Max. Number Of Characters In Forum Username

[Forum Posting Privilege Revoked For Doing Nothing More Than Hosting a Civil Conversation.]

I recently changed the username I use for posting to the forums to one that contains 41 characters. Gc.com accepted the change without a hitch.

 

I notice that all of the old posts I made to these forums also correctly display the 41-character username, but when I attempt to log into the forums using it, I receive an error message that the username is too long.

 

I realize the simplest solution would be to truncate the 41-character username, but I was wondering whether the username is actually too long, (because the username apparently updated properly on old posts), or if the field length for the log-in name is simply set too short in the forum software?

[+sbell111]

Interesting question and I hope you get an answer that is meaningful to you. That being said, that's a really long name. Are you trying to make it hard for people to disagree with you?

 

'Antidisestablishmentarianism was completely wrong on that issue and should be formally shunned by the group',

 

or

 

'Can we have an ignore feature so I don't have to read Antidisestablishmentarianism's posts?'

Edited May 4, 2005 by sbell111

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I recently changed the username I use for posting to the forums to one that contains 41 characters. Gc.com accepted the change without a hitch.

 

I notice that all of the old posts I made to these forums also correctly display the 41-character username, but when I attempt to log into the forums using it, I receive an error message that the username is too long.

 

I realize the simplest solution would be to truncate the 41-character username, but I was wondering whether the username is actually too long, (because the username apparently updated properly on old posts), or if the field length for the log-in name is simply set too short in the forum software?

Not only is your name too long, you wrote it backwards

[Forum Posting Privilege Revoked For Doing Nothing More Than Hosting a Civil Conversation.]

Interesting question and I hope you get an answer that is meaningful to you.

Thank you. A factually accurate response would be sufficient.

[Jeremy]

I'm assuming that since you clicked on "discuss" on geocaching.com and it didn't crap out on you that the database insert worked fine. That would mean that the login is just restricting the number of characters through html.

 

However it is better not to have such a long name. I'm not saying you can't have one but it can get confusing or annoying, depending on the circumstance.

[Forum Posting Privilege Revoked For Doing Nothing More Than Hosting a Civil Conversation.]

... That would mean that the login is just restricting the number of characters through html.

Yes, that is as I expected. I would think fixing the field length in the forum log in would be a simple task, but if not, I suppose the number of characters allotted for geocaching.com usernames should be restricted to match the forum software.

 

I agree that shorter usernames are more practical, but that doesn't really address the problem.

[+The Leprechauns]

The problem is one of history. The Geocaching.com website has allowed longer names ever since it went online in September 2000. But we've gone through about a half dozen versions of forum software, ending with the very sucessful switch to the current Invision Power Board software in November 2003. The forum software was installed "out of the box" and it has some limitations built into it, including things like truncating long usernames, not allowing private messaging to usernames with special characters, etc. The cache website and the forums reside on different servers. TPTB had to customize things a bit in order for the forums to accept the login info. from the website. I'm amazed it works as well as it does! However, that's no consolation if you have a long username, or one with an "&" in the middle of it. But at least it hopefully explains why things are different between one place and the other.

[Forum Posting Privilege Revoked For Doing Nothing More Than Hosting a Civil Conversation.]

The problem is one of history. ... The forum software was installed "out of the box" and it has some limitations built into it ... TPTB had to customize things a bit in order for the forums to accept the login info. from the website. I'm amazed it works as well as it does! ...

I'm aware of the history; I'm sure newer members will appreciate that information.

 

I agree that the forum software and geocaching.com software 'cooperate' fairly well, but your post does mention that a certain amount of customization was necessary in order to successfully achieve that level of 'cooperation.'

 

I suspect the number of people affected by the problem mentioned in the OP is quite small, so while the problem probably wouldn't be terribly difficult to eradicate (and would almost certainly affect far fewer people than were affected by the "special character" issue), I suppose it might not be worth the time and effort to correct.