Bitcoin Forum

Within last couple of months, a few users have changed their username. This creates a confusion. For example, today when I check the Spam Buster Club thread, I just had surprised that how can the thread creator be changed. I used to know who the creator is but he is not the one there. For a moment, I forgot that theymos sometimes changes username on request. Now, if someone had business with an user of the forum and came back after a long time, how much confuse will he be? What do you think? Is it a good idea to allow changing username? I do not oppose it but it seems it may create issue in future.

I think a change in username should be allowed as long as their own username keeps attached to them like in their forum profile it can be shown their old username or their old username profile link redirects to their new username profile.

I think it's a good idea to able to change username. The spammers and scammers are exceptional, majority of users would love to use it to change their usernames for good reasons like if it's name revealing etc.

Nah, that guy sacrificed 50 BTC and "VIP" title for the name change: (jk)


That's the problem. There are many spammers and scammers who aren't being tagged. They can leverage the username change feature to change identities and then continue their dirty work.

In general, I think changing username shouldn't be allowed. This is a forum, not a game - where you can freely change your character's name.

If Username change was allowed to be done by anyone. There would be too much chaos and mayhem and scammers would use it to their advantage to confuse some other members.

For example they would make a deal or an Ann,  scam someone then change the username just before a scam accusation is made and this would confuse the victims.

I believe Theymos receives so many requests to change usernames but he probably does the favor for a few reputable and old members who might have genuine reason to change their usernames without having to donate that 50 BTC first.

Its never a good idea man. I rather not see people with multiple personality disorders posting.

Easy for scammers to "run" too. Imagine seeing a theymos_original with a bunch of negative reps.

Few users have been granted that request by theymos and we all knew that reputation is also part of this decision and if you are an established member of this forum. However, some exception could be made like this case:


Likely its a case to case basis and depends on theymos judgement.

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_{But like others point of view.  Changing username could do some confusion and harm to such situation like potential scam deal}

I don't think that username change is something that is done easily/hastily. Not in this case, and not in those cases few months ago. AFAIK, all those that got their name change request approved were long standing and reputable members on the forum, that wanted to change the name for various reasons. Some random spammer can submit request for name change, but I honestly think that chances of him getting positive answer are slim to none (unless he churns out 50 BTC).

It's confusing in a community, but since it doesn't happen that often, I think we can manage :)

My main concern is how it complicates my Trust list viewer, which relies on my list of usernames.

Maybe the OP didn't point out the problem clearly enough. I and some people in this thread thought that he was mentioning about username change in a massive scale. Yes, if username change must be submitted as requests and needs approving from admin then it's fine, although some jealousy may arise. Anyway, my point remains, username change shouldn't be allowed.

As long as it is done with discretion from yhe admins, then username change is not a big issue and would not have a negative effect on the community in terms of scam evasion.
However I would suggest an official log on such changes stating clearly the old username and the new one. I believe something of this sort was done by a member, I don't know if it's still updated. An official list will be more accurate. So any user who is unsure of who they're dealing with can visit such thread to check if any changes were made on the profile.

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Something like:

Old username	New Username	User id	Date of change	Forum rank
_________________	__________	____________	___________________	____________________
xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx

This would solve this issue and it will due to the low number of name change requests that are sent and accepted, it would be fairly easy to keep updated.

If some member has previous transactions and didn't interfere with anything, I think. it's okay. It's going to be weird at first, but they can immediately connect the dots if they have a different username. It doesn't affect so much unless that person managed to scam people and then just changed the username. That's highly unlikely, though.

The user we are talking about here has a good background history in this forum and change of name isn't something that happens often. Theymos only do that for users with good background if I'm correct.
Maybe a log would help or a tag on such user's profile.

That could be a great feature to have here in the forum but your reason is enough already to not allow to change usernames here in the forum :).

It could create confusion to other users even if the username change is recorded the forum just work out something with the username, and could also create web bugs in the websites because of the trust list history We just don't know if it could handle it.


I thought of something like that too but I think the forum just works this way, and even if we did that it will still go to create confusion. A unique user ID or ID number could do it but we already started without it.

Another thing is a lot of users here in the forum might abuse this feature.

Every profile has a unique user id, it's the last digits on the profile link.
Your profile link - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1136961
Your user id would be - 1136961
Even if the display name is changed the Id number remains the same.

Oww yeah, I forgot about that ;D my mistake!

Still doesn't recommend since the ID number is not recognizable and we don't use it more often to identify a user, its more likely the username so it should not be change :).

@asu did an "experiment" before where he tried to re-register a username of an old account. Impersonation was the real danger here but it looks like the recreating of accounts has been taken cared by the admin.

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Don't forget to insert sarcasm  ;D

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Something like this "TheBeardedBaby formerly iasenko" ? If so, what's the point of changing username?

Changing usernames doesn't change the link to the profile.

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There was a list before but some members opposed it.
 

The main concern if anyone can change their username of course they will change it frequently as they want. I know we can use a codes to limit it to prevent abusing feature. but let's thinking about something negative such as scamming possibility, when member want to scamming people and have similar activity with real account, they can use this feature. Even we have a list of member who make a change, i believe not all member will read that thread.

And some member already proven if theymos accepted member to change their username, but you need to meet requirement. What requirement? I don't know much about that. Maybe one of them as mentioned by @krislaw in this posts

That idea ended here:

If someone wants to publish their name change, they can simply put it in their personal text.

An easy solution would be to show userIDs instead of user names in trust.txt.xz (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5104467.0), but unfortunately it hasn't happened yet.

Lol, was not that a joke? I can not see him VIP tag on his profile.

