How come some avis with first/last names have decimals in their name?

[DjWhiteBoi]

I have a character from way back 17 years ago that has a first and last name.  No decimals. 

I have seen some names on the radar/nearby list that also have a first and last name. No spaces.  But when you click on their name and go to their profile it looks like this: FirstName"decimalhere"LastName

 

I guess my question is why is that? And what's the difference?  

I also will be getting a new name if they ever add the last name I am after.. so I hope I don't have a decimal in there...

 

[Silent Mistwalker]

Cuz we are oldbies from the ancient times of SL and when, in its infinite wisdom, LL decided to take away last names, lo and behold, the dot came into being because spaces. 

[Rowan Amore]

6 minutes ago, DjWhiteBoi said:

I have a character from way back 17 years ago that has a first and last name.  No decimals. 

I have seen some names on the radar/nearby list that also have a first and last name. No spaces.  But when you click on their name and go to their profile it looks like this: FirstName"decimalhere"LastName

 

I guess my question is why is that? And what's the difference?  

I also will be getting a new name if they ever add the last name I am after.. so I hope I don't have a decimal in there...

 

If the avatar has ever used a display name, that creates the "." between the first and last names.  No idea why it does that.  If your avatar never created a display name, that is why there is no "."

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

If the avatar has ever used a display name, that creates the "." between the first and last names.  No idea why it does that.  If your avatar never created a display name, that is why there is no "."

The dot shows even if you haven't created a display name. At least it does on all my accounts that have never used a display which is all but one. <insert shrug emoji here> That means I've only used display on one account.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Silent Mistwalker

[Rolig Loon]

Quoting from the Knowledge Base:

The format of your username depends on when you registered the account

In 2010, Second Life changed from registering new accounts with a "first name" and "last name" to a single-word username  If you registered your account after mid-2010, you created a unique, single-word username; for example: mortimer1980, or jsmith57.  When you log in to Second Life, you simply enter the  username you selected when you registered. 

If you created your Second Life account before mid-2010, you have a Second Life "first name" and "last name" that determine your username as follows: firstname.lastname.  For example, if your Second Life name was originally Joe Smith when you joined, your username is joe.smith.

Then, from a scripter's point of view:

From an LSL standpoint avatars can have 3 different names.

Naming	Description	Unique	Get (in region)	Request (dataserver)	llSensor(Repeat) flags	detected events
Display Name	The name that is displayed on the screen.	No	llGetDisplayName	llRequestDisplayName	N/A	N/A
Username	The name the users logs in with.	Yes	llGetUsername	llRequestUsername	AGENT_BY_USERNAME	N/A
Legacy Name	An interface predating Display Names.	Yes	llKey2Name	llRequestAgentData	AGENT_BY_LEGACY_NAME	llDetectedName

The relationship between the Username and Legacy Name is simple. The Username for a specific Legacy Name is the Legacy Name in lowercase with the space replaced with a period. If the last name of the Legacy Name is "Resident", then the username is just the Legacy Name first name in lowercase (without the last name or the period).

Edited August 1, 2021 by Rolig Loon
Additional information

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Quoting from the Knowledge Base:

The format of your username depends on when you registered the account

In 2010, Second Life changed from registering new accounts with a "first name" and "last name" to a single-word username  If you registered your account after mid-2010, you created a unique, single-word username; for example: mortimer1980, or jsmith57.  When you log in to Second Life, you simply enter the  username you selected when you registered. 

If you created your Second Life account before mid-2010, you have a Second Life "first name" and "last name" that determine your username as follows: firstname.lastname.  For example, if your Second Life name was originally Joe Smith when you joined, your username is joe.smith.

 

I was going to say "because it is the login" but people tend to be a little trigger happy when I use phrases like that. So I went with "because spaces". LOL

[Rowan Amore]

Ah, I see from the picture that people who have never used a display don't have their name displayed underneath with a dot. What does happen is that if your choose a display name and then revert back to no display name, you will always then have your name twice over your head.  Once as normal and underneath, with the dot.  I knew showing your name with a dot had something to do with using a display name at least once.

Notice that only the username is shown above avatars who haven't set a display name.  

[Rolig Loon]

5 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

What does happen is that if your choose a display name and then revert back to no display name, you will always then have your name twice over your head.  Once as normal and underneath, with the dot. 

Yup.  Essentially, what happens is that the act of changing your display name also changes your old legacy name to a modern username (with the dot).  If you then revert your display name back to your username, it still has the dot.  What you see in the tag over your head is your reverted display name on one line and your user name on the second line.  If you see me in world, all you'll see on my tag is this:

because I have never used a display name, so I still have my original legacy name.   

