Display Name

[anotheran]

When I first logged in and created my profile I assumed it would need to be a unique entry, so I used my normal unique profile name that I use for such things... anotheran. I assumed that I'd be able to set my display name (that appears at the top of my sumbissions) to my real name... Neil Reynolds. I was wrong as far as I can see!

Is it possible to have a display name rather than my profile id displayed? If not, is it possible to change my profile id to Neil Reynolds? If neither, then I'll create a new profile and dump anotheran (in this context) for ever!

Regards, Neil

[Rod Neep]

On systems such as this, one has a user name, (that you specified when you registered for the system) and that name stays with you for life.
You could try registering afresh using your real name.
Personal comment: I never could understand why people use "CB" type "handles" rather than real names on such systems (boards and mailing lists) anyway.

[John]

Personal comment: I never could understand why people use "CB" type "handles" rather than real names on such systems (boards and mailing lists) anyway.

I expect, certainly in the case of boards, that folk really don't want to be "John Holden 273" My yahoo user name is really silly but every possible sensible combination of my real name was already in use. Likewise, if you have a fairly common name and a busy ISP, it's likely that your own name has already been used many times.
I was glad to hit this early and be able to nab "John" before I had to become "zorbelflinger7"

John

[Neil Reynolds]

Sadly I've often found that my real name is already taken (I suspect that Rod Neep doesn't appear that much in the world!) So long ago I started using one "handle" for everything. But I'd much rather appear as me!

So, as you can see, I've now reregistered as myself, and will just have to subscribe to those forums and threads all over again!

Thanks for your reply though Rod.

Regards, anotheran!

[Rod Neep]

With due respect John, if someone with a mask came knocking at your door, and said "My name is Bin Laden", or "Saddam", or "The Anarchist"... then would you be happy inviting them in? Those are but three on the Brit-Gen mailing list system. There are a lot more like that!

Would *you* like to leave them totally unmoderated on a system where you have a responsibility to act in the interests of other users?
What would your impression be of someone who announced themselves as "XXXJane"
John, I started running user messaging systems similar to this (Bulletin Boards, including ones for genealogy) almost 20 years ago. I learned a long while ago to be suspicious of people who called themselves by weird names rather than by their real names. Not all of them do cause trouble of course, but the proportion of them who do is much, much hiher than the proportion using their real name.
And the starnge thing of course.... is that just about everyone who uses a strange pseudomym will be more than happy to tell us all thet they have used it for years, and will have (to them) a very justifiable reason for using it.
Me... I'll moderate their posts and mistrust them until they have proved themselves to be responsible system users.
Rod

[Neil Reynolds]

I use countless systems where my display name is my real name and my id is a less easy to remember group of characters imposed because my name is not unique. I'm happy now. But the next Neil Reynolds that comes along may not be. If another did, I'd have been happy to change my display name to Neil Reynolds of North Weald (or somthing similar) but now they'll simply have to be Neil Reynolds 2 or the like as I got here first!

Having said that, I personally like the forums and am pleased to see them gradually picking up.

Neil

[John]

With due respect John, if someone with a mask came knocking at your door, and said "My name is Bin Laden", or "Saddam", or "The Anarchist"... then would you be happy inviting them in? Those are but three on the Brit-Gen mailing list system. There are a lot more like that!
Rod

Oh absolutely Rod, I'm not disputing that at all. I am only suggesting that sometimes, perhaps after a beer or two, you've entered a sensible user name in to a system and after about 10 tries having it refused as already in use, the sense goes and you come up with someting silly just to get the job done.
No doubt there are people who get some strange ego boost by calling themselves "Vlad the Impaler" or what ever, I don't understand those either.
I have to add that there is never an excuse for a user name that is either threatening or offensive to anybody.

John

[Copper]

Oh dear does that mean I am on the not to be trusted list? I am a sponsor of ACDB and promise to be a good girl :)

I use my name on other boards as my better half told me to. I always do as I am told.

