Forum Login Problem with Symbol in Username

[+Windstorm+]

This is NOT a request for assistance. I emailed GC HQ Support and they identified the problem, I was able to find a workaround, and I'm satisfied with how it was handled. This post is in case anyone else runs into a similar problem.

 

Usually I stay logged into the website and the forums, but over the weekend, some changes to my computer kicked me out. Not a big deal, I just entered my username and password. This worked fine on the website, but when I got to the forums, it told me I had an incorrect username or password. Since this was the same username and password I had just correctly entered into the website, I was pretty confused, but I did try changing my password a couple of times with no better results. When I contacted GG HQ Support, they suggested that it might be due to the symbol in my name and recommended changing my username. I wasn't quite ready to give up my current name, and remembering some of the other problems that those of us with symbols have had, I decided to try using the alternate URL % code thingies (I'm not a computer person, I don't know what they're really called) and entered my username as "Windstorm%2B" instead of "Windstorm+" along with my password. And what do you know, it worked!

 

GC HQ Support said that the engineers are investigating, so maybe it won't be an issue for anyone else. But if any of the rest of you with symbols have trouble logging into the forums, at least this will give you something to try.

[+Viajero Perdido]

7 minutes ago, Windstorm+ said:

they suggested that it might be due to the symbol in my name and recommended changing my username

 

!!!

 

That makes me imagine an airline suggesting you change your legal name because your current one won't fit into the booking form, or because they can't handle umlauts.

 

Personally, I've signed my geo-name many times more than my real one.  A geo-name deserves some permanence, no?

 

Anyway, glad you figured it out, and shared the secret.

[+niraD]

SICNR...

 

[+Windstorm+]

55 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

!!!

Well, it would have been a solution to my problem of not being able to log into the forums. Perhaps not a preferred solution, but a solution. And in my case, changing the "+" to a favorite number would have a relatively small effect on my geocaching identity, particularly because I wanted to be just Windstorm, but the name was already taken.

[+Viajero Perdido]

First they came for the extended-Unicode characters, and I did not speak out -- because I'm not even sure how to spell Unicode.

 

Then they came for the umlauts and acute accents, and I did not speak out -- because I chose a nice, friendly non-foreign-sounding name.

 

Then they came for the basic symbols on the number keys, and I did not speak out -- because I never saw the need for them in user names, but whatever.

 

Then they came for spaces in user names -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

[wandrewlust]

Hello!

It looks like we've fixed the issue. @Windstorm+ if you need assistance getting the symbol back in your name please contact me again through email. 

All the best, 

Andrew

[+Windstorm+]

1 minute ago, wandrewlust said:

Hello!

It looks like we've fixed the issue. @Windstorm+ if you need assistance getting the symbol back in your name please contact me again through email. 

All the best, 

Andrew

Thanks, Andrew! I never actually changed my name, just what I typed into the login box, so everything is good on my end!

[+Harry Dolphin]

51 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

First they came for the extended-Unicode characters, and I did not speak out -- because I'm not even sure how to spell Unicode.

 

Then they came for the umlauts and acute accents, and I did not speak out -- because I chose a nice, friendly non-foreign-sounding name.

 

Then they came for the basic symbols on the number keys, and I did not speak out -- because I never saw the need for them in user names, but whatever.

 

Then they came for spaces in user names -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

Yes.  I've never understood this.  First Name space Last Name.  That's how the world works!  (Well.  Except for here.)  

[+Hynz]

8 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

9 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

First they came for the extended-Unicode characters, and I did not speak out -- because I'm not even sure how to spell Unicode.

 

Then they came for the umlauts and acute accents, and I did not speak out -- because I chose a nice, friendly non-foreign-sounding name.

 

Then they came for the basic symbols on the number keys, and I did not speak out -- because I never saw the need for them in user names, but whatever.

 

Then they came for spaces in user names -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

Yes.  I've never understood this.  First Name space Last Name.  That's how the world works!  (Well.  Except for here.)  

On the contrary coming from the dinosaur age of IT *I* never understood why anything other than letter and number ASCII character (even Space is borderline to me) were accepted as part of a *username*. 

So actually, no, first they allowed fancy stuff without thinking if this might not be future proof or universally adoptable.

