Change account name?

[kate]

I've purchased a pack of Player Edition licenses for my group and am trying to decide whether I want to ask them to return the license if/when they stop using it (by setting the email to mine and giving me the password).

This is a bit of a compromise between the "full ownership" and "GM ownership" models described in the FAQ, since I'm perfectly happy for them to keep using Realm Works in games other than mine, but would rather not see the license go to waste if they leave the group and then stop using Realm Works entirely.

If a player does "return" the license, would it be possible for a new player to change the account name, or is that stuck?

I can't find an option to change my account name anywhere in Realm Works (and might want to do that regardless of what happens with Player Edition since I had problems setting up my account and am not too fond of what I ended up with).

 

[Acenoid]

Maybe you should name the account after yourself ? E.g. Kate_p1..... kate_pn

Then it would be clear to the players, that you would like to keep the account.

Also you could offer an email address in "mail forwarding" mode the players email adress from one of your websites/free mailers you control. That way you could also keep "security" in place if the player just leaves your group, but they would receive all the relevant mails, while they are in your group.

EDIT: RW doesn't ask for an email confirmation after changing the email therefore the solution above is not fool proof. The player could just change the email. So you can only hope to get an account back if the person agrees as well.

 

[kate]

That would be a good idea if I were going for the full "GM ownership, loaned to players" model. But I'm not looking to loan accounts to players. I'm perfectly happy to give an activation key to my players and have them finish the campaign, join another group, and keep using the account I paid for in the new group. It's if they stop playing entirely, or join a group that doesn't use Realm Works, that I would like to ask them to sign over their account so I can pass it on to a new player.

I don't want the first player, who uses and enjoys RealmWorks, to be stuck with account kate_p1 in their new campaign. Nor do I want the new player to be stuck with whatever account name p1 came up with (eg BobLoblaw, rogue4life).

It seems like it's easy to gift an account, and easy if a bit risky to loan an account, but a pain to make a conditional gift, at least where account names are concerned.

 

[Exmortis]

I think once you give that to another player and they register it, its theirs, it does not matter who paid for it. It would be a nightmare for LWD or any company to try and track things to that granularity. Same idea as if you bought a gifted a game to someone on Steam, you cannot ungift it back.

Acenoid's idea is pretty slick and really your only alternative.

At the end of the day your gambling with $6 per person, even if one does leave, your out less then a Raunchy Ronald Rotgut happy meal.

 

[Acenoid]

Actually I noticed that my suggestion is not fool proof.... Realm works does not ask for email confirmation when changing the email (I just tested that). Sorry :&

 

[rob]

I'm sorry to say that account names are set in stone once created. That detail is spelled out during the account creation process, and there are no provisions in place for letting users change their account names. If you look at other services out there, do they allow you to change your account name? I'm not aware of any that do (although somebody probably does somewhere). That being said, if you truly had problems getting your account setup for some reason, and that's the reason you ended up with a name you dislike, contact support and we'll do our best to figure out something.

It's impossible to create a system that is perfect for everyone. That's just a reality of every piece of software in existence. We listened closely to the feedback we received on our forums over the past 18+ months about how this should be structured. We chose a solution that would make the most users happy, but it sounds like you're not in that group. Unfortunately, for a tiny team like ours, we have to focus our energies on the big features that the majority of users want, and we don't have a solution for what you're trying to achieve.

Maybe the best approach is to choose account names tied to your world instead of your name. That will personalize it in a way that won't really be readily transferable, but it will provide a modicum of separation from you personally. It seems like a potentially viable "middle ground" that would encourage players to return the license if they leave your game, but it would still be a reasonable account name for use in the realms of other GMs they might choose to play in.

Hope this helps!

 

[Parody]

If you look at other services out there, do they allow you to change your account name? I'm not aware of any that do (although somebody probably does somewhere).

I did a quick survey of "things I log into on occasion". (Some more occasional than others. :)

On many services account control name and user identity name are separate concepts. Here they're the same, so in the following the first answer is for "login name"/account control and the second is "screen name"/user identity. I've tried to pull up a mix of social, software, and other. I put some gaming ones up top that people here might know.

Gen Con: Yes, Yes. (The registration system, which has some provisions for controlling friend and family accounts.)
Paizo.com: Yes, Yes.
Roll20: Yes, Yes.
d20Pro: No, Yes.

Facebook: Yes (primary email) and Yes.
Twitter: Yes (@whatever) and Yes.
Google: Yes and no; Yes. The primary email of a Google Account created for a GMail address cannot be changed. The primary email of Google Accounts created with other email addresses can be changed.
Microsoft: Yes; Yes.
Yahoo!: No, but allows aliases that hide your primary ID; Yes.

