A request for solutions to the resident names problem

[Acacia Merlin]

I'm glad to hear that there are still places that allow real surnames.  I'm so tired of the millions of Residents out there.  Surnames were definitely more creative and fun for others.  This is just plain boring. And rather than fostering connections, for this avatar at least, it has definitely shut that down.  When someone had a clever name, it was a good conversation starter.  I wish they would go to the pulldown list again and give us the clever, funny, literate options we used to have.  Resident is what shows up on my radar, so everybody merges into everyone else.  I've honestly stopped looking.

[Ian Undercroft]

As seems the experience of lots of you here, many of the new usernames I now see are ghastly and do not create a favourable first impression. I've never understood why the introduction of the display name option had to be accompanied by the abolition of the legacy naming system.

I'm still not convinced what real use display names serve. Changing your second name to match that of your partner? That seems a little demeaning to me. Aren't you a person in your own right rather than someone else's "property"? It's embarrassing too when, as is often the case in SL, the relationship breaks up a week or so later.

If you change your display name regularly or choose to adopt a common display name such as "Jane", you leave others with no option than to turn to your username to see which "Jane" of the many you are.

And if the avatar I have known for the last 3 years as "Colin Whoever" suddenly activates his display name, he'd better think again if he believes that I will start to address him as "Curvaceous Collette"! 

[Houseofyork]

I would have been ok with the "new naming" policy had  known that my display name wasn't going to be what people saw .. i would have chosen a different login name .... I just think its STUPID beyond words to make the login your name in SL .. thats in fact a security breach if you ask me ... people already half half of what they need to log in ... a good hacker could get your password and clean you out by knowing your login name ..... it isn't smart ... and i really can't believe as successful as SL has been that this is the solution to whatever issue there was.    I mean keeping track of items owned by an account could be done in the background and not advertised to everyone, and as far as the name change thing .... again shouldn't be related to the account log in name .... you do not see any MMO's which is probably the closest relative this has using log in names as their avatar names in world, RETHINK what you are doing .. because you honestly have shot yourself in the foot if you ask me .... i honestly cant' believe ANYONE at LL thinks this was a good idea if you really stop and think about it, and if you do well you are basically endorsing Avination or InWorldz if you ask me.

[Chronometria]

It's exceptionally hard to get a single name accepted during account creation. My email has an underscore, but they werent allowed, nor were dots and all the usual things, which basically means you need an unique word name, or to stick on numbers, which looks horrid.

The only way i got round it was to use an old gnomish name i had from an MMO, that was so complex and bizarre as to be unique.

I came here from warcraft where we were all limited to single names. That however is an MMO computer game. I expected second life to be more like, you know, real life, in that having a surname was normal. I at least had a few such names to draw on, but normal people, who want normal names, don't.

[Ceka Cianci]

it's not that hard to get a single name..it's just  hard to think of one  depending on the pool you are drawing from..my fiance had two single names in a row on his first two tries with both his account..

i think if people are going for everyday names..ya you may not get those..

there are a lot of unused good names..

 

as far as display names actually being a failure...myself i can't really say..i mean the forums are the only place i ever hear about them being fail..

otherwise it really never comes up on the grid.hehehehe

[Perrie Juran]

When display names went live, I grabbed "Perrie."  I use that account for something Linden Lab recommended, a second member for a group I had started to keep it alive till it grew, "The Juran Family Cousin's Club."

According to various sources there was a jump in new accounts when this all went live.  Here is alist of just about all the names registered the first week of display names:  http://media.taterunino.net/residentnames.txt  cross referenced from:  http://slnamewatch.com/  and  http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/2010/11/22/new-second-life-accounts-data/

My personal thoughts on the matter is that it was a good idea poorly implemented.  Surnames should have never been retired.  What was really needed was the one greatest weakness Linden Lab has always displayed. a lack of communication skills or desire to communicate. 

How many of us really had NO idea what we were really getting into when we logged into SL for our very first time?  So it is with the new users and so many of them making poor choice of user name.  The original surname set up made us think a little bit more about the name we were choosing and saved us from the headaches we now see occur.

[Ceka Cianci]

if it is true about what they will be doing with them soon then i think they have found a good direction with display names..

what i read in one of the threads is they are thinking about bringing back having two names but also keeping display names..

 

that sounds pretty win win to me..

[Deltango Vale]

It's amazing, huh, how LL can spend years correcting simple mistakes. All we ever asked for was a way to change or modify our existing names. I figure a smart computer programmer could have solved the problem within 15 minutes.

[Perrie Juran]

 

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Deltango Vale wrote:

It's amazing, huh, how LL can spend years correcting simple mistakes. All we ever asked for was a way to change or modify our existing names. I figure a smart computer programmer could have solved the problem within 15 minutes.

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LL work flow chart.