Walt Weston Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 What was the idea of closing down the options for choosing surnames for new members ? Now all new members have the same "surname" (Resident)?I liked the time much better when I started in sl, where we all had different surnames, and could choose from a list. My rl friend has had a break from sl and wants to come back. He says it is almost impossible to find a name, that isn't already occupied. He sat for over half an hour and has given up for now to join us again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innula Zenovka Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 I don't know what the idea was, and it's proved a pretty unpopular measure, and LL did say they'd look into reversing it, but decided this was impracticable. What your friend is supposed to do is choose any old username, so long as it's unique, and then create a Display Name of his choice. If it's any help, when creating alts I've discovered that it's still usually possible to create reasonable usernames by running first and last names together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa Tennyson Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 WHAT I KNOW: Avatars never actually had a true "last name" in the form of a word that was stored in their data. They had a "first name" which is up to 31 letters and then "last name" field which is actually a number which is looked up in a database. When you picked a last name you actually chose one of a range of numbers. My name is actually Theresa 10910. The datafield for a number is far smaller than a name - using the typical method of coding letters two letters take up the same space as over 64,000 numbers. This is why custom last names were very difficult to get - they had to be added to the central database. This also is why people who become Lindens can have their last name changed - the number is changed from whatever it was to "1" which becomes displayed as "Linden" and probably also grants them Linden powers. WHAT I SUSPECT: I first joined just weeks before "last names" were discontinued - note that my last name corresponds to 10,910. Databases in SL tend to become slow and unreliable when they have much more than 10,000 entries. I also assume a copy of the database needs to be loaded to the viewer. Over 10,000 people create new accounts in SL every day - the vast majority of them don't stay, of course, but they all need unique names. If they all got old-style database last names the database would keep growing until it started causing performance problems. I've created several alt accounts since the change and haven't had major problems with names. If you choose a first and last name for yourself that aren't that of a famous person or are extremely common and you make your username "FirstnameLastname" you've got a very good chance of getting that name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwalyphi Korpov Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 The resident who provided the previous content, if any, has replaced it with this generic statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innula Zenovka Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 That seems a very odd way of structuring the database. The way I would do it is store FirstNames, indexed with an integer, like the last names. Then, when people tried to create new names, I'd look in my first name table and add their first name if it wasn't already there. That way you only store each name once, and have a unique pair of keys -- FirstName.id and LastName.id -- to link to the UUID. You only need to store "Theresa" or "Innula" once, is what I'm saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasmin Helstein Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Qwalyphi Korpov wrote: The Lindens track when new registrants abandon the process. It seems that choosing a surname causes huge numbers to give up and leave. I can imagine that, if you were looking for a surname you had to find your way trough lists of names that came randomly. You just had to keep clicking until you saw a name you liked and no way to go back if you saw a better one on a previous list. Impossible to work with if you wanted a specific name. Not user friendly and rather time consuming. Anyway ... I'm still wondering if allowing the space as a character to separate the names in the system as we have it would not have made everybody happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Weston Posted October 7, 2012 Author Share Posted October 7, 2012 Thanks for your explanations, I understand that it is something technical that is the cause and something about not to put too much data in the server? Yes it is true that new members can find their own unique name to use if they put together a FirstnameLastname in one word, and then use a different display name. But I don’t think it is appropriate with two different names as tags. And as far I know, you can not use the search function to find a specific avatar by the person's display name alone. As a newbie you can - of course - also just call yourself John986766518352 Resident :smileywink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isilmien Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 I wondered about this, too, when I returned a short while ago. For some reason, I thought we all had a registrant number (a la ICQ), but chose our in-world name on top of it. I'd like to see surnames come back, maybe as large list rather than limited ones you can't back out of to find the one you liked better before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venus Petrov Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 You indicated that your friend was once a resident and decided to return. If they did not delete their account OR if they deleted their account within the last 6 - 12 months, they can submit a ticket to get their avatar back. It may not have a full inventory, but I know that it is possible to get one's avatar reinstated if one files a ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dilbert Dilweg Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Lol I just had some dude ask me to sell him one of my Older accounts with a dates 2005 or 2006 . Willing to pay 20,000 lindens for it lol. His excuse is he lost his due to a hacker...... lol My answer was " sorry not today buddy" or course lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perrie Juran Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Dilbert Dilweg wrote: Lol I just had some dude ask me to sell him one of my Older accounts with a dates 2005 or 2006 . Willing to pay 20,000 lindens for it lol. His excuse is he lost his due to a hacker...... lol My answer was " sorry not today buddy" or course lol. Yeah, really, what a cheapskate! Last I heard the going rate for a pre 2006 account in good standing was starting at around 250K lindens. The prices went down as the account got newer. But of course, A) The lab would cancel the account because the TOS does not allow the transfer of accounts. B) You are still responsible for the account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVeryFirst1488313959 Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Hey, I like this new naming system! It makes me the TheVeryFirst Resident. I get a lot of comments about that (giggles). I have my main account from 2007 and this one alt. My main account never uses display names and does not even show them. My alt, me, only uses display names and almost never displays real names. My reason was to see if one is better than the other. Well my alt has problems with lucky boards all the time because all I see is display names and lucky boards use real names. Sometimes I half to turn on real names to see who else is around the board with my same first name letter. I have never run into a problem with my main account not showing display names, never. So my test results are: real names 1, display names 0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwalyphi Korpov Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 The resident who provided the previous content, if any, has replaced it with this generic statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Qwalyphi Korpov wrote: So there's some hope that the same thinking that got rid of surnames will bring them back. What if the explanation, that getting rid of surnames was the result of thinking... was false? ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryanne Solo Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Weston Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Qwalyphi Korpov, yes you made that clear, but I was referring to TheresaTennysons answer, about 10,000 new people joining sl every day. Then it is hard to keep up with new surnames I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Weston Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 You indicated that your friend was once a resident and decided to return. If they did not delete their account OR if they deleted their account within the last 6 - 12 months, they can submit a ticket to get their avatar back. It may not have a full inventory, but I know that it is possible to get one's avatar reinstated if one files a ticket. Good to know Venus Petrov, but he left a couple of years ago, so his account must be totally deleted now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danicah Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Well i know somebody who got his deleted account back which he canceled about 2 years ago. And even if you have a calling card of someone who is gone since 5 or 10 years, you can still see their profile. So that means a cancelled account stays in the database forever. Right? And... I've read something like, choosing a last name would cause many people to give up and abandon their names... Well personally i doubt that. I think it was even more fun to have a surname. But in the old days there was No mesh, No Linden-Games, we had ugly avatars, and there was only an island where many people didn't know where the "exit" was. I remember seeing 3 months old avatars still running around on newbie island and they really had no clue. And if they made it to the mainland they got most likely hit on by vampires or some Roleplayers to join them. It scared people off. But LL doesn't see that. Compare SL 2009 to SL 2012. It sucked in the old days. Its much better now and more fun to be here. But yes, let's blame it on the surnames... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwalyphi Korpov Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 The resident who provided the previous content, if any, has replaced it with this generic statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perrie Juran Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Walt Weston wrote: You indicated that your friend was once a resident and decided to return. If they did not delete their account OR if they deleted their account within the last 6 - 12 months, they can submit a ticket to get their avatar back. It may not have a full inventory, but I know that it is possible to get one's avatar reinstated if one files a ticket. Good to know Venus Petrov, but he left a couple of years ago, so his account must be totally deleted now. Accounts remain in perpetuity in the database. One of our Historians may be able to reference the documentation (or correct me if I am wrong). As I understand it, this has to do with the way inventory is managed by the servers. You make Item A and give it to another Ava. For some reason in the data base if they completely 'erase' the account it borks that Item for any one who had a copy of it. Now why when an old account gets reactivated it may find all of it's inventory gone I don't know. Apparently the inventory gets 'unassociated' when the account is shuffled into the archives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryJane Sunshine Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 What other option is there? Or perhaps that's just the weak reason we were given. To pin point a step in the sign up process that's still presents the same issue now (just replace it with the first name woes) and remove last names completely (a unique option that was working perfectly fine since day one). It makes no sense, especially in retrospect. I can only hope it will be reversed in time. I think last names were an important step in creating your own unique avatar... mine means a lot to me. I know many people in the day who would create alt just to save a cool last name. Seeing people running around with Resident for a last name just makes the world feel more cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venus Petrov Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Walt Weston wrote: You indicated that your friend was once a resident and decided to return. If they did not delete their account OR if they deleted their account within the last 6 - 12 months, they can submit a ticket to get their avatar back. It may not have a full inventory, but I know that it is possible to get one's avatar reinstated if one files a ticket. Good to know Venus Petrov, but he left a couple of years ago, so his account must be totally deleted now. It would not hurt to try to get it reinstated, right? The cost is nominal. However, you are correct. It is up to your friend to decide how badly they might want a non-Resident surname. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Weston Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Thank you Qwalyphi Korpov, I think I got you quite right this time. And great you found that link. It seems that LL still is thinking about doing things better with the names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Weston Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Danicah wrote: "Well I know somebody who got his deleted account back which he canceled about 2 years ago. And even if you have a calling card of someone who is gone since 5 or 10 years, you can still see their profile. So that means a cancelled account stays in the database forever. Right?" So there is hope for my friend too I guess. But how does he do, he has to fill in a form or something I guess? Where can he find this. And what if he never has been a premium, does that matter for the help to bring his avatar back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryJane Sunshine Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Have your friend try to log into the forums. There's a link forgot your log in information? if he can not remember it. He'll be able to send an email to the original email account the account was set up under hopefully. If that's doesn't work use this. https://support.secondlife.com/create-case/ LL will verify from there if it is infact your friends account and help him further. His account status shouldn't have anything to do with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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