Adobe: Yes; Yes.
eBay: Yes. You lose your feedback if you change your user ID.
Steam: Yes, Yes.
Collectorz: Yes; Yes. They sell database software for things like book collections; their software comes with free cloud syncing if you want it.
vBulletin Installs: No, but can be added or concepts separated via mods. (Admins can change usernames already, but by default users can't do it themselves.)
phpBB Installs: No, but can be added or concepts separated via mods.

Maybe the best approach is to choose account names tied to your world instead of your name.

kate: without any new features, I think the best approach is to consider player account purchases a permanent gift or make the players pay for them. Then you don't have to worry about it.

With new features there's adding the ability to change the account name and/or separating the concepts of login and screen name. For the ownership issues there's guest users (like the virtual tabletops), admin accounts that can change info of subsidiary accounts, or even giving the Player version away for free. All things you could float in the Requests forum.

There's also the eventual web client, which was planned to be free for players anyway. Depending on your situation, time might solve this issue for you. :)

 

[AEIOU]

Once we have the marketplace, I want to be able to associate good content with names and I want to be able to associate garbage with names. Especially if I am paying for that garbage.

I'm opposed to name changes, but may I'm missing something. Are there any really good reasons to be able to change your username?

 

[Parody]

I'm opposed to name changes, but may I'm missing something. Are there any really good reasons to be able to change your username?

Yes, especially while account control and identity are tied together.

For many reasons people can change and no longer like or want the name that is on an account they now control. Maybe it's because you were given an existing account with a name you think is stupid (as in kate's example). Maybe it's because you've become wiser and no longer think that l33t name is cool. Maybe it's because you no longer want to be known by that name due to real-life issues. (I've seen accounts named "ABCandXYZ" become "ABC" or "XYZ" or even "JKL" on more than one occasion. Usually tragic ones. :(

Would you rather let people no longer happy with their identity+login name for whatever reason change to something they can live with and keep at least some of the goodwill they've otherwise acquired from their creations or force them to create new accounts and return to neutral? Don't forget that currently they'd have to repurchase Realm Works and any content their old account owned if they want a new login+identity.

Outside of Realm Works, the main one I can think of is changing email addresses. My sister used to change hers once a year or so, and a lot of services use email as their access control. Things she couldn't move to new email addresses she abandoned, leaving people wondering what happened to her.

Personally I'd like people to use their real names more often for things they create and things they say. I'd rather you all think of me as Mike or Michael, not Parody. I'd rather know you all as your names instead of "string of vowels" or "no longer a dead horse". But since you can't separate screen names and identity easily, I've done the best I can by putting my name in my signature and in my signature at every forum site I frequent regularly despite most of them using login names that cannot be changed as your main identity.

I also accept that most people don't believe as I do, and that some situations require more anonymity, and that forum software usually doesn't help you separate account control and identity, and that in the grand scheme of things the stuff we talk about on Internet forums is not all that important. Ah, well.

 

[rob]

Alright, I was woefully incomplete in my statement regarding changing the account name, and I'm apparently also woefully out-of-date with my information regarding account names. Early last year, I looked at a number of significant services to see what they were doing, including a number of those on your list, and I don't remember any of the ones I looked at allowing the account name to change at that time, unless the account was actually tied to the email address (which is a problem for use, as outlined below). So it seems policies may have changed.

To get into the gory details, we have two main problems with account names. First of all, based on feedback from users, quite a few are in situations where multiple members of the same household share the same email address and need to have completely distinct user accounts. These are often family members that play in games run by parents/siblings/spouses/etc. Many of the services cited above tie their accounts uniquely to an email address, so the "name" is nothing but a display value. We don't have that luxury if we want to use the same email address across multiple accounts. So things get more interesting (read: messy).

The biggest issue, though, is exactly what @AEIOU cited above. If users can change their account names, then the content market becomes highly suspect. Garbage can be released under a myriad of different names. However, this issue extends beyond the content market. Jerks can remain anonymous behind account names and change their "identity" in order to get into games after gaining a reputation for being a jerk under a previous name. By allowing identities to be changed, we make it easy for jerks/trolls/asshats/whatever to ply their art and make the entire community less enjoyable for everyone else. That's something I do NOT have any desire to do. The best way to solve it is with accountability, and the best way to do that is by not providing a revolving door of fake identities for these folks to hide behind. Users get one identity and their reputation is earned, either good or bad.

When looking at these drawbacks, there needs to be an offsetting, positive justification for allowing account names to be changed. So, to repeat what @AEIOU asked above, are there any really good reasons to be able to change an account name?

 

[rob]

Argh! I wrote the above post and got derailed by something before I actually submitted it. When I came back and realized it was still sitting there, I just posted it. And then I see there's a lengthy post from @Parody in between. So I'll respond to that post separately now.

