"Old Display Name"

[Flame of Anor]

I've noticed that there's a field on (some?) posters' profiles that gives their "Old Display Name". However, I get the impression that it only applies to name changes that happened at some specific point in the past. Would it be possible to update that field for all the posters who get their names changed in the Name Change thread? It would make things so much less confusing.

[InaVegt]

I've noticed that there's a field on (some?) posters' profiles that gives their "Old Display Name". However, I get the impression that it only applies to name changes that happened at some specific point in the past. Would it be possible to update that field for all the posters who get their names changed in the Name Change thread? It would make things so much less confusing.

Actually, it has nothing to do with this.

Back in Ye Olde days, the GITP Forums used a different piece of software. Instead of vBulletin, we had YABB.

On YABB, Username and Display Name are two different things, and Display Name could be changed by users whenever they liked.

When the board software switch happened, the Usernames were kept, but the Display Names weren't. Instead, Display Names were stuck into that little part of the profile where they are now.

[Flame of Anor]

Actually, it has nothing to do with this.

Back in Ye Olde days, the GITP Forums used a different piece of software. Instead of vBulletin, we had YABB.

On YABB, Username and Display Name are two different things, and Display Name could be changed by users whenever they liked.

When the board software switch happened, the Usernames were kept, but the Display Names weren't. Instead, Display Names were stuck into that little part of the profile where they are now.

So, it basically is a name change that happened at some point in the past, like I thought.

[InaVegt]

So, it basically is a name change that happened at some point in the past, like I thought.

Not quite what you mean.

It's a name change that was -reverted-, if you wish to call it a name change.

Example: Assume we have poster 'Foo', who had a display name of 'Baz' at the time of the software switch. After the software switch, the poster's username would be 'Foo', while the 'old display name' field would hold 'Baz'

[Zeb The Troll]

Right. It's an artifact of the software change, not any actual deliberate name change on anyone's part.

[Rawhide]

Anyone who has had a name change since the software change from YaBB to vB should have nothing in the Old Display Name field. As part of the renaming process we blank that field.

[Roland St. Jude]

Anyone who has had a name change since the software change from YaBB to vB should have nothing in the Old Display Name field. As part of the renaming process we blank that field.Unless we ("we" meaning "I") forget. :smallredface:.

Anyway, I think we've established that the field is an artifact and not really relevant to typical poster forum usage.

And, no, we're not going to find a way to tag people's name changes publicly. The record exists in the Name Change Request Thread, and posters are free to add a line to their sig that notes who they used to be, if so desired.