This could make for an interesting plugin. Since NodeBB already stores recently logged IPs, there may be some similar code to examine (or at least to provide ideas from). Unfortunately in my forum's scope, there is the occasional proclivity for users to change their names on a whim - whether they just want to make a shift, or in some unfortunate cases, a user is scammed and someone tries to distance themselves from the incident with a new alias. Given NodeBB's user-friendly URLs, it seems like it would be easy for someone in the second situation to change their name, and avatar to "hide" in a large pool of members. While I find this concerning, it's to be expected given my users.
Getting back on a happier note, I think an awesome feature would be to list previous usernames on a user's profile, with some ACP customization (how many to show, enable or disable, etc). This idea may not be fore everyone though, so it is best suited as a plugin, I believe.
Along the same line of thinking, it would be really neat if when a user changes their name, the system would update all the posts they were tagged in. Sounds cool, but this could be pretty resource intensive, so it's not exactly the most feasible; still neat. This idea comes from reading several old discussions on other forums where users would change their names months later, and based on the quoted posts in old topics, it would for a moment, look like someone popped in, had a conversation and disappeared - or getting rid of confusion regarding who @MrWaffle is in a topic posted by @Schamper.
Having a nickname and a username are definitely safer when it comes to security. For example, I know half of your login procedure is to enter "Ted" into the username field. Obviously the password is another ball game, but let's say your nickname was ted, but your username was something completely different like "Bear" and not visible to non admins, so no matter how many times you switched, you'd always log in as bear. I had a chap who kept changing his username in my forum a few months back, he was annoying as...
Now that we're bringing it up, I quite like the idea of users logging in with a username of their choice. This allows them to take an additional layer of security. This would make for an interesting plugin. I wonder what @julian thinks about this since it seems @a_5mith thinks it's a good idea.
@Technowix said:
I think this is more for the comfot of the user too, if i say somehing bad, and view my reputation fall, i can change my name and "restart from scratch", whith no easy way for other member to identify me
Exactly. While members may not be able to from scratch per say, it certainly seems that they can hide a little easier from what they've done. Sure, there will be the posts, but I've seen people pull off several scams on others - keeping a written record of everything they've ever said in their posts - and fool others into the same trick with a new username because buyers simply do not conduct proper due diligence.
Maybe we should add the concept of a "display name" which is preset as your username, which you are allowed to change.
@mentions updates seems like a pretty difficult thing to incorporate though. Does anybody know of a forum software that successfully updates mentions, maybe we can learn from that
@psychobunny said:
Maybe we should add the concept of a "display name" which is preset as your username, which you are allowed to change.
I'd even go so far as to suggest if the admin wanted to turn the feature on for a group they could, but otherwise a group would have the same by default.
I can't think of a successful username mentions plugin which updates. Which is why I said, it would be an interesting concept - but it would be pretty unrealistic from server resources alone (assuming you're a popular person)
I would guess that you'd have to store a mentionedInPid->uid relationship in a separate set, and when a username gets updated you'd find all those posts and update them. But that also means that unless you write some crazy upgrade script it would be incompatible for all previous mentions
Feels like a lot of work. TBH I've been an admin/mod in several forums over my life and I always hated the idea of changing usernames in the first place
@psychobunny said:
TBH I've been an admin/mod in several forums over my life and I always hated the idea of changing usernames in the first place
^^ This, usually. It's worse when they start using a new set of graphics to go with their "new persona". To be fair however, I can also remember picking a really stupid username and being glad I could change it. shudders