There's an old adage about "one bad apple" that we're all familiar with. On the internet, there seems to be a pretty consistent ratio of "bad apples" to "good citizens". The problem is that those few bad apples really do have a dramatically negative influence on the experience for all the good folks. I want to make it as hard as possible for someone to be a "bad apple", but I also realize that we don't have the resources to hire a staff to police things like all the big boys. So some difficult tradeoffs have to be confronted.

If we make it easy for someone to change their identity, we make life easy for the bad apples, and I just can't stomach that idea. So readily changing account names is not a viable option from my perspective. @Parody, you've identified some exceptional cases where a justification can be made to change an account name. But those cases are extremely uncommon, and some of the cases you cite aren't likely to arise given the nature of how Realm Works operates (e.g. couples sharing an account).

If someone truly feels that they have a compelling reason to change their account name, they can contact us and present their case. The one advantage of being a tiny company is that everything around here is handled on a pretty personal level. We don't have a bunch of drones handling support from another country where labor is dirt cheap. And we aren't so huge that all the rules are dictated by someone "on high" and enacted by powerless staff a dozen levels down the org chart. So if someone does have a compelling case, there's always the option for us to work with them and figure out something. The rule forbidding account changes means that we have solid grounds for denying a request, but we always have the latitude to make exceptions where merited. The real world is incredibly grey, and we have to adapt as the situation dictates. Most importantly, I believe we can do that while NOT making life easier for jerks.

Hopefully, that all seems reasonable to everyone. Now I really need to get back to all the work that's waiting for me.

 

[Parody]

Many of the services cited above tie their accounts uniquely to an email address, so the "name" is nothing but a display value.

Not true for this analysis. In my list above, if the first/only answer is Yes and the user-facing string that controls the account is an email address, you can change the email address. The second answer is the identity name, the value displayed to other users.

The issue arises on sites like forums and Realm Works and others (including practically everything not that long ago) where the account control name and the user's identity name are the same.

Parody, you've identified some exceptional cases where a justification can be made to change an account name. But those cases are extremely uncommon, and some of the cases you cite aren't likely to arise given the nature of how Realm Works operates (e.g. couples sharing an account).

For Realm Works I think co-authors are more likely. (Yes, one of the many examples for the last was a couple who created things together. I've had some not-so-imaginative handles in the past, and seen plenty more. :)

 

[Farling]

"An account name is for life, not just for Christmas"

 

[AEIOU]

It's a hard life lesson but usernames are digital tattoos. What you say and do on the internet is linked to you forever.

Shared accounts are like marriages and marriages are like Slurpees -- sweet and satisfying at first but sometimes you end up with a painful brain freeze and there's nothing you can do about it. I'd recommend avoiding shared accounts no matter how cute they might look. Marriages on the other hand are great -- caveat emptor, baby.

For couples working as a team to publish, there may be business names available from LWD that lump several authors under a single umbrella name. If people plan to sell their material, they may wish to do so as a business rather than as an individual.

A compromise might be that Player Edition names can be changed as often as your underwear since they have no impact on the Marketplace. Unless they can leave comments or rate things in which case I would want them to be unchangeable as well to prevent astroturfing or trolling.

 

[kate]

A change in account name doesn't have to mean a change in identity.

Many websites that let you change your display name, including the paizo forums and steam, also have a user profile where you can look up a user's past posts or game achievements. Changing your name doesn't erase your personal history from the profile. Imgur even has a reputation score attached to your profile.

If the content market had a profile with previous content and reviews or reputation score, that would make it even easier to keep people accountable for their last products, because you wouldn't have to remember what content a particular user produced and whether that content was good or bad. You could also keep track of the user's comments and ratings to prevent astroturfing or trolling. And that profile could remain constant even if the username was changed.

Real-world nicknames change commonly enough without an identity change. I used to go by Katie in high school, but as an adult I prefer Kate. I expect there are people who used to go by "Dick" who now prefer "Richard."

Changing account names with a constant profile might even decrease anonymity. I, like Parody/Michael, am increasingly willing to use my real name online and have changed my steam name to reflect that. If I'm stuck with the account names I set in high school, it's an alias.

In fact the reason I don't like my current Realm Works name is that I tried to set it as "Kate" and received a vague error message during account creation. I assumed that there was already a "Kate" so I tried an alias I'm outgrowing. Turned out I'd mixed up which email address had Kickstarter beta access attached, but when I fixed the email I forgot to change the username back to "Kate." It's not a big deal now but I expect it'll grate on me more and more over the next few years.

As for the player edition accounts, I have decided to simply gift them.

I appreciate your interest in this issue, Rob, and your general commitment to communication. I hope you will consider allowing easier account name changes by incorporating a profile to keep account identity consistent/transparent.

 

[Farling]

A change in account name doesn't have to mean a change in identity.

Many websites that let you change your display name, including the paizo forums and steam, also have a user profile where you can look up a user's past posts or game achievements. Changing your name doesn't erase your personal history from the profile. Imgur even has a reputation score attached to your profile.