It is not about any certain user, it is not about iasenko or any other user. I created this topic in general for the discussion of impact on changing username.
Theymos reason behind the idea is good although.

I don't think that changing the username will be allowed if there are more members here in the future but a person who has been actively using the forum for years should have the right to change his username for various reasons. Theymos previously expressed his thoughts on this issue and said that he rarely allows some members with special reasons to change their usernames for now.

There are two types of names on the forum:

• Username
• Display name

Theymos only changed display name whilst username is unchanged and plays as identifying indicator for each user on the forum. See (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5216451.msg53569598#msg53569598). If people have some concerns on their privacy and theymos feel fine with their requests after investigation, why do we have to care about it too much?

In addition, only display names are changed after the day users are granted but their past posts if quoted by the others still contain their ex-username (ex-display name, more correctly).

I can say one thing, if there are any good reasons to change your username, you can do so.
Sorry to cause so much trouble to some people, especially to LoyceV and suchmoon. Hope you didn't get headache because of me :)

It can be confusing and users changing their name has got me a couple of times in the past, but I'm not against it. In fact, I've suggested it several times as a perk for a new donator rank if they ever get implemented (much like VIPs can do so anyway). It can be beneficial as they're are genuine reasons why someone would want to change their name, but it being seldom done is probably unfair to others who don't get the privilege. That's why I suggested it as a donator perk as people can just pay the fee without having to hope an admin will do it.

I agree that sometimes it can be confusing when one of the more famous members changes the display name, and I have to admit that I was quite confused a few times until I didn't even know it was possible to do so. While I understand that some people have a need to do so for privacy reasons, I still wouldn’t completely agree that changing the name is something that should be made so easy (or maybe I’m wrong in that regard?)

What I would suggest when there is a change of name is that the new name should be followed by the old name, of course written in a smaller font and not too emphasized to be confusing. So at least there would be some time period in which everyone else could get used to or become aware that this is the same user who just changed the name. Of course, those who do that to protect their privacy could be exempt from this, if they could prove it.

I love recycling the same topic with the same ideas over and over, it is really constructive to re-re-read it every couple of weeks.
No offence :-\

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Edit: more spam and recycled posts please, thanks.

If this is the reason then the user who changed the display name or the whole username can create an reputation thread regarding the changes they made so old user can use the search function to find the old member with the new name but apart from this name changes are not necessary for everybody.

In my own opinion, having a chance to change username in this forum isn't good because they can probably escape to any accusation  upon their they changed their username.

Example if some user of this forum scammed someone  and after that they got changed their username it might be a little confusing to recognize who's the scammer is.

To remain our identify here as long time user of this forum we must not change our username to avoid confusion to other user's here.


It's just my own opinion about this topic.

You are right because changing username is the worst idea and make confused others.
And I have a question,Why anyone have to change his username after registration? Or if he changing it to make others confused ?

I found from unofficial rules about changing username


Again changing username can influence scamming in this forum.

I don't see an issue with it. I actually wish I had handle it better when I first noticed it, not that I went off the deep end or anything. When the first couple were trickling in this year, or at least the first few i noticed anyways, I was actively and consistently trading with an individual. It tripped me up as I was looking through my PM's to send them a PM to set one up , then I looked at my feedback to link over and that's when i clued into the change. Being impatient I created a reputation thread about it more so to discuss this event than anything.

So for fears of old trading partners just leave accurate feedback, and you should be fine. Doesn't mean the slough of other precautions shouldn't be taken before trading.

That thread brought some of the great benefits to users requesting the name change. Some it was for security/privacy, others it was due to now lucrative employment opportunities available. Not many of us i'm sure gave great consideration to what our forum name was going to be or where being a part of this community could lead us.
This is also a need to request feature that is subject to approval by theymos. So I don't imagine "Hey man, I need to dodge this valid scam accusation" is going to cut it.

^{In addition to that suggestion of yours mate.}

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I think everybody agree that there are some confusion on these cases and some dont mind. What if there is a new added option(for those usernames have changed) in the user's profile section which stated that he changed his username (free or via vip donation) and that portion is  clickable to everybody and set to view the old username of the user.

This option is set to be active for a certain period of time, lets say 6 months more or less, until everybody who knows that user Y changed from X and anyone who have done transaction or deal will not be confuse as if where is X? At least by this, there is a transition and not absurd to everybody. Just a suggestion.

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_{It bypass privacy of that user showing his previous username but for everybody concern its not bad addition for me}

Well, if you're coming back after a long period, you can still search for the user in the members search page (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=mlist;sa=search) by the old username that you're familiar with - as tranthidung said, only the display name changes, not the username. The result will be the new display name but, given the fact there is only one result, IMO it's obvious that it's him even though the display name is different.

I don't even oppose this either, it will surely bring about more scammers to Bitcointalk forum. Please I think you were to say ANY at this line

Aside from the confusion and threats it may bring, it was so expensive :o! This is also one of the main reasons why changing one's name is unnecessary. Imagine how so impractical to spend 50 btc just for minimal changes. Maybe it would be more interesting if it will be in exchange for merits lol. I'm not against luxurious spending but of course much better if he spend it to more purposeful stuff like investing and helping the needy.

I wonder what could be the "good reason" to change username? Can you give few example? Username is just an internet name. I doubt that someone call you Bearded Baby in real life :D So changing one username to other is something weird.

I dont understand why even in real life people change names, for example from Jack to Jones. Seems stupid. (Not only if your name is Gaylord "Greg" Focker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_the_Parents) and you change it to Max Powers)

That would break the idea if they wanted to change the username for privacy or so. Anyway. I really do not get there could be more reasons to change the username other than having fun.

It is an user, not any.

Locking the thread.