Changing Usernames

[Selene Gregoire]

40 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

THIS ^^

As a scripter, I know that I have to be really careful when I change a variable that is referenced in any way by other scripts.  I can imagine the nightmares that might be created if Linden Lab let you change your username but didn't realize that the change would mess up something that seems totally unrelated .... like your role in a group, or whether you are visible by friends in world, or whether you are still in some parcel ban lists.....  Names are in loads of unexpected places, and SL has a ton of cross-linked databases in its servers.  If I were in Linden shoes, I would want to be very sure that I had found all the major tripwires before leasing an update to something this important.  The downside risks are huge.

It shouldn't make a difference as long as the UUID doesn't change. Which would break hundreds of scripts that use UUID.

[Cam Mode]

So "Cammode123456oregon  Resident" wants to be, well me, if my name was free.   But "number Cam" or NC as we'll call him  has sold things on MP, has active groups he started, loves to RP.

He pays what LL wants in the future, say 5 bucks,  for Cam Mode as his name . (May not be allowed even if free since Mode was a legacy LL last name)

Oh he looks FINE  now at the dances, "elegant name tag" the  Frank's hostess whispers .

But she's his ex- gf -- will she know it's him? She should be able to tell, easily.

What will his creations  say : made by Cammode123456oregon  Resident aka Cam Mode?

How to search for new him  in MP  or regular people search?

Groups- name space visually  limited- can both be listed?  NC started groups- people need to find him.

NC likes RP - so has display names going half the time - how can that show in groups?

I think new folks should be able to get last names. But existing I don't see how getting a whole new name  would work. 

 

[Rolig Loon]

2 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

It shouldn't make a difference as long as the UUID doesn't change. Which would break hundred.s of scripts that use UUID.

I agree,  it shouldn't.  However, there's a world of difference between  "it shouldn't" and "it doesn't"  Again, if I were wearing Linden shoes, I would want to be double/triple/multiple sure before rolling out an update like this. Just balance the risks.  The downside of NOT making any change ... you continue to have some people ticked because they don't like their names.  Considering the things that people can be ticked about, the name issue is small compared to, say, lag. The downside of making a change .... you miss something that results in an unforeseen screwup in the asset/permissions/experience/accounting systems and you have a major PR problem, possible legal issues, and loss of revenue.  From where I sit, the balancing exercise favors doing nothing unless you are as sure as possible that there are no major uncovered risks.  Until then, put your money and resources into projects that have a smaller downside risk and a greater upside potential.

[Madelaine McMasters]

6 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Linden shoes

[Selene Gregoire]

21 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

I agree,  it shouldn't.  However, there's a world of difference between  "it shouldn't" and "it doesn't"  Again, if I were wearing Linden shoes, I would want to be double/triple/multiple sure before rolling out an update like this. Just balance the risks.  The downside of NOT making any change ... you continue to have some people ticked because they don't like their names.  Considering the things that people can be ticked about, the name issue is small compared to, say, lag. The downside of making a change .... you miss something that results in an unforeseen screwup in the asset/permissions/experience/accounting systems and you have a major PR problem, possible legal issues, and loss of revenue.  From where I sit, the balancing exercise favors doing nothing unless you are as sure as possible that there are no major uncovered risks.  Until then, put your money and resources into projects that have a smaller downside risk and a greater upside potential.

The keyword there was "shouldn't".

Name issues are important as names are what people are known and identified by, by others. "Hey, you!" doesn't cut it in a crowd of people in SL. No one can tell who Hey You is.*

I don't disagree with you for the most part. LL has always listened to those who yell the loudest and longest. The rest of us just have to try to deal with the aftermath. RedZone was the one time I know of that LL finally, in the end, listened to the playerbase as a whole and not just a small group of dissidents. And that is only because LL was outnumbered and outgunned for once. I doubt that will ever happen again, unless another zFire Xue comes along.

 

 

*Yes, there are IMs but it gets old having only one on one convos when there are thousands of people running around inSL.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Selene Gregoire

[MoiraKathleen]

It's just speculation on my part, but even if every single reference in the system was by UUID and not the username variable, I believe that there is still an 1-to-1 expectation by the system. Just think of how many things where you only need to put the person's username and it just works.  I am speculating that for other than one-of changes, LL would want to keep a history of usernames associated with a UUID, and that there would be functionality so that one could use an account's prior name - for example, if I didn't know that Rolig had changed her username, I would expect that I should still be able to share a NC with "Rolig Loon" and that it would still go to her account even though her username was something else.   When you start thinking about use cases such as these, than the complications can start to build up.  I would also speculate that even if some of these use cases were not implemented, that they would still need to be thought about and considered when making a change as big as this - it's not something to be too narrowly focused with.

[Qie Niangao]

6 hours ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

They changed the username for an alt of mine with an ill-chosen name in 2011.

Wow. I see that.

I do believe I've been spreading errant lore. "The scrolls lie!" says I.

Thanks and point well made.

[LittleMe Jewell]

Oz specifically said that the original coders never envisioned a name change, so many things were coded using the Name rather than the UUID Key of an account. Thus, almost the entirety of SL code has to be touched for the Name Change - and that is most definitely not an easy task.  Touching pretty much every bit of code also means lots and lots and lots and lots of testing.  

[Selene Gregoire]

15 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Oz specifically said that the original coders never envisioned a name change, so many things were coded using the Name rather than the UUID Key of an account. Thus, almost the entirety of SL code has to be touched for the Name Change - and that is most definitely not an easy task.  Touching pretty much every bit of code also means lots and lots and lots and lots of testing.  

Thank you. I had forgotten Oz said that. 

I wonder what it would take to introduce a "new system" that could co-exist with the "two current" systems. Sort of how they were able to bring in no last names without taking away last names from people who had had them for years.

Probably be more work than it's worth for LL. 

I think I'll just accept that it's not going to happen so that IF it does, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Arielle Popstar]

Oz specifically mentioned caches a few weeks ago as being the issue, which to my mind makes sense as a name change will hit on an existing cache file and generate an Unknown Name/Unknown User error because of an UUID username mismatch. After all, the name change itself is easily done in the database(s) which will populate those areas that directly query it but that wouldn't happen with the caches. Each cache that would contain the old name would have to be cleared and reloaded which is not a major problem for a one of like Lyssa Greymoon mentioned but when it starts to involve potentially hundreds per day for both the viewer of the one changing their name as well as those of friends etc, as well as sim caches, marketplace and who knows what other caches S/L uses, it could be a lot of data refreshing hitting the main servers to reload affected caches.

Probably would require a lot of code writing to both the servers and viewer to allow for that as well as having to be very careful of not opening a vulnerability between a legitimate name change versus a hacked attempt.