Your Display Names and the Challenge Of 10 Million Members
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Or we could get a Sorting Hat and do it that way!
Excellent suggestion! :-D
Will Rogers never met me.
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Maybe some sort of sliding scale: if you have less than 1K rep points, your account is retired after 18 months of inactivity; 10K for five years; 100K for 10 years; etc. Of course, that means Griff's account would still be alive and kicking at the heat-death of the universe. :)
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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I've been around for over 9 years now and unless you get a ton of up votes your points don't rise very quickly.
With an average of 37 messages per year, I'm not surprised! ;P I've posted an average of 210 messages per year, most of which have been utter rubbish. Griff's posted an average of 5547 per year, almost all of which involve sheep. Plus an average of 2669 QA answers per year. Not forgetting 2245 comments, 12 tips, and 1 article. The point is, the more time you waste spend on the site, the more points you're likely to pick up. And when you get more points, you get ... well, a higher score. Which is nice. If you like that sort of thing. If it makes you feel any better, open your profile page[^] and press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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With an average of 37 messages per year, I'm not surprised! ;P I've posted an average of 210 messages per year, most of which have been utter rubbish. Griff's posted an average of 5547 per year, almost all of which involve sheep. Plus an average of 2669 QA answers per year. Not forgetting 2245 comments, 12 tips, and 1 article. The point is, the more time you waste spend on the site, the more points you're likely to pick up. And when you get more points, you get ... well, a higher score. Which is nice. If you like that sort of thing. If it makes you feel any better, open your profile page[^] and press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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For new members it's hard to get a display name that's your actual name. Almost impossible. However, we have tons of members who really don't care if their name is the same as someone else's name. I was thinking that it could be interesting to open up Display Names so that you can choose whatever name you want, even if it's been taken by someone else, with a small cavet: If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray. Each time you contribute, or each time you change your name, your name is checked against the list and if you're account is the only account with that name that has made a contribution then your name is yours and is unlocked to accept HTML, and will (by default) be displayed in a dark font. Thoughts?
If this is your biggest problem to solve today, you should take a long well earned vacation. I'm with Griff on this one, by all means recycle unused accounts, but otherwise let the users solve their own problems. I'm pretty sure John Smith has encountered this problem before and has a solution for it.
Politicians are always realistically manoeuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers. Buckminster Fuller
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For new members it's hard to get a display name that's your actual name. Almost impossible. However, we have tons of members who really don't care if their name is the same as someone else's name. I was thinking that it could be interesting to open up Display Names so that you can choose whatever name you want, even if it's been taken by someone else, with a small cavet: If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray. Each time you contribute, or each time you change your name, your name is checked against the list and if you're account is the only account with that name that has made a contribution then your name is yours and is unlocked to accept HTML, and will (by default) be displayed in a dark font. Thoughts?
Let me offer a simple solution. Example using My name: User request's David C# Hobbyist You could suggest C# Hobbyist, David. Simple but elegant. :)
David
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I get it can cause problems, but I'm looking for some creative solutions. If this is a problem too hard for our collective intelligence, so be it. But I think it's not.
If you disallowed it, would someone be able to change their name to (for example) this?
Chris MaunderIMHO, I think display names should be plain text and unique. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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For new members it's hard to get a display name that's your actual name. Almost impossible. However, we have tons of members who really don't care if their name is the same as someone else's name. I was thinking that it could be interesting to open up Display Names so that you can choose whatever name you want, even if it's been taken by someone else, with a small cavet: If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray. Each time you contribute, or each time you change your name, your name is checked against the list and if you're account is the only account with that name that has made a contribution then your name is yours and is unlocked to accept HTML, and will (by default) be displayed in a dark font. Thoughts?
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Or we could get a Sorting Hat and do it that way!
Someone would end up with "11 7/8". Dave
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For new members it's hard to get a display name that's your actual name. Almost impossible. However, we have tons of members who really don't care if their name is the same as someone else's name. I was thinking that it could be interesting to open up Display Names so that you can choose whatever name you want, even if it's been taken by someone else, with a small cavet: If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray. Each time you contribute, or each time you change your name, your name is checked against the list and if you're account is the only account with that name that has made a contribution then your name is yours and is unlocked to accept HTML, and will (by default) be displayed in a dark font. Thoughts?
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And letting people set their display name to "Chris Maunder" (ignoring @jeron1[^]'s "Chris<space><space>Maunder" trick) will make it easier to spot that they aren't you? :confused:
Eminem didn't write:
I'm Chris Maunder, yes, I'm the real Maunder! All you other Chris Maunders can just take a wander. So would the real Chris Maunder please stand up? Please stand up. Please stand up.
