Posted under Bugs & Features
Is there any record kept of when a user changes their name? It's been really confusing for me seeing some people here change names but not quite being sure who they used to go by. I'm guessing some don't realize either that I went by chodorov until recently. Would be nice to have a record kept on the user's profile.
sweetpeɐ said:
Is there any record kept of when a user changes their name? It's been really confusing for me seeing some people here change names but not quite being sure who they used to go by. I'm guessing some don't realize either that I went by chodorov until recently. Would be nice to have a record kept on the user's profile.
Uh, it's literally in your profile, under "Previous Names".
I'm not exactly fond of name changes, but a greater distraction is the frequency artists change names; I've wondered if it's some eastern religious obligation it happens so often... ( I used to rename saved folders to update, but that just seemed a waste of time just to accommodate their whims. )
sweetpeɐ said:
Maybe lower the permission to view that? Open my profile under a builder account and I am willing to bet you won't see it.
Yes, I just didn't think it was restricted, that's all. Maybe it should indeed be lowered to builder+ - not removed completely, since I imagine people would change their usernames to erase the connection to profiles outside danbooru, and displaying the history to everyone would make that pointless.
Also, now that I know that name history is not readily available for everyone, I feel that stance on changing usernames should be stricter - for example, not allowing to change usernames back and forth every two weeks.
Type-kun said:
Yes, I just didn't think it was restricted, that's all. Maybe it should indeed be lowered to builder+ - not removed completely, since I imagine people would change their usernames to erase the connection to profiles outside danbooru, and displaying the history to everyone would make that pointless.
Also, now that I know that name history is not readily available for everyone, I feel that stance on changing usernames should be stricter - for example, not allowing to change usernames back and forth every two weeks.
Well, it is restricted to one week after each change.
evazion said:
Most of the time there are traces left in old comments and forum posts anyway.
Really? Ahh... crap. I changed my name for the reason Type-kun mentioned, but if there's still leftovers... I hope I'm just being paranoid and it won't amount to anything.
I agree that it shouldn't be available for everyone to see, regardless. Maybe builder+, but I think the way it is now is good.
Rather, shouldn't there be a change to the process of requesting a username change? I haven't changed before I became a builder myself, but it looks like there's supposed to be someone looking over it, and approving or rejecting requests. As a builder, it lets me just change my name myself.
I know it sounds silly to have a moderation process for requesting a name change, but if a topic like this was created, then maybe there's some need for it?
MB295 said:
Really? Ahh... crap. I changed my name for the reason Type-kun mentioned, but if there's still leftovers... I hope I'm just being paranoid and it won't amount to anything.
Yeah, if you comment or post on the forum much there will usually be places where someone quoted you or @mention'd you using your old name, which gives you away. Not really anything that can be done about that.
Well, no issue was submitted on GitHub, so unless one of the Danbooru coders remembered this topic and was developing something on the side, then it probably isn't being developed.
Created issue #2830 as a reminder.
Does it need to be even builder+? If the purpose of name changes is just to hide yourself from Google, then making it member+ does that. The purpose shouldn't be to hide your identity from other Danbooru users.
Also I realized there's a minor exploit in name changes: if e.g. Provence changes his name to something else, then someone could change their name to Provence and impersonate him. So there should be a restriction on changing your name to anyone else's past names.
evazion said:
Also I realized there's a minor exploit in name changes: if e.g. Provence changes his name to something else, then someone could change their name to Provence and impersonate him. So there should be a restriction on changing your name to anyone else's past names.
Yeah, but that allows users to squat on usernames for perpetuity. This isn't just considering the more active users either... I'm thinking of the 500K+ registered users. If all of them change their names once, that would be 1M+ usernames claimed that could no longer be used.
Besides, those worth impersonating (approvers,moderators,admins) have class stylings to their usernames, so anyone that doesn't have the same class would be instantly recognized and outed.
Using your example, Provence is a Builder-level account with approval and unlimited uploads permission.
There are literally only four users that could potentially pull this off given the above example. However, even if one of them tried, a quick look into their profile and history would reveal the impersonation.
BrokenEagle98 said:
Yeah, but that allows users to squat on usernames for perpetuity. This isn't just considering the more active users either... I'm thinking of the 500K+ registered users. If all of them change their names once, that would be 1M+ usernames claimed that could no longer be used.
True, but the one week cooldown on name changes limits squatting. Besides, if you want to squat usernames, you can always register new accounts instead. Nothing prevents that.
Besides, those worth impersonating (approvers,moderators,admins) have class stylings to their usernames, so anyone that doesn't have the same class would be instantly recognized and outed.
Username coloring only happens if you enable it. But it's optional and it defaults to off, so there are probably many people who don't use it. It's also off for logged-out users. Which is dumb, since it means casual users who need to know who the mods are the most are the least likely to know. I don't think it should be an option at all, but I digress.
That said: yeah, it would be easy to be uncovered if you post publicly, which is why it's minor. But then again, if someone named Provence privately dmails a bunch of people, some could be fooled before it's uncovered.
A heads up, this is going out on the next site update. From issue #2832:
Does a few things:
- Makes previous names visible to member+.
- Makes all previous name change requests visible to admins or the requester. This is so rejected name changes are accessible. Rejections don't actually happen any more, but still.
- Links to the actual name change request. Mainly intended for admins.
evazion said:
Username coloring only happens if you enable it. But it's optional and it defaults to off, so there are probably many people who don't use it. It's also off for logged-out users. Which is dumb, since it means casual users who need to know who the mods are the most are the least likely to know.
This and comment score threshold defaulting to 0 are the settings that have always baffled me a bit.
