Username Change Requests

[Reverie]

How do you as a community handle username change requests? Do you allow all members to freely change their names? Do you require them to pay for this with perhaps forum credits? How frequently can users change their usernames, what is a little "too frequently" for name changes?

 

[Ravenfreak]

I allow my members to change their usernames if they wish to though not too often. I know there are members who enjoy to change their usernames constantly, and that can get annoying after a while and confusing too.

 

[Reverie]

I allow my members to change their usernames if they wish to though not too often. I know there are members who enjoy to change their usernames constantly, and that can get annoying after a while and confusing too.

The forum software that easily states what their previous usernames assists with this at least though. I'm thankful for how it appears on Xenforo.

 

[Cory]

I have a "Change Username" item in my shop, but no one has ever used it and has always manually asked for me to change their name. I'm sure most people aren't even aware it exists. I don't mind giving away name changes freely, but I still try and set a limit to how many name changes one can have.

 

[SDL]

I've set the permissions in XenForo to every six months. It can get pretty confusing when members change their username at the best of times, even more so when it's regularly. If they have a specific reason for changing their username, such as safety reasons or they misspelled it, then I'll be more than happy to manually change it. Otherwise they'll need to wait it out. Perhaps it can be a premium feature in the future.

 

[Kyng]

I do allow them to change their usernames; however, I want to discourage them from doing it too often (so that it doesn't get confusing).

Therefore, I allow them to have their name change for free if their last one was more than six months ago - but if it was less than six months ago, then I charge them forum currency for it.

 

[veloman]

On phpBB I have the "can change username" permission disabled for all members, except myself (admin). I'm not against it per se - and if I was asked I would likely change it for them - but I'm not convinced it's necessary. I feel most reasons to change a name aren't good (i.e. they've garnered a negative reputation).

There's always the possibility of troublemaking and confusion, so rather then risk it I have it disabled. But, if asked, I would (But I don't advertise that fact!)

 

[Empire]

They can spend their points to change but only once a month as it should be so much overkill. I want members to feel at home with fewer restrictions

 

[Paul]

You can do it yourself on Proboards forums so I'm not fussed. People change it occasionally but on their mini profile we have the @ symbol which shows their original username anyway so confusion can't really be had.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

Guys just remember quotes don’t change. Although @Kyng your board uses myBB and unfortunately the quotes don’t contain an arrow to go to the original post 😕

 

[an0nym0us]

forums are not social networks where you can do whatever you want, there must be a limit to the freedom of the members..

 

[ZandraJoi]

On Proboards there is a difference between the Display Name & registered Username. i.e. on my forum, my username is Admin (it's the default for Proboards) but I changed my Display name to be ZandraJoi. For Proboards, regardless of the Display name, it doesn't change the Username & the tag for @. It makes it confusing when one is on a PB forum & tags with the DISPLAY name.
For this question, my members can easily change their Display name. If I was on a forum such as Xenforo where the @ tag would be different, then I would not want them to change so often. PB we can see who the person was that registered. XF & other platforms, I can get confused when the name changes!

 

[Shortie]

One of the perks I have for my user upgrades on my forum is that anyone who makes that purchase and is a VIP on my forum has access to unlimited username changes during the duration of their user upgrade but then username changes will have to be moderated and approved before they show.

I feel if this was a feature I allowed all members to have access to, it would get abused and get out of hand quite quickly.