestion, I'm sure many people have already suggested this, and it wouldn't be fair though... but what about having the username changes thread for supporters only? So only those who donate to PC could change their username? :/ I could say this would be unfair to the normal members... but lets just see how it goes. ^^

I don't know what benefit would come out of restricting name changes when both regular users and supporters could likely want to change it. It's like owning a shop but turning down a vast majority of your potential customers because they smell... or some other silly reason like that. :(

sorry non-supporters you don't really smell

 

[King Gumball]

I think it would be a great feature to raise money for PC to hopefully buy a new server as it would encourage people to donate. But I would not do it because a) I'm not allowed and b) I'm not going pay for a username change on a Pokemon forum :(

I voted yes though because I think others would be interested and I might do it when I am old enough to have my own PayPal account.

 

[Kenshin5]

I assume you mean by paying for supporter status at the same time they are entitled to at least one name change? Or do you mean making this as it currently stands only available to Supporters? Cause they are looking to try a profit and they won't make all their proceeds they need on supporters alone. In my mind there doesn't need to be any group restrictions, if you have the money to pay I sure wouldn't refuse it.

 

[Ｓoul Ｅater]

In way, it would be the Supporters that got to change their names, because in paying for a name change, you would be donating to the community, and could be counted as a Supporter. I guess that depends on how you look at it, but yeah.. @__@

If we reach our goal of being able to upgrade, then maybe one day name changes, or other perks could be something that becomes free (you never know). Though, for now it seems that name changes would be for 'Supporters' in a sense, if that's how you choose to look at it.

 

[Archer]

Food for thought: I remember that back in the day, there were different rules for name corrections, as opposed to total changes.

Eg. fixing spelling errors, removing numbers/strange characters, altering capitalisation, etc.

Reading through this thread, I've noticed that a large portion of people just want these sorts of changes, rather than a completely new name - which is the concern that most people seem to carry.

I'm not big on the idea personally, but if it's not the community's/server's detriment (which was my main concern), I don't mind at all.

That said, if the ability to pay for new usernames were to be enabled, it would be nice if we could overwrite certain taken names. For instance, the only other name I would want has been taken by another member who never posted and only ever logged in once - 5-6 years ago.

 

[Ｓoul Ｅater]

Pruning of unused accounts to free up names? I'd love to see that done, personally.

If any of this is implemented in the end, I mean.

 

[LightOfTruth]

A few hours won't kill you. And it'll be at 3Am, when you're supposed to be in bed. There are a lot of members here who would disagree and want a namechange. Let's weigh all the issues. :>

People are on different time-zones to you so it might be during the day where the user is :)

 

[mondays suck]

I would love getting rid of the "suck" in my name and just becoming "mondays", but... is paying money for something as trivial as changing an online username really worth it? I doubt it, I'd rather stick with the original name or get an alt account instead.

I do like the idea of cleaning up the unused accounts though

 

[King Gumball]

People are on different time-zones to you so it might be during the day where the user is :)

If it rotates it wlll be no problem. It isn't going to kill anyone. I am from Australia so it will likely be during my after noon. If so there are other things to do in life whil PC is down. Hopefully it will rotate or just be during random times of inactive days but I am sure you will be able to handle one afternoon without PC :/