Sorry if this has been discussed before, I did a search and couldn't find anything.

Is there a way to change my FT handle? Mine is quite boring and I'd like to choose something more appropriate without "orphaning" all my past posts.

Suggest you email [email protected] from your FT registered email address

I would have to say no -- you've had that handle for a significant amount of time and made a significant number of posts with it. You can always check with Randy if you'd like to.

Thanks,
John

I empathize. People keep thinking I'm a guy and I've often wished I could make an interim change to "Tenniswitch-formerly-known-as-Tennisbum" and finally on to "Tenniswitch" (which probably suits my personality better, anyway), but I'm afraid rule and precedent are agin' us.

You could always place that in your bio or signature line....

I'd also like to change my screen name, if in any way possible. First of all, I was 28 some years ago, then I do not work as an attorney anymore, but most importantly, I think many people have an allergic reaction to lawyers, so it is kind of stupid of me to out myself as one in my screen name!

ks_8999 is now known as BangkokTraveler.


Now we'll go on that witch hunt - tennisbum - YGM.

But why did you spell Traveller wrong?



Just kidding, it can be spelled both ways.

Okay, so if some people can have their handles changed, what about all the others who've been shafted by this (IMHO) stupid rule? Those who've used something to sign up to FT and assumed it was just a login ID that nobody would see and/or that they'd be able to change. Those who've picked something with their age/occupation/etc in it which have now changed. Those who've had to dump their whole handle/history/etc and lose access to Omni just to change name.

If you're going to make exceptions for some people, you should allow the others to change theirs, and you should allow those who've been forced to create new handles to combine them so that their history, post count, etc, are correct.

(And, fwiw, I'm quite happy with my handle. I'm just trying to promote the sensible, fair way over the stupid, unfair way.)

Agreed. I have tried to get mine changed and got no response from RP when I asked (nicely!).

My reason is more practical and more serious. As FT grows there is a real risk that someone from my employer will join FT and spot me and my 4,000+ posts, because my company is one of those where all internal memos etc are sent, for eg, "From: RJB". This would be less than amusing for me.

If anyone at FT HQ is happy to let me switch (and I've thought of an alternative!) then please PM me. If not, one day I will just set up a new account anyway and sacrifice my post count, but I would prefer something that would change all my historic posts as well.

I agree with this. Many people <ahem> might sign up without really considering the prominence that a handle has in the forums.

The potential for abuse/annoying the administrators is high though. I would suggest a one-time-only chance to change your login. I would also be open to the concept of an administrative fee (surcharge?? ) for the change (or maybe just require a sub to FT Premium)

[Edited to add: I took Randy up on his offer and got my handle changed from 'stl8r' to 'Cargo Cult' - I'm adding this reference for the benefit of the search engine ]

........duplicate post - owing to current extreme slowness of FT

Mine is an example of this; my handle is pseudo-random and has no meaning.

I would like this too

There seems to be some miscommunication here and I'm not sure where it might be.

Kremmen: "...others who've been shafted by this (IMHO) stupid rule?" Where the heck are you getting information about some rule, that i'm not even aware exists. "shafted"? If you'll read the flow of this thread, you'll see that a member ks_8999 asked about changing his user name and I did so - all without any fuss or muss. In fact, I've changed more than a few dozen other members requests with no big deal.

As well, to the post of tennisbum, i actually PMed this member after noticing their comment regarding a change on Oct. 8 and have received nothing back from the member if they really did want to change.

RJB: I'm not showing a request from you. Now, that doesn't mean you did not send it. If sent by email, it may have got caught up in spam or i did not catch the note because the address was unknown to me. I can't search PM to see if it came in that way and not knowing when you sent in your request, just can't do much. However, as noted, you don't even have to ask nicely, that is not a requirement. We do research to see if the new request might be too similar to another member, etc. but it's not that big a deal since we moved to vB two years ago. Before that, it was nightmare. I would suggest just letting me know again what you are interested in - it's really that simple.

stl8r and ropmot141 - rather than but in to someone else's incorrect assumption that there is some rule that you can't change your user name, why not simply send me your request? I usually don't hang out here in the Technology forum and normally will not see these posts, so direct contact with me is best.

What some of you may be confused with is the reply by one of the tech guys. You know tech guys - they only see the word in bytes and bits.... just joking a little here. Best thing to always do is contact me personally since at the end of the day, these types of individual decisions are handled by me. Now, if you send something in and don't hear back - send in another reminder. I'm finding that spam filters have changed the way we try and communicate.

I do hope this clears things up and thanks for asking the questions and for your support of FlyerTalk.

I am having the same problem that Raffles mentioned some time ago. I would need to change my handle, for the same reasons in fact, but perhaps my pms to Randy are getting lost (I remember we had this problem some time ago).

If it is too much of a problem I can just create another profile and restart the message counter from 0. FTers are kind with newbies!