Spiff

On 17 Dec 2006, the TalkBoard passed, 8-0-1 the following motion:

Moved by gleff and seconded by techgirl:

to amend the name change policy so that technical changes to a handle, such as changes in capitalization, can be made at the discretion of Flyertalk Administrators without resetting post counts to zero.

Voting yes: bhatnasx, Cholula, Dovster, gleff, Jenbel, ScottC, Spiff, techgirl

Abstaining: ozstamps

l etoile

One very appreciative member here.

GUWonder

So "technical changes" for this purpose include adding/removing capitalization, adding/removing punctuation and letter sequence changes. Does it include anything else?

And so a star is born.

ozstamps

Who knows?

We never discussed it near enough IMHO to know the answer to that, therefore I abstained from voting as the motion did not define it in any way and I for one was convinced we needed to address just that.

Absolute can of worms IMHO.

This was part of my my point (and I am only permitted by our rules of course to re-post my thoughts)

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I really have no huge issue with ozstamps deciding he might wish to be Ozstamps or techgirl deciding TechGirl might look better etc.

IMHO this will simply create many fertile minds then asking HOM to consider "creative" changes. Then HOM go from one member request in front of them right now, to 100+ to consider.

If we MUST run a vote on this, (and I'd not like to see that as the basis is incredibly vague and really not a burning member issue) the obvious question to ask before anyone seconds this if the wording is:

"technical changes to a handle, such as changes in capitalization, can be made at the discretion of Flyertalk Administrators'

What OTHER changes might be allowed if not just capiltalisation? EXACTLY what is OK?

As random examples - and I stress I feel sure these are not on the table - can wharvey ask to be WilliamHarvey? Or w-harvey?

Can dhammer53 ask to be DanHammer or Dan Hammer or d.hammer? If not, why not? Isn't w.harvey about the same change dimension as WHarvey - which seems to be causing us no issues? If w.harvey is OK is w..harvey still OK? Or w*harvey?

These are kind of innocent changes but were the exact kind of thing we deliberated about for mannnny posts when we made the initial motion, so all those kind of fine tunings were able to be made by ALL members as a one time exception within a month time span. If they did not bother then too bad is my feeling.

And remember - most important - ANY change even adding one cap or one space will result in no search matches for past posts, which is often helpful for all sorts of reasons. Checking on a Coupon Connection person before you trade will only bring up matches from after he had a name change.

i.e. If I search now for Ozstamps I get:

Invalid User specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

Slippery slope here.

I see a lot more minuses than the positive of one person who wants a cap change.

IceTrojan

Would anagrams be a "technical change?" I could be "a InjecTor"

http://wordsmith.org/anagram/

ozstamps

Thank you for almost proving my real point - you owe me a beer in Saigon next week for that.

And as background to my POV, TB spent a lot of time debating the name change motion which we only approved this year after 2 votes on it. As is recorded on the votes forum, in a motion written by me, members were given a one time opportunity to change their handle at no penalty to them - it said:

Can I change my Flyer Talk handle?

The short answer is NO. In general the handle you registered with is the one you are known by during your time in this Community. However, if for instance you started 2 years back as FargoFlyer and are now based in Tampa, we will allow you as a ONE TIME courtesy to re-register your handle. Once you have registered under that new name, you must email a FT admin to cancel the duplicate handle.

Failure to do so is a violation of the Flyertalk Terms of Service as each member may only have one handle. Be warned your post count then re-starts at zero, and your "join date" will reflect the date of the new handle. And this is a strictly ONE TIME offer to members, so please think carefully before asking!"

Note - If this motion is passed the TalkBoard recommends that a "grace" period of one month from vote closing be in place where existing members be permitted to apply for a name change. If the change is approved by Admin the existing post count and join date will not be affected.

The new handle will show the previous handle immediately under the new name approved. Members availing themselves of this one month's grace period exception will have used their "ONE TIME" option by this action.

GUWonder

"Technical changes" of the nature I've so far witnessed allow for plenty of creative modifications if that standard is maintained. If there's no limit on the number of technical changes within a period of time, then a sequence of "technical changes" -- particularly if letters can be added or removed -- would sooner or later approach the creation of a name not recognizable with the FTer's name from some period before.

gleff

We just wanted to clarify that the rules we adopted don't stand in the way of the Flyertalk tech staff from exercising their judgment and discretion.

There's an existing rule that talks about changing a handle, and we wanted it to be a cumbesome activity -- you can't just burn bridges and start fresh with new handles and for that matter keep your post count and thus 'instant veteran with new name'.

At the same time, something considered a no-brainer minor change by a real person that knows Flyertalk (Randy's esteemed colleagues at the HOM) shouldn't necessarily mean a post count reset. My hunch, and you'd have to ask them, is that anagrams wouldn't fall within the realm of what Tim at Webflyer would implement at his discretion. And changes after changes taxing (and frankly annoying) Tim would also not get implemented via his discretion. This is not a blank check to members, it's a clarification that we're not asking Tim, Mkel, et al to suspend their judgment.

GUWonder

Is it possible that TB would consider a masterlist of name modifications be maintained say as a sticky in CommunityBuzz, sort of like a public announcement required in some areas when name modifications are done or have been done? I understand such a posting creates an additional work step for the HOM staff, but it's not one that seems too time consuming.

wharvey

Something you will rarely see me say, "I TOTALLY AGREE WITH ozstamps".

If changing letters in a name to caps or lower case means you cannot search, then it is a bad idea.

And, seems like HOM does not need this type of work.

OH WELL.

William

Mary2e

I'll use our new L'etiole as an example. Over the years she has made some incredibly informative posts. If this is true, and I want to find one of her trip reports from 2 years ago, well, I have to search under her old id. In a few years, I'll have to search under both because I know I won't remember when she posted something.

There are other examples of people who have changed ids for varying reasons and their posting history is also now gone.

I understand people want to change their ids for their own very valid reasons. Is there any way to alter all the history to reflect the current id?

EDIT: I just did a test on L'etiole and it's not true, at least for the last 500 posts. All her history is showing up under her new id. I don't know how it would effect the archives, but at least the current stuff is all there.

l etoile

Actually, it's not true. If you do a search on L'etiole and trip reports, all my past posts come up just fine going back to July '99. The change goes back to the beginning.

Mary2e

I know, I did a test and posted the results. We must have crossed each other's posts.

yosithezet

Problematic decision IMHO. Changing caps is one thing. Changing spelling, which is what adding the ' does, is bad. If you search for letiole you will come up with all instances where she is quoted. These references will forever show up as letiole and only new references will be use the new name.

RichMSN

When I originally joined FlyerTalk back in 2000 or so, I had a UserID that consisted of my first and last name. When I started traveling again full-time, I decided that I really didn't want to be that public with my FT handle for various reasons but mainly because my boss would probably assume I was manipulating my travel purchases. Which I don't, but my old boss was pretty suspicious of everything.

So, I bit the bullet, asked FT admins to delete my old persona and started over with my current handle.

It appears that allowing FT admins to update an old handle to a new one is actually better, long-term, for FT. All old posts will be re-indexed to include the new handle. Personally, I wish I could search through posts I made back in 1999/2000, just for fun, but it doesn't appear that's possible anymore.

For a while I've thought I may run into this issue again if I ever decide to move from MSN. But then I realized that it's just a handle and IJAFIBB and I'm more than happy to remain RichMSN even if I'm living in TOM.