[+david&diana]

We had the same problem with the forums last weekend. Typed in david%26diana instead of david&diana.

[+niraD]

The biggest problem I've had with usernames has been with systems that insist on capitalizing the first letter (i.e., "NiraD" or "Nirad" rather than "niraD").

 

But what I find frustrating is when passwords don't allow certain characters. I've worked at places that enforced a requirement that passwords had to include at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one digit, and one special character... except that there were several special characters that you couldn't use because the system couldn't handle them properly. That was frustrating.

 

Anyway, the system should properly handle usernames so that any username that one is allowed to create will be handled properly everywhere in the system.

[+dprovan]

7 hours ago, Hynz said:

On the contrary coming from the dinosaur age of IT *I* never understood why anything other than letter and number ASCII character (even Space is borderline to me) were accepted as part of a *username*. 

So actually, no, first they allowed fancy stuff without thinking if this might not be future proof or universally adoptable.

:-) I was thinking the same thing about restricting user names to ascii alphanumeric, but I decided not to rock the boat and didn't want to seem smug...or obsolete. (Of course, part of my thinking is the assumption that there's be a simple ID we use to login, but we'd generally be identified to others with a separate name that's more flexible.)

 

That's no excuse, of course: they do allow everything, so the code has to work. I'm glad this was quickly fixed. As I recall, earlier problems along this line took longer to deal with.

 

23 minutes ago, niraD said:

But what I find frustrating is when passwords don't allow certain characters. I've worked at places that enforced a requirement that passwords had to include at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one digit, and one special character... except that there were several special characters that you couldn't use because the system couldn't handle them properly. That was frustrating.

That's my second biggest pet peeve, right after having to change my password every month. The last time this happened to me, at least they explicitly listed which punctuation characters were allowed. The first time I ran into "must have a punctuation character, but only one we like", I had to guess that the innocuous punctuation character I was using wasn't supported. How can anyone say "must have punctuation" and then not allow period? Isn't that, like, the first punctuation character people think of using?

[+niraD]

8 minutes ago, dprovan said:

How can anyone say "must have punctuation" and then not allow period? Isn't that, like, the first punctuation character people think of using?

Maybe they consider a period (decimal point) to be part of the "numbers" characters, rather than part of the "punctuation" characters?

[+Hynz]

On 10/4/2019 at 6:20 PM, dprovan said:

That's no excuse, of course: they do allow everything, so the code has to work. I'm glad this was quickly fixed.

It might be fixed regarding the login but you just need to click on the forum name above of "Windstorm+" for a proof that other things in this respect are not fixed for years.

[+K13]

On 10/3/2019 at 5:46 PM, wandrewlust said:

Hello!

It looks like we've fixed the issue. @Windstorm+ if you need assistance getting the symbol back in your name please contact me again through email. 

All the best, 

Andrew

When I click the Windstorm+ name block in this thread I get a 404 error. When I click the @windstorm+ block in your post, I get a 404 error. I'm not sure what was fixed.

[+Windstorm+]

5 minutes ago, K13 said:

When I click the Windstorm+ name block in this thread I get a 404 error. When I click the @windstorm+ block in your post, I get a 404 error. I'm not sure what was fixed.

 

What was fixed was me not being able to log in to the forums unless I typed my username as "Windstorm%2B". Now I can log in using my regular username.

 

I'm not seeing the 404 error (and they fixed the issue where clicking on my name took you to the "Windstorm" profile instead of "Windstorm+") so I'm curious, do you get the same 404 error when you click on the david&diana name block? They were having the login issues over the weekend as well.

[+K13]

5 minutes ago, Windstorm+ said:

 

What was fixed was me not being able to log in to the forums unless I typed my username as "Windstorm%2B". Now I can log in using my regular username.

 

I'm not seeing the 404 error (and they fixed the issue where clicking on my name took you to the "Windstorm" profile instead of "Windstorm+") so I'm curious, do you get the same 404 error when you click on the david&diana name block? They were having the login issues over the weekend as well.

No issue when clicking "david&diana" name. They are Charter Members, so I'd expect their name to work, having been in the system for so long. Maybe their "&" symbol is one originally accepted by the Forum software?