[Rowan Amore]

2 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Yup.  Essentially, what happens is that the act of changing your display name also changes your old legacy name to a modern username (with the dot).  If you then revert your display name back to your username, it still has the dot.  What you see in the tag over your head is your reverted display name on one line and your user name on the second line.  If you see me in world, all you'll see on my tag is this:

because I have never used a display name, so I still have my original legacy name.   

Yep,.since I changed my name and haven't used a display name yet, I'm just Rowan Amore with no second line.  I hadn't even paid attention.  I'm legacy again!!! 😅

[Adeon Writer]

3 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

If the avatar has ever used a display name, that creates the "." between the first and last names.  No idea why it does that.  If your avatar never created a display name, that is why there is no "."

This isn't the case. I have never created a Display name, since the feature was first created. My username is still adeon.writer

They were created regardless of your use of display names.

In reality, the mystery is very simple: Usernames can't have spaces. If your account name has a space, the username will use a period instead.


Nametag logic works in that if your current display name matches your username (except for the period being a space) then the second line will be omitted on the nametag. Otherwise, if they don't currently match, it will show your username in a second line.

adeon.writer + "Adeon Writer" = no second line, because they match
johnsmith + "John Smith" = has a second line, because they don't match

 

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

Yep,.since I changed my name and haven't used a display name yet, I'm just Rowan Amore with no second line.  I hadn't even paid attention.  I'm legacy again!!! 😅

I hate to break it to you, but your username is still "rowan.amore". Your display name is "Rowan Amore", which matches, so the second line is hidden on the nametag. But the username is still there when checking via script or using URL's: https://my.secondlife.com/rowan.amore

The good news is you are still free to create a display name. While using a display name, the rowan.amore will appear below your nametag again. But it will vanish if you put your display name back to "Rowan Amore".

Edited August 2, 2021 by Adeon Writer

[Rowan Amore]

19 minutes ago, Adeon Writer said:

This isn't the case. I have never created a Display name, since the feature was first created. My username is still adeon.writer

They were created regardless of your use of display names.

In reality, the mystery is very simple: Usernames can't have spaces. If your account name has a space, the username will use a period instead.


Nametag logic works in that if your current display name matches your username (except for the period being a space) then the second line will be omitted on the nametag. Otherwise, if they don't currently match, it will show your username in a second line.

adeon.writer + "Adeon Writer" = no second line, because they match
johnsmith + "John Smith" = has a second line, because they don't match

 

I hate to break it to you, but your username is still "rowan.amore". Your display name is "Rowan Amore", which matches, so the second line is hidden on the nametag. But the username is still there when checking via script or using URL's: https://my.secondlife.com/rowan.amore

The good news is you are still free to create a display name. While using a display name, the rowan.amore will appear below your nametag again. But it will vanish if you put your display name back to "Rowan Amore".

Yes, I know but the Rowan.Amore isn't displayed above my head and won't be until I use a display name.  That's what I meant by the . only appearing over your head, if you've at anytime used a display name.    I wasn't meaning the . isn't anywhere, just not over your head.  It also doesn't disappear if you go back to your original name.  It will always display with a . underneath.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Rowan Amore

[Quistess Alpha]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

What does happen is that if your choose a display name and then revert back to no display name, you will always then have your name twice over your head.

Hogwash. I just reverted my name to test it out and I just have my username, no dot.

 

[Adeon Writer]

4 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

It also doesn't disappear if you go back to your original name.  It will always display with a . underneath.

Not the case! I'll take one for the team to make sure. 😀

And my nametag is perfectly ok, back to the way it was before I set it:

[Quistess Alpha]

Oh would you look at that, it says you can only change your display name once per week, but apparently you can revert your display name and then pick another one more frequently than that. Is being able to change your display name more often a hidden premium perk or something?

ETA: Seems like reverting your name doesn't count as a name-change (for the 1 per week rule), but un-reverting it does.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Quistess Alpha

[Adeon Writer]

17 minutes ago, Quistess Alpha said:

Oh would you look at that, it says you can only change your display name once per week, but apparently you can revert your display name and then pick another one more frequently than that. Is being able to change your display name more often a hidden premium perk or something?

ETA: Seems like reverting your name doesn't count as a name-change (for the 1 per week rule), but un-reverting it does.

Nah, I'm not premium.
You can only set a custom display name once per week.
You can reset it at any time, including immediately, if you want to.
You won't be able to pick a new one for a week, but you're never stuck with a display name. It can always be removed.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Adeon Writer

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

It will always display with a . underneath.

I'll stand corrected on this part.  I hadn't logged in my original av in god knows how long and when I changed her name back to original, there was no dot.  Thanks for the clarification.