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Possible name change


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This has probably been asked before.

 

I know that our account names cannot be changed because of the new software update last year.

 

Could I create a new account in my proposed new name then relog all my finds?

 

Also how would I transfer the coins and TBs I own into my proposed new name?

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Or ask a mod to change your name for you? I know you can't change it yourself any more but I'm pretty certain if you ask nicely it can be done for you.

 

I say "Popcorn King" B)

As Simply Paul said, it can't be done - not even by Groundspeak. However re-logging all your finds and "Adopting" your TB's & Geocoins is quite in order.

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The no name change rule is possibly the biggest glitch that has occurred since I have been involved with caching.

 

I am no programmer but I wouldn't have thought it would take a genius to devise a method by which the account name can be changed in one click, and for that matter show a record of all previous incarnations. If they can do it on the e place, why can't they do it here?

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I guess that the logs of when you have moved other ppl's TBs would have to stay in the original name.

 

Incidentally I'm one of those who did change their name before this became impossible. This resulted in only one problem - that trigpointing UK gets a bit confused.

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Here's the official announcement

 

It's s shame because as Dorsetgal and GeoDog say... there surely must have been a way to accomodate this facility beyond the cut-off date. I think this was a backward step, and what additional 'tools' have become available since?

Jon

 

The site was originally on Hobby/Garage coding which allowed the changing of user names. When the site transferred to commercial coding, with all parts of the site more tightly integrated. The ability to change user names was no longer viable and so the ability had to be removed. It's all part of the work going on to make the site more stable, before we go onto version 2.

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Here's the official announcement

 

It's s shame because as Dorsetgal and GeoDog say... there surely must have been a way to accomodate this facility beyond the cut-off date. I think this was a backward step, and what additional 'tools' have become available since?

Jon

 

The site was originally on Hobby/Garage coding which allowed the changing of user names. When the site transferred to commercial coding, with all parts of the site more tightly integrated. The ability to change user names was no longer viable and so the ability had to be removed. It's all part of the work going on to make the site more stable, before we go onto version 2.

 

Yet, for example, Lloyds Bank will change your account name if say, you get married, and I'm sure that's not running on garage/hobby code.

 

I'm not a programmer but surely your user name is no more than a field in a database? So a change should be easy?

 

Not that I mind, I've no intention of changing mt caching name..

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It depends on which system is used to provide the security for the accounts.

 

Where I work, we use two systems currently for user names. One of the systems likes a unique sequence of characters and these can NOT be the same as anyone else's on the system. So when there is a name change so like when someone gets married it is a big deal to alter accounts. So we generally don't allow it.

 

The other system has what's called a GUID (Global Unique Identifier) behind the accounts. So whether my account is scottpa100, or pa100scott or 001apttocs the GUID of, I dunno 12345-ABC-XYZ is still behind all them no matter what I change my display name too. And it is the GUID that the system actually refers to. The user name is just the 'friendly name' for us mortals to look at and understand.

 

We're currently moving over to making the user name on the second system to be the main one so that name changes can be easily accommodated and for the older system, people are just going to have a number. This does mean though people will have two separate distinct user names and two sets of passwords to remember!

 

Just putting this information in because on the outside it is easy to assume, but programmers often have to work with systems that platform developers put in and you just end up having to work with certain limitations.

 

And I'm not a programmers, I don't wear sandals, I don't have a pony tail and I don't know all the scripts for all the series of Star Trek, the Next Generation! :D

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Sorry folks I'm No tekkie so only know what has been posted in the main forums about this issue but I believe it has nothing to do with security and more to do with the Database. You have to remember banks have a large amount of support staff who have the time to make the changes, whilst Groundspeak has a small No of staff with finite time and resources.

 

As for Version 2, this will be a much improved version of the site with a lot more features [sorry your guesses are as good as mine :lol:] and will be a lot more stable.

 

I believe that this comment by Jeremy should help explain things

 

As we have been moving into an extensive re-architecture of Geocaching.com to keep up with the ongoing traffic increases we have been faced with the reality that we need to raise more money. This will help us to create a permanent solution to the site slowdowns that have plagued us for so many years - aka our V.2 version of the web site.

 

:D:D

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Version 2 will use more of the Waymarking engine and use back end integration with that part of the site to bring Waymarking and geocaching together.

Waymarking has been designed with scalability in mind from the outset.

I think thier major headache is bringing the history on GC over to the new V2.

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As a programmer of 32 years standing (eek, that makes me, er, old), I'm surprised that the name of an account isn't just an attribute with the GUID (etc) being the key, especially since it used to be that way.

 

Back to Wizzie's question: there's no problem to do this, but I would recommend that you include a note in the log to the effect of "this is Wizard1974uk relogging my finds under a new name", so that the cache owner doesn't think you're making some random fake claims. You can alwaye edit the log a minute later once the e-mail has gone out, if you really want to erase all traces of your old persona.

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The site was originally on Hobby/Garage coding which allowed the changing of user names. When the site transferred to commercial coding, with all parts of the site more tightly integrated.

 

I'm not so sure about this distinction - to my mind "hobby/garage" is often much better written than the commercial stuff...

 

Yet, for example, Lloyds Bank will change your account name if say, you get married, and I'm sure that's not running on garage/hobby code.

 

No, it's not "garage/hobby code" - but does that mean it's any better? :D

 

Baz.

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