I've already got my coat.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
Damnit, that was hilarious.
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For new members it's hard to get a display name that's your actual name. Almost impossible. However, we have tons of members who really don't care if their name is the same as someone else's name. I was thinking that it could be interesting to open up Display Names so that you can choose whatever name you want, even if it's been taken by someone else, with a small cavet: If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray. Each time you contribute, or each time you change your name, your name is checked against the list and if you're account is the only account with that name that has made a contribution then your name is yours and is unlocked to accept HTML, and will (by default) be displayed in a dark font. Thoughts?
You'e a bit late to all this aren't you Maunder? A quick search for me shows 2 imposters with identical spelling. 164,269 and 4,796,628.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I'm not serious, I'm Marco. Well, you can't be really sure if I am really Marco, since my account is not verified. Just call me Marco.
Veni, vidi, caecus
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With an average of 37 messages per year, I'm not surprised! ;P I've posted an average of 210 messages per year, most of which have been utter rubbish. Griff's posted an average of 5547 per year, almost all of which involve sheep. Plus an average of 2669 QA answers per year. Not forgetting 2245 comments, 12 tips, and 1 article. The point is, the more time you waste spend on the site, the more points you're likely to pick up. And when you get more points, you get ... well, a higher score. Which is nice. If you like that sort of thing. If it makes you feel any better, open your profile page[^] and press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
Yeah, but that one... Converting numbers to the word equivalent.[^] :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
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Chris Maunder wrote:
If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray.
Chris, clearly you don't understand what gray is associated with on CP. May be a nother color but not gray. Thanks.
"Coming soon"
I think I have a fairly solid understanding of what gray is, and how it may, for instance, motivate someone to pick an actual unique name instead of sticking with a used name. However, there are those that really wouldn't care. And that's fine.
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If you disallowed it, would someone be able to change their name to (for example) this?
Chris MaunderIMHO, I think display names should be plain text and unique. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
The rules we use would be the same as we use now: comparison between a new name and an existing name is done by collapsing whitespaces, removing HTML and replacing "similar" characters (eg characters in other alphabets that look like English characters). So Chris&Maunder would be marked as gray (and probably have an icon next to it showing it's a fakey).
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Veni, vidi, caecus
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For new members it's hard to get a display name that's your actual name. Almost impossible. However, we have tons of members who really don't care if their name is the same as someone else's name. I was thinking that it could be interesting to open up Display Names so that you can choose whatever name you want, even if it's been taken by someone else, with a small cavet: If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray. Each time you contribute, or each time you change your name, your name is checked against the list and if you're account is the only account with that name that has made a contribution then your name is yours and is unlocked to accept HTML, and will (by default) be displayed in a dark font. Thoughts?
One of the reasons I went with my Display Name, was because my real name was already taken[^] a loooong time ago and I didn't want to do something like this[^]. Anyway, I like my Display Name and would not change it, but I imagine there are people who would like to get a chance to use their real names. Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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For new members it's hard to get a display name that's your actual name. Almost impossible. However, we have tons of members who really don't care if their name is the same as someone else's name. I was thinking that it could be interesting to open up Display Names so that you can choose whatever name you want, even if it's been taken by someone else, with a small cavet: If you haven't contributed a message or article, question or answer, your display name is plain text and it will be displayed in gray. Each time you contribute, or each time you change your name, your name is checked against the list and if you're account is the only account with that name that has made a contribution then your name is yours and is unlocked to accept HTML, and will (by default) be displayed in a dark font. Thoughts?
Please, no. thanks, Bill
"What Turing gave us for the first time (and without Turing you just couldn't do any of this) is he gave us a way of thinking about and taking seriously and thinking in a disciplined way about phenomena that have, as I like to say, trillions of moving parts. Until the late 20th century, nobody knew how to take seriously a machine with a trillion moving parts. It's just mind-boggling." Daniel C. Dennett
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The rules we use would be the same as we use now: comparison between a new name and an existing name is done by collapsing whitespaces, removing HTML and replacing "similar" characters (eg characters in other alphabets that look like English characters). So Chris&Maunder would be marked as gray (and probably have an icon next to it showing it's a fakey).
I'm very much pro that fake icon. Could we also get a Display Name history in the profile? Sometimes it's hard to keep track on who's who. Or should I post this in sugs'n'bugs?
Politicians are always realistically manoeuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers. Buckminster Fuller
