Searching for avatars, confusion with names and keys

[Mar Scarmon]

People often leave me note cards to get on a wait list, or I receive payment or donation in SL Accounts page, or they rent from me and a certain name shows up in Casper Rent but their profile shows something different.  Then later when I go to search for them to communicate with them using the normal SL search tools, I can't find them, or 20 avatars have a similar name.

So my question is, can I search for Avatars using their key?  Or what is the best way to keep track of customers so that you can communicate with them, later?  The whole avatar name thing seems very confusing.  Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

[LittleMe Jewell]

14 minutes ago, Mar Scarmon said:

People often leave me note cards to get on a wait list, or I receive payment or donation in SL Accounts page, or they rent from me and a certain name shows up in Casper Rent but their profile shows something different.  Then later when I go to search for them to communicate with them using the normal SL search tools, I can't find them, or 20 avatars have a similar name.

So my question is, can I search for Avatars using their key?  Or what is the best way to keep track of customers so that you can communicate with them, later?  The whole avatar name thing seems very confusing.  Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

If you know the UUID, then you can get the Avatar's current name using the scripting function llKey2Name (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlKey2Name).  It will not give you all of their pervious names - only the current name.  The function llName2Key will do the opposite -- give the Key/UUID for a Name.

If the user has changed their name over time, you'll have to keep track of mapping back to original names yourself.

NOTE that it is based on avatar username / legacy-name -- not the 'Display Name'

Edited February 1, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell

[Rolig Loon]

2 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

you can get the Avatar's current name using the scripting function llKey2Name

It's a bit more complicated than that, because llKey2Name only works if the person you are looking for is currently in the same region.  The more general solution is to use llRequestUsername, which works no matter where the person is and whether she is logged in.  Still, the point is that if you have the proper script, you can get a name from a key.  It's also possible to write a script that will help you figure out when two names that you are curious about actually belong to one person who has paid for a name change.

Edited February 1, 2021 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[LittleMe Jewell]

39 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

It's a bit more complicated than that, because llKey2Name only works if the person you are looking for is currently in the same region.  The more general solution is to use llRequestUsername, which works no matter where the person is and whether she is logged in.  Still, the point is that if you have the proper script, you can get a name from a key.  It's also possible to write a script that will help you figure out when two names that you are curious about actually belong to one person who has paid for a name change.

I checked my object inworld that gets me usernames for keys.  It is 'llRequestUserName'  - I wonder why the region one keeps sticking in my head.  

On another note -- the worldwide one for getting Key from a Name is llRequestUserKey (in place of the region one of llName2Key).

[Rolig Loon]

1 minute ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I wonder why the region one keeps sticking in my head.

When I began scripting in LSL, we had only llKey2Name.  If you look at a lot of older scripts, you'll see that function used a lot in places where we would use llRequestUsername today, simply because we had no other choice.  

[LittleMe Jewell]

13 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

When I began scripting in LSL, we had only llKey2Name.  If you look at a lot of older scripts, you'll see that function used a lot in places where we would use llRequestUsername today, simply because we had no other choice.  

Maybe that is why I always remember that one first. 

Now that I think about it, didn't the new world wide functions come about specifically due to the Name Change ability.

[Prokofy Neva]

The problem with all of this is that it doesn't matter if you get the avatar key -- you can't use the avatar key to search with.

There is a scripted device that gives you the avatar key for anyone in SL. This is useful in copyright protection scripts, for example. There are likely other use cases, but searching with it is not one of them.

I believe there was a time when plugging the avatar key into the regular people search turned up their profile. That no longer works. It's been blocked or deprecated or whatever -- it does not work. When you do it, you turn up an odd grab-bag of responses that are merely avatars who might have some of the sequences of letters in the key -- but not that exact avatar.

Because of broken search, this problem identified by Mar has now escalated. If someone has hidden themselves from search, and hasn't joined the group, and you search for the name and find 5000 returns -- as you do now, with broken search on the regular SL viewer -- you simply can't find them to tell them to join the group to prevent prim returns.

It's very frustrating and I run into this several times a day. They need to fix search. Perhaps someone will find a way to pull up avatars by their keys -- their keys go on to rental boxes to enable them to get a refund, so you can get the key either from the rental box or their chat or payment to you as well, it is in a chat message that comes to you -- you don't even need a device to find it. But it's useless as things stand now.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Maybe that is why I always remember that one first. 

