Username Changes!

[Legendary Silke]

The only username change I need right now... is to drop the eighth notes in my username. Twiggy. That's all. It will be a simple change that will make my life easier when it comes to logging into PokéCommunity. I don't think I won't be happy with the missing eighth notes if it means making life easier for me and everyone else. No more Alt-Num Pad codes, mess, CHARMAP, or anything similar.

The only problem? Someone that has been inactive for years had already taken the name. >_>

 

[Ray Maverick]

o: Name changing is back?! Seriously?

I have a couple of names, but meh, this one suits me fine as well.

 

[Ho-Oh]

... :x uhh... they are on indefinite hold for now.

I'll explain why I changed mine though! I changed it to this because Forever had bad associations with it, and while Requility kinda does too it's definitely not as bad and I just wanted to start all over agaiiiinnn. I'm happy with this. :) There's other reasons but I don't feel like explaining.

 

[Nick]

Username changes aren't going to happen, guys. :(

 

[Yoshikkko]

uh, why not? I thought you guys found a way cause 2 people could already change theirs without problems?

also, let's say they're gonna happen, shouldn't maybe inactive accounts be purged to make some usernames free again? just my thoughts I guess lol.

 

[Livewire]

The most recent test/change really broke things. :/

 

[Oryx]

There were problems, every name change crashed the server so it didn't work so they're not coming back. :x

 

[Cordelia]

My name change seriously borked things, so they aren't happening again. :\

 

[Oryx]

See, this was why it was tested before officially introduced...XD;

 

[Ivysaur]

The fun thing is, the server crashed even when the forums were switched off, which means that the problem is much deeper than what Audy thought. We were thinking of having a "name change day" every year, in which the forums would be off just for that, but... not even.

 

[Overlord Drakow]

I would just add the Overlord prefix to my username.

 

[Spinor]

I think the failure of the name changes is a sign that we either need to upgrade to forum software or get a new server o__o

I mean, honestly, how can name changes even be an option if they are just gonna get every server derped like it's high on electricity.

On topic, I don't think my username is politically correct anymore o__o. I'd either get it changed to Godot17 or think of something creative to permanently apply it as my internet identity.

 

[Logan]

Yes because we can just get a new server at the drop of a hat. PokéCommunity is a non-profit forum and so (I'm pretty sure) can barely pay for the currently very good server it has. It's completely unnecessary to pay over the odds for a new server just for an unnecessary feature like name changes when the one we have is perfectly adequate and affordable.

 

[Vrai]

Yes because we can just get a new server at the drop of a hat. PokéCommunity is a non-profit forum and so (I'm pretty sure) can barely pay for the currently very good server it has. It's completely unnecessary to pay over the odds for a new server just for an unnecessary feature like name changes when the one we have is perfectly adequate and affordable.

^

if you're really upset with the username you have just make a new account. if you're not willing to forgo your pre-existing postcount, friends, whatever, then you're not committed enough to that name to make the name change anyway and should just stick with what you've got

 

[Legendary Silke]

Speaking of username changes crashing the servers, I wonder what is the fundamental cause of it. Inefficiency? Messed up databases? It does seem like that PC goes down a whole lot often than other forums, even without someone changing their usernames. (Bulbagarden can get away with user-initiated username changes and not crash, for some reason.)

 

[Legendary Silke]

I wonder whether it's possible to implement a "lazy" username change - the username is changed, and it's not a cover name, but the changes will take a while to propagate to the entire database - something like a week to reduce server load or something.

 

[Legendary Silke]

People would be constantly accessing things that have your username attached to it- VMs (Especially people that are very active), PMs, posts (However many they have), blogs, control panels... It wouldn't work too well.

The key to making it work is to make the propagation of changes irrelevant to actual access - let the server do it whenever it feels safe to do so.

 

[Cherrim]

That's kind of what the solution this time around was going to be, as I understand it. Didn't take place over that long a timespan but it was programmed to stagger the database changes and it didn't work so we're back to square one. :/ The staggering didn't take place over such a large window but having names half-changed, half-not for so long would be really confusing and I'd rather just leave it as-is, honestly.

Bulbagarden probably gets away with it because their stats are pretty low compared to ours. (Posts: 4M, Members: 40k, Active: 2k vs Posts: 7M, Members: 300k, Active: 21k. Rounded here and there and that doesn't include activity from VMs/PMs but I imagine ours are probably higher there too. They likely prune and we don't.)

 

[Legendary Silke]

Didn't take place over that long a timespan but it was programmed to stagger the database changes and it didn't work so we're back to square one. :/

Hmm... and in what way did it fail? Did the servers crash anyway?

 

[Cherrim]

Yup. Turned everything off so that the only thing able to access them was the script for name changes itself and it still crashed PC for an hour or two the other day. :( So they're indefinitely on hold again which sucks because I actually wanted a name change, haha.