Unfortunately a change in account name does mean that you have to go searching the account to see what they've produced previously, whereas remembering the fixed account name is a lot easier to produce a lasting impression on whether an author is good or bad.

 

[Parody]

Unfortunately a change in account name does mean that you have to go searching the account to see what they've produced previously, whereas remembering the fixed account name is a lot easier to produce a lasting impression on whether an author is good or bad.

Or you could click on their name in the list of stuff you've bought, assuming what they produce is good enough that you've purchased (perhaps for free) something they've created.

 

[kate]

I expect YMMV on that point based on your memory for names. I don't remember who wrote novels or directed or produced movies I didn't like unless they're remarkably bad and/or very well-known eg the Star Wars prequels. (EDIT: I also don't remember the creators of things I like unless I like them a lot - I remember titles.) A profile check also doesn't have to take long. If the user's Realm Works content is prominently displayed it would take tops a few minutes to follow a link and scan the list. That's like reading reviews before buying something.

If it's still important to streamline recognition, you could:

1. display a reputation score next to the username, which helps you spot people with a generally bad reputation regardless of your personal experience with them.
2. allow a user to flag products they like or don't like and the accounts associated with them regardless of display name, which means you can remember creators you personally like or dislike even if you have a bad memory, like me.
3. do what Paizo does and store the original account name separately from the current display name ("alias"), with the original account name immediately visible by mouseover text. This would be a little like me saying "My name is Aisling Maceachthighearna, please call me Ash."

You do have to weigh convenience to those who wish to change their common term of address (and those who may need to actively facilitate that) against convenience to those who want to check a person's posting history. I think a compromise could be found where the former is a bit more convenient than "you have to email someone and request a special exception." But I also have no idea how the content market is supposed to be set up and how profiles etc might be implemented - so I'm making suggestions in the hope that one of them is useful.

 

[DaFranker]

I will weigh in for the name-changing here as well. The technical issues aren't that big or complicated (well, assuming LWD is either 1: Good at migrations if using relational DBs, or 2: Good at unit testing and writing robust document modification code if using something like MongoDB) compared to some other feature requests, so public identity vs usefulness becomes the real issue.

So on that, here's a quick and dirty list of techniques I've seen used (or used myself) related to this. Note that I don't necessarily endorse or recommend them, and some I would actively protest against.

1. Keep and display a list of previous aliases. e.g.: Steam does this. Can still be confusing for the user in many cases if used on its own.
2. Keep track of every single time any user sees any other name; which name, where, when. When a name is changed, flag it for every user that has seen a previous name of this user, and show them a message to bring the name change to their attention next time they see the (new) username. I hope I don't have to explain the performance and data-complexity issues. No one has ever used this with more than 100 users, AFAIK.
3. Notify everyone the next time they see the new username, whether they've seen the old one before or not. This can lead to a storage requirement scaling by O(i*n^2) in the worst case, but the nominal space remains insignificant compared to the oodles of data RealmWorks is already handling.
4. Have separate username and display name. Looooooots of places do this. Easy, simple. Doesn't help the user identify authors at all. Confuses the hell out of everyone when a user changes names frequently.
5. Use a "karma score" to maintain accountability throughout name changes.
6. Ask users to create a different, separate, unique, unchangeable, tied-to-primary-key "Publisher Name" which will be displayed for any content they publish, and which they can use (or must use?) for comments / discussion regarding this content.
7. Make the display name / username changing process slightly more difficult / less convenient. This makes use of the well-known phenomenon of "trivial inconveniences" where humans demonstrably do something a lot less if there's even one trivial inconvenience they have to deal with first before they can do it (sometimes better known as the opt-in/opt-out dilemma).
8. Require a total wipe of the user's profile / public persona / all content. Please no.
9. Require moderator approval. Long processing delays.
10. Public announcement of every name change in some visible place, like a front page.
11. Let users "flag" accounts for themselves, as per Kate's suggestion above. Flags persist for the account, not the username.
12. Let users "flag" accounts or content for moderator attention.
13. Show content bought from this author previously.
14. Let users easily see the "Account Name" somehow, while only showing the Display name by default, again as per Kate's above and what some places like Paizo's website do.
15. What Wikipedia did. Anyone can clean up the garbage and elect themselves to receive a warning whenever changes are made to something. More suited to a wiki format than a marketplace format, obviously, but maybe something can be learned from it.
16. Somewhat similar to requiring moderator approval: Only change usernames through a support request. For bonus points, demand that they actually send an email directly to support (rather than use the support ticket form everything else uses), and that they explain the reasons why they want to change their username.

 

[Acenoid]

Just use the users an id from the DB which is probably permanent already. If ppl want to remember old content they should remember that ID usename can be freely choosen. Just pick the ID row from the database

When browsing the content market you can browser by ID as well as "current" username.