Now that I think about it, didn't the new world wide functions come about specifically due to the Name Change ability.

The avatar key should remain the same even if they change their display name or change their name totally by the new option, no? But is this why you can no longer plug avatar keys into search and get a coherent result?

[LittleMe Jewell]

6 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The avatar key should remain the same even if they change their display name or change their name totally by the new option, no? But is this why you can no longer plug avatar keys into search and get a coherent result?

Yes, the key remains the same even with a name change.  That is why LL added the scripting function  'llRequestUserName' - so that merchants & others could always get the current name associated with a user key.  

I don't think I've every used the Search tool using a user key to find a person, so I have no clue when that stopped working.

[Prokofy Neva]

11 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Yes, the key remains the same even with a name change.  That is why LL added the scripting function  'llRequestUserName' - so that merchants & others could always get the current name associated with a user key.  

I don't think I've every used the Search tool using a user key to find a person, so I have no clue when that stopped working.

The point is, there is no reason to get an avatar's key *to find them* as the OP was hoping to do. Because there is no script that uses the key to pull up the IM box. Not that I've ever seen anyway.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The point is, there is no reason to get an avatar's key *to find them* as the OP was hoping to do. Because there is no script that uses the key to pull up the IM box. Not that I've ever seen anyway.

If someone left the OP a notecard last month to get on a wait list for something - as mentioned in the OP - and by the time that person's name come up for availability the avatar had changed their name, then when the OP looks for that person, the name cannot be found (even if Search was working properly).  The OP could however use the scripting function to get the key associated with that old name and then use the other scripting function to get the new/current name associated with that key.  Then the OP could contact the person to tell them that they are finally at the top of the wait list for whatever.

A search on the Key will not pull up a name for IM, but the scripting function will give a name which can then be used to IM the person.

[Prokofy Neva]

8 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

If someone left the OP a notecard last month to get on a wait list for something - as mentioned in the OP - and by the time that person's name come up for availability the avatar had changed their name, then when the OP looks for that person, the name cannot be found (even if Search was working properly).  The OP could however use the scripting function to get the key associated with that old name and then use the other scripting function to get the new/current name associated with that key.  Then the OP could contact the person to tell them that they are finally at the top of the wait list for whatever.

A search on the Key will not pull up a name for IM, but the scripting function will give a name which can then be used to IM the person.

OK, once again, I know all that.

The problem is that when you have an avatar key, there is no way to search for it. There are scripts to give you name2key. But you need a script to *use that avatar key and pull up an IM box*. 

Not search. Because the whole problem is you have this name that does not turn up a search result. Either because the person has hidden their name. Or it is in a very long list of returns (such as is the case with many search terms now with broken search).

An avatar key cannot pull up an IM box to IM them. THAT is the problem. It's not about finding new versions of names. Or finding the UR-key with changed names. It's using that key to directly IM them.

[Mar Scarmon]

Can any of you tell me how I can use this script llRequestUsername in-world?  I want to enter an avatar key or UUID and get a real useable name in response.  I found the script under Wiki, but what do I do with it?  Do I install it in a prim?  Then what?  

Thanks for your help 

[Rolig Loon]

16 minutes ago, Mar Scarmon said:

I found the script under Wiki,

Do you mean the example script at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlRequestUsername#Examples ?  

17 minutes ago, Mar Scarmon said:

what do I do with it?  Do I install it in a prim? 

Yup, the same as any other script.  A script has to be in an object in world to run.

17 minutes ago, Mar Scarmon said:

Then what?

Then replace the word llGetOwner() that's in the spot that says llRequestUsername(llGetOwner());  with the UUID that you're interested in, like so:

llRequestUsername("953d10f1-44ce-462a-8bc1-f634333ee031");   (Don't forget the quote marks)

And click SAVE.  The script will say the name you are looking for in chat.

[Prokofy Neva]

On 2/2/2021 at 9:46 PM, Rolig Loon said:

Do you mean the example script at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlRequestUsername#Examples ?  

Yup, the same as any other script.  A script has to be in an object in world to run.

Then replace the word llGetOwner() that's in the spot that says llRequestUsername(llGetOwner());  with the UUID that you're interested in, like so:

llRequestUsername("953d10f1-44ce-462a-8bc1-f634333ee031");   (Don't forget the quote marks)

And click SAVE.  The script will say the name you are looking for in chat.

