Agreed completely. ^

For clarification's sake, the current practice is not unpublished. It was established (and published) by TalkBoard on Feb 10, 06 (after being approved by an 8-1 vote):

When I speak of the current practice, I mean the practice as employed by both Randy and Carol in the cases I have assisted some concerned members with. In these cases, the members were not required to delete their old account, lose their post count, or otherwise suffer the consequences as outlined in the previous resolution passed by the TalkBoard.

I believe it is unfair to require a member to know a sympathetic TalkBoard member or a moderator in-person in order to facilitate a request a handle change for a legitimate reason without punishment. Yet that is what the current practice requires--those who know people in "the inner circle" have special access and privileges, while the vast majority of those who most likely simply avoid participating in our community due to this restriction are left out in the cold. There should be a fair process for legitimate requests to satisfy this very real need.

As for the argument that this is out of the TalkBoard's purview, I believe the quote posted by Dovster should put that belief to rest. For those who still maintain that the TalkBoard should not be involved in this, I will be happy to move that the previous resolution be rescinded and the verbiage in the FlyerTalk FAQ struck. Of course, if it passes, that would have the effect of allowing handle changes without restriction. ;)

Ok, what am I missing? Seems like this has already been handled by the '06 decision. Is this a solution in search of a problem?

And jackal, "If we do not allow them to overcome the problems caused by their initial handle choices, we end up simply driving them away, which is a detriment to the FlyerTalk community.". What major problems? And seriously, people are going to leave a BB that offers them info re: their travel programs, etc, because they might not be able to change a handle??? I'm not buying into that wholesale.

Whether goalie posts under goalie or slapshot (using that as an example), I base my opinion of him on the quality of his posts, not his handle. I do know some people who have graduated college or gotten PhDs or their law degrees or moved since joining FT, yet people still know who they are from their first-registered handle. I've heard some of them say yup, should have thought about it more when joining - but they're laughing when they say it so it's not the be-all & end-all of their FT existance or a problem for them.

Actually about the only thing I could possibly see changing from '06, if someone is approved a handle change that their join date/post count doesn't reset to zero/new date, but I have no idea if that's something that's software-required or not. If so, then it's another thing for the person making a handle change request to think about before requesting such a change.

Cheers.

I will not relay the details, as that would be a breach of privacy, but I have personally facilitated communication between members who were in exactly this situation and the forum administration. It may not be a problem visible to you, but it is a real problem, and when a problem affects the quality of a member's participation in the FlyerTalk community, I am strongly driven to fix it.

That's because those for whom it is not a laughing matter simply do not post. They're less engaged in the FlyerTalk community, so you don't know about them.

I'm slightly confused at your negative stance, because that is pretty much exactly what this proposal does.

No, the forum software does not require the post-count/join-date to be reset.

Thanks, Jackal for addressing this issue. This is a tricky one and I appreciate your willingness to ask for comments.

Excuse me, are you talking about Goalie or what? Are you trying to telling me about him. I wasn't sure if he have too many posting on FTs. He wasn't padding his post count. I wonder if you ever reset his post count back to zeros. I wasn't aware of Goalie doing. As long as I concerned about him. There is a few things about me that I am doing good on the forum. I am still taking a time to read the forum and I sharing some info from airlines, travel info and etc.

Scotty, she was only using Goalie as a theoretical example. Goalie has not changed his user name, his post count, nor anything else.

I'm not trying to be negative, but I guess you haven't convinced me that this is a widespread problem - nor one that isn't already addressed by the '06 decision.

According to that they can change their handle one time, although they have to make a clear case for why they want the change.

Cheers.

Seems to me to be an argument concerning all TB topics.

Including yourself, there are 7 non-Talkboard members that have posted here. Doesn't seem to be an overwhelming interest in the topic.

Who currently has the ability to change a member's handle?

The FlyerTalk Host - a.k.a. Community Director - a.k.a. SanDiego1K

Until a member who wants to change their handle "makes a stink" ;)

Indeed. It would be interesting to know how frequently someone requests a handle change.