[Roche]

Oh dear does that mean I am on the not to be trusted list? I am a sponsor of ACDB and promise to be a good girl :)

I use my name on other boards as my better half told me to. I always do as I am told. I do agree with all that as been said but never gave it a thought, I chose Roche to reflect the Cornish parish Icollect info for, as a sponsor of ACDB
I promise to behave myself and will sign myself at the bottom of posts

Regards,Arthur

[John]

I do agree with all that as been said but never gave it a thought, I chose Roche to reflect the Cornish parish Icollect info for, as a sponsor of ACDB
I promise to behave myself and will sign myself at the bottom of posts

Regards,Arthur

One problem that your screen names suggests is the potential for confusion.
I've known several women called Rochelle, always shortened to Roche. It's not important but it can lead to misunderstandings. :)

[Rod Neep]

I do agree with all that as been said but never gave it a thought, I chose Roche to reflect the Cornish parish Icollect info for, as a sponsor of ACDB
I promise to behave myself and will sign myself at the bottom of posts

Regards,Arthur
>Oh dear does that mean I am on the not to be trusted list?
Nope :)
We know you ;-)

>I am a sponsor of ACDB and promise to be a good girl :)
That's OK then ;-)

>I use my name on other boards as my better half told me to. I always do as I am told.

erm.... I don't think I should respond to that :o

Cheers
Rod

[Londonwhay]

So what's my excuse? I prefer to feel I have some anonymity on a public forum, it's just the way I am. Anyone can see my profile I know, but meanwhile with a user name it also doesn't matter what my gender is.

And as for my user name - hard to track ancestors from London called WHAY and I liked the pun ;)

[John]

So what's my excuse? I prefer to feel I have some anonymity on a public forum, it's just the way I am. Anyone can see my profile I know, but meanwhile with a user name it also doesn't matter what my gender is.

And as for my user name - hard to track ancestors from London called WHAY and I liked the pun ;)

As long as a user name is neither offensive or threatening, I'm not that concerned but, and this is a big BUT, I have run mailing lists for a good few years and I know that there are good, experienced researchers out there who will not share information with people who hide their true identity. Not a fancy of mine but based on having recieved many messages over the years from people stating this most emphatically.

John

[Londonwhay]

As long as a user name is neither offensive or threatening, I'm not that concerned but, and this is a big BUT, I have run mailing lists for a good few years and I know that there are good, experienced researchers out there who will not share information with people who hide their true identity. Not a fancy of mine but based on having recieved many messages over the years from people stating this most emphatically.

John
Not me John. I am only a beginner at this game, I long to be at the point of knowledge where I can be of the same help to others as others have been to me. One day I'll get there. :)

[John]

Not me John. I am only a beginner at this game, I long to be at the point of knowledge where I can be of the same help to others as others have been to me. One day I'll get there. :)

I'm sure you will, but my point was that there may be a "Whay" researcher reading this thread at this very moment muttering into his beer that he won't share that information with somebody who hides behind an alias.

John

[Neil Reynolds]

I would have thought that Londonwhay was much better that John, for example, in trying to know that you're dealing with a specific individual as I suspect there are fewer Whays in London than there are Johns in the world.

Though obviously I don't believe you're hiding behind and alias John ;)

I still, therefore, think that there should be a display name as well as an id. Or maybe another field in the profile that allows a person to enter their real name (not compulsory, but recommended). That would get around the problem completely. Then the message list could show the real name if there was one or the id if there wasn't.

Neil

[John]

Neil, I think you've missed my point, some, especially older, people are intimidated by alias's.
And there may be a lot of folk called John in the world but there is only one me :)

[Jeanne]

This is the first time I've ever been able to use my own name on any group/list/forum. It's usually already taken and I'm left trying to figure out just *what* to call myself! :D .....Jeanne

[ivysdaughter]

Oh dear does that mean I am on the not to be trusted list? I am a sponsor of ACDB and promise to be a good girl :)

I use my name on other boards as my better half told me to. I always do as I am told.
hmmm, I've never given any of this a thought either. I really am 'Ivy's daughter' and am proud of it. So please trust me, I assure you I am above suspicion.

Regards,
Lynne Howick

[Guy Etchells]

I must have missed the part that asked for a name as my email address shows on each of my posts.
Cheers
Guy

[tfossey]

I don't want to hide behind an alias, I want my full name to appear on my posts. But on the other hand I want to use a short easy name to log in rather than having to type in my full name with capitals etc.

I use a lot of internet sites; shopping accounts, online banking, message boards relating to my interests - like this one, email, games sites, airline sites for flight reservations, hotel booking sites, etc. If I had to have a different user name to log into each one I could never remember them all, so I have just a couple that I use all the time. But on most sites they know/show me by my real name rather than by the user name that I use to simply login with.