Mar may feel she has an answer to her question, which may merely be about taking the key off a rental box to then find the person in a group they have joined. Or a contest they entered. That is, it's just a matter of looking in a list where they will appear with their real system name, not their display name.

But once again, I have to point out, this script DOES NOT connect you to them. It merely gives you their name.

Any payment will have an IM with the avatar's UUID in it, or it will be on the rental box. But if they haven't figured out to join your group on their own (I don't have bots inviting people), and YOU CANNOT FIND THEM IN SEARCH BECAUSE SEARCH IS BROKEN, how the hell can you reach them? 

You can't.

A script that returns a name alone, that is not hypertexted or linked to pull up an IM box, cannot help you reach them. You are left with having to find them in search. If search is broken and they have hidden their avatar from search what's more, you have to wait for them to contact you, or catch them on their lot inworld. 

With search broken, I was hoping to find a script that would connect me to an IM to an avatar once I have their key. But regardless of whether they are hidden from search or not, with thousands of returns sometimes, there's no hope.

They need to fix search.

And if there is a way to use a key to pull up an IM box, great. Likely this is blocked, to prevent spamming or unwanted contacts. But it also prevents you from reaching *a person who has paid you* to give them the service they paid for. That function should not be blocked once there is a payment event.

[Prokofy Neva]

Oh, actually I finally found a script that does that last step and provides a clickable link to reach the avatar after you have the key.

ArtiZan Avatar Finder

I hadn't noticed before after paging through scripts of all kinds of prices that I already had (name2key), reading bad reviews, seeing that they required the avatar to be on the same sim and present, etc. etc.

But ArtiZan's doesn't require the person to be on the sim or online to find you and give you a useable link.

I generally have one or two people a day I can't reach, and some of them refund and I still can't reach them because their furniture returns and they don't understand why. They don't read the info card or signs on site and get frustrated. So I'm really glad I've solved this problem now.

[panterapolnocy]

Scripts aside, just for a moment...

On 2/3/2021 at 3:22 AM, Mar Scarmon said:

I want to enter an avatar key or UUID and get a real useable name in response

If I'd have an avatar key, then I would personally just use http://world.secondlife.com/resident/AVATARKEY or paste secondlife:///app/agent/AVATARKEY/about into nearby chat box (and replace the "avatarkey" with an actual avatar UUID) - I'd get a clickable name which would open resident's profile.

Edited February 4, 2021 by panterapolnocy

[Prokofy Neva]

50 minutes ago, panterapolnocy said:

Scripts aside, just for a moment...

If I'd have an avatar key, then I would personally just use http://world.secondlife.com/resident/AVATARKEY or paste secondlife:///app/agent/AVATARKEY/about into nearby chat box (and replace the "avatarkey" with an actual avatar UUID) - I'd get a clickable name which would open resident's profile.

No. Not on the regular SL viewer. That does not work. I believe it used to work. It doesn't now.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

You cannot get a clickable name on the SL viewer. It does not work. It may have before, I seem to recall. It does not now.

[Mollymews]

1 hour ago, panterapolnocy said:

paste secondlife:///app/agent/AVATARKEY/about into nearby chat box (and replace the "avatarkey" with an actual avatar UUID) - I'd get a clickable name which would open resident's profile.

this is correct

when pasted in Linden viewer chat box with my uuid, it provides a clickable link: Molly (mollymews) to my profile page

 

hmm. never seen Hidden posts ever before

Edited February 4, 2021 by Mollymews

[DeeFlowerMe]

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

You cannot get a clickable name on the SL viewer. It does not work. It may have before, I seem to recall. It does not now.

Works fine (did not test against 'set to not show in search' because why)

 

[Prokofy Neva]

That's interesting that it is working for you on the SL viewer. I have countless times done the same exact thing, pasted the same exact thing into room chat and got merely the name, not a hypertexted link I can click on to get an IM box. I'll try again when in world.

UPDATE

 

Guess what, I just went inworld, took the latest IM from a payment that contained the UUID in that format, pasted it into room chat, and it worked! I immediately got a clickable link.

But trust me, that has NOT worked for weeks, or I wouldn't have reported it as such, it has driven me crazy, not being able to reach customers.

BTW map tiles also got working again, too.

Maybe there is hope.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Prokofy Neva

[Odaks]

9 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

BTW map tiles also got working again, too.

Not on my map, sadly.