I often get asked if it's possible to change your username. Normally this has been a manual task and a bit of a pain in the bum.
But, it's now possible to do yourself!
To change your username, login to the new site (at the moment only accessibly here: https://beta.bikermatch.co.uk and go to My Account \ Edit Account
If this feature gets abused then I will remove it. By that I mean people changing their names to silly things, or something hurtful to others, or trying to hide themselves etc. I was very 50/50 about making this feature so I hope it is used wisely.
Well on my Galaxy Tab S2 it wont let me save the changes. I've just tried to change my name, entered my password, clicked on save and nothing. I don't have a laptop or desktop to try it on so I don't know if it works on them or not.
So how the hell will that work on Pms. So I send Billy no mates a pm but just before I send it he changes his site name Ivor friend??. We sell tickets for a big event like the kiss rally to lonesome Lilly a week before the rally she changes her site name to bow leg Brenda. Who is going to sort out that mess ??
I'm not sure on my thoughts about this feature. I can see the side whereby someone new comes on here, then say a few weeks later may decide no I don't like that I've a better name so change to it and then keep it.
However, what happens if you get someone on here that is a new member, then decides to make life difficult or cause upset in one way or another in a post or PM, then immediately after that changes their name... how would the victim then be able to report this?? Would there be a record of people changing their name to something else via Moderators, etc?
Just my thoughts, so not sure what would be the best way to go with this?
Not a good idea really for us numps to be able to do that, especially as it will be open to abuse, better to shut the door before the horse bolts, otherwise could be a whole load more bother on your plate. Maybe make it a "mod only" feature so that they can check the reason for change is genuine.
To add a section where the user needs to give a reason, is often enough to clarify as well as discourage dubious excuses.
Sometimes, it's necessary to suspend the account or put the request on hold to improve security. It's rare for this kind of change to happen without admin teams needing to action final authorisation. Hmmm...!
JP etc... Everyone has a unique ID number. Your user ID. This will not change. My number is 9, JP's is 11242. The username associated with a user ID can be changed.
I often get requests from folks to change usernames. Like "John33" who made his account when he was 33 years old, doesn't realise that when he turns 34 he wants his username changing. Or Honda123 who buys a kawasaki and now wants to be called Kawa123.
Instead of me doing it all the time it will be easier if folks can just do it themselves.
With regards to sending messages for example... you send messages to a user ID. When JP sends me a message, it goes from 11242 to 9. If I change my username to "Bob" then in your private messages history you will just see the conversation be renamed to Bob. Everywhere you look on the site, forums, events etc Matt will become Bob. Even if you are half-way through typing a message to someone who changes their username, it wont matter. You will just see their new username next time you refresh your inbox.
The same thing goes for forum posts. If someone posts something abusive, changing his/her name wont help. It'll just change the name next to the post. Likewise when you report a post to moderators, it reports the post not the user. So moderators look at the post and who posted it. The attached user ID wont change, so there's no hiding from us.
The idea is to make the site more autonomous and have less admin time involved. Why have admins do something you can do yourself?
It's a change I'm willing to try out.
Now, if I find some folks are playing games with it, changing their username every other day to cause confusion in the forums or whatever, then the next step I make will be to limit the username change to maximum one change per user. Once you've renamed your account once you'll no longer be able to rename it again. So no changing your name every time you get a year older.... John33, John34, John35. Just be wiser about your choices.
Many sites allow this. Forums, Playstation/Xbox account, Facebook etc - all allow you to change your display name. The way some folks have reacted here you'd think I was allowing nude photos to be posted :-D Calm down my lovelies lol
Rattz, You was right about the form not working. I made a little mistake leaving the form in debug/development mode so it only worked for me and nobody else :-D
Now fixed. The form works as it should (hopefully).
JP - check my username. Go see also in your private messages, events etc. Hopefully will be changed everywhere
I don't think its a good idea it will be abused, I think Wills has a good idea, maybe allow one change a year. If people feel the need to change all the time then they obviously have some sort of issue, if you need to hide from someone just block them, simple really :)
P.s....I wondered who the hell Bob was in my messages, I don't know a Bob lol
So now Dave vm will have to reprint all the paperwork for the xmas do on the sat morning just in case someone has changed there site name. or you can put something in the the system that shows them as the member who was formally know as twat This is a stupid idea that will cause problems but carry on, Let's see who will be calling you NOB sorry BOB for a long time
My name transition was very easy and relatively quick. I've had no issues at all, although it was Matt (Bob) who did this for me after my email request.
My only concern was my previous posts under my initial name and whether they would trace back to me. As I didn't realise that the name aspect of your profile was linked to a unique number.
Everything worked brilliantly for me and I am grateful to Matt (Bob) for his help.
I can understand Matt (Bob) trying to alleviate the workload of the Mods and offering the ability to carry out a name change to the members but would suggest, as most already have, that this ability is limited to one change over a certain time period.
I would be interested to know how many name change requests there have been in the time since I joined (4yrs-ish) as I have only noted two changes, one of which was mine.
On another Bike forum a friend got accused of riding like an idiot on a run out we had around the Isle of Wight, then changed his name to Captain Sensible. It's stuck ever since then
![NEW FEATURE: Change username - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8mobileLQ.jpg)
![NEW FEATURE: Change username - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8desktopLQ.jpg)