So for me it's really an issue about 'ease of use' when logging in rather than trying to hide behind an alias.

Regards to all.

[Londonwhay]

I'm sure you will, but my point was that there may be a "Whay" researcher reading this thread at this very moment muttering into his beer that he won't share that information with somebody who hides behind an alias.

John
That would be his choice John There is nothing sinister about the majority of user names and I happen to like mine. Meanwhile as a compromise I am willing to sign off with my real name, but meanwhile Londonwhay stays. ;)

Glenda

[John]

That would be his choice John There is nothing sinister about the majority of user names and I happen to like mine. Meanwhile as a compromise I am willing to sign off with my real name, but meanwhile Londonwhay stays. ;)

Glenda

No compromise needed for me, all I've done is suggest why some people use alias's and some of the potential pit falls of doing so, that's the trouble with having a foot in both camps, you get shot by both sides :confused:

John

[frannw]

On systems such as this, one has a user name, (that you specified when you registered for the system) and that name stays with you for life.
You could try registering afresh using your real name.
Personal comment: I never could understand why people use "CB" type "handles" rather than real names on such systems (boards and mailing lists) anyway.
I registered using the name that I had used on many other sites. After reading the explanation for using your real name instead of something rather different, I tried to re-register using my name. Everything went fine until I gave my e-mail address. I was told that that e-mail address had already been used. I only have one e-mail address, so do I keep "frannw", or switch to "Frann Walker"?

Frann

[Londonwhay]

No compromise needed for me, all I've done is suggest why some people use alias's and some of the potential pit falls of doing so, that's the trouble with having a foot in both camps, you get shot by both sides :confused:

John
Many apologies if it sounded like I was gunning for you John, no upset was intended.

Glenda

[Snygyst]

On systems such as this, one has a user name, (that you specified when you registered for the system) and that name stays with you for life.
You could try registering afresh using your real name.
Personal comment: I never could understand why people use "CB" type "handles" rather than real names on such systems (boards and mailing lists) anyway.Hi Rod,
I love this new forum, easy to use and looks promising. Regarding my name try entering Snygyst in Google, then try "David Fisher".

[Rod Neep]

I registered using the name that I had used on many other sites. After reading the explanation for using your real name instead of something rather different, I tried to re-register using my name. Everything went fine until I gave my e-mail address. I was told that that e-mail address had already been used. I only have one e-mail address, so do I keep "frannw", or switch to "Frann Walker"?

Frann
Just keep it as it is :)

Rod

[John]

Many apologies if it sounded like I was gunning for you John, no upset was intended.

Glenda
Not upset Glenda, just confused ;)

[busyglen]

I must admit when I registered I wasn't sure what name to use here so I used a name I have used in the past and which is easy. But.....I guess I had better change, unless I have the same problem with my email address, which will probably be the case.

Glenys Puxty (aka busyglen)

[Patrisia]

I don't want to hide behind an alias, I want my full name to appear on my posts. But on the other hand I want to use a short easy name to log in rather than having to type in my full name with capitals etc.........

So for me it's really an issue about 'ease of use' when logging in rather than trying to hide behind an alias.

.

............and for me, it's a question of remembering which of the darned alias things I signed up with! I am happy with being known as

Patrisia (Carrington)

[Rod Neep]

And as I said at the start of this.... 1,000 people will have 1,000 different reasons for using the pseudomyms that they do. (And frankly, as administrator, I am not particularly interested in hearing those reasons).

But... would *you* trust someone who calls themselves something like [email protected] if they registered on your system? or [email protected] ?

I certainly don't! They are zapped. I don't care who they are. And I do that for the protection of the system itself and for the protection of users of the system.
Rod

[Londonwhay]

And as I said at the start of this.... 1,000 people will have 1,000 different reasons for using the pseudomyms that they do. (And frankly, as administrator, I am not particularly interested in hearing those reasons).

But... would *you* trust someone who calls themselves something like [email protected] if they registered on your system? or [email protected] ?

I certainly don't! They are zapped. I don't care who they are. And I do that for the protection of the system itself and for the protection of users of the system.
Rod
You are quite right Rod, I too would be worried about such user names. I had similar on a mailing list I run and in the end I had to move the mailing list to avoid these types, who often just want to strip email addresses in order to spam.

You've had lots of thanks for setting these forums up - here's another one for being on top of things - thanks. :)

Glenda