Hugo <Nabble> wrote
I think this is a very strange request. I have never seen a forum that doesn't allow you to change your user name. I think users should have this freedom. The point is that good users wouldn't normally abuse this feature. What kind of issues do you have with those names? I am sure good users don't want bad names associated with their accounts.
That's the key = good users.
The forums I've been a member of would require you to join with a new email address to have a new name. Essentially you can't change your existing name. I'm a member of a forum where I inadvertently had a typo in my user name. I emailed the admin and asked him to fix it. He did. That was it.
Forum admins can work incredibly hard to build something of value. It's frustrating to give away control to those who aren't concerned with your investment (of time), who'd like to screw things up for laughs.
My goal is to have a quality forum that requires a minimum of moderation. Let's say I post 3x a day, and change my name once a day for a month. And say of those 90 posts I made in a month 20 of them are "quoted." What you have is a mess.
If that was your forum what would you do? Ban the person? That seems heavy handed. The point is to create a structure that leads to community and conversation. Not moderation.
The reason you require registration is so that people can be identified. Otherwise just let everyone be anonymous. If I post anonymously I never have to take any responsibility for what I say.
What do you think is a reasonable number of times a user should be able to change his name? If they exceed that number what would you do as a moderator?
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