A word about usernames

[Mark Pennell]

Dear All


Well it’s been nearly nine months since we initiated the Campaign for Real User names, I would publicly like to thank all those who have taken part in this campaign by either joining using their real name or changing their profile to their real name.

So thank you all! You know who you are and I and the BTS appreciate your participation.


It has taken a few people a good while to come out of the darkness and from the shadows of hiding behind nicknames, and now, I hope as you all can see it does work and it’s not too terrible to let people know who you are and that you are proud to sign your posts and are happy to stand by what you have said.

Now a few of you might have noticed we have a new Admin in town, Scott Scher.

Now a lot of you might know Scott well from his site Arachnoboards. Scott has been helping me immensely with various parts of this new professional forum, and helped a lot during the transition from the old PHPBB forum.

We have been bouncing ideas of each other now for a while to create a better BTS Community Board and one of the things we would like to add here is a “usergroup” a custom rank so that actual BTS members would have it say “BTS Member” under their username, just like the Committee have under our user names.

To facilitate this we are embarking on a purge of usernames that are not within the rules of the forum. We have set up an infraction called – Username Violation!

Now at the moment and it is set as a friendly warning which carries’s no infraction points, and really how I would like to keep it, as we are all a friendly bunch here, are we not?


So if you are sent this – don’t take offence! take notice and change your username. We want to keep you here and participating in the safest forum on the net, its not a personal attack on you just a friendly reminder of the rules.

Now we need people to update their username to a real name so we can run this pass the membership list and move you into the;


BTS Members usergroup


If you are a BTS member, this will serve several purposes, as in this group you will get extra privileges on this forum, access to the BTS members private forum. Secondly it should let you know when you are due to renew your BTS membership (Of course Ray and Angela Hale will continue to send out reminders as usual)


Ok then, there you have it, now let’s get those usernames updated. Should anyone have problems doing this contact myself or Scott and we will gladly update this for you...


Very best regards
Mark Pennell
BTS IT Dept

[OSJ]

This has been bugging me for a while but the use of real user names is an extremely bad idea. One of the reasons online forums are so popular (and one of the reasons the use of real names is extremely uncommon in online forums) is that people can speak anonymously. This means they can enquire freely without feeling embarrassed that they are asking a stupid question, it means they are more willing to express opinions that disagree with others and more willing to challenge "experts" resulting in greater debate and discussion. Essentially it is only a good thing. If people want to sign off with their real name they should be free to but they should not be forced to.

Anyway that’s my opinion (which I might not have felt comfortable expressing under my real name ), personally I'd never post on forum that forced me to use my real name simply on principal.

Regards
Oliver

[Simon Batten]

to be honest I dont see the problem with using your real name it doesnt bother me, if someone wanted they could find out who you are from a nickname anyway

[Mark Pennell]

personally I'd never post on forum that forced me to use my real name simply on principal.

Regards
Oliver

Hi Oliver
No one is forcing you, it’s a kind request. If you see in my original post on this subject.

I qoute "Now I fully understand that this is not going to go down well and I appreciate that some of you have been using nicknames and aliases for a long time, indeed are well known by these internet names but from today the use of your real first name and second name is now required for registration, this will make the forum more personal and have better community feeling." end qoute

I fully understand your misgivings Oliver and appreciate users have there reasons for using or hiding behind such names, and not are all bad reasons either.

You mention that it is easier to ask questions without fear of ridicule. Well, I would like to point out that all beginners questions are welcome here and as admin would not expect anyone here to ridicule anyone, and would not ridicule anyone asking any questions no matter how silly the person posting might deemed them to be, as often as not they are not silly questions but the same questions we all asked when starting out keeping tarantulas.

I deal with emails on a daily basis answering such questions and I deal with these in a polite timely and professional manner, on email and here on the forum.

The reason this came about was to create a more friendly atmosphere and to break down the stigmas’ people have about posting such questions.

Plus the amount of spoof registrations and spam the site was getting, this was causing me a great deal of work trying to work out who was genuine user and who was not, I often deleted real genuine user by mistake.

I purposely posted this as thread and not as an Admin Announcement so that it could be debated openly. It is a double edged sword and I do believe the benefits out way the negatives.

Oliver I hope you have enjoyed your participation on the BTS forum and I for one hope you remain here, and give it a chance.

Yours respectfully
Mark

[OSJ]

I quite understand that most people don’t mind using their real names, I generally don’t (it’s Oliver St John, just to prove I'm not being paranoid about my identity ), but I do believe in the principle of peoples' right to anonymity in the context of online forum and the associated benefits.

I’d hold up Arachnoboards as an example of a forum that uses the pseudonymity method that is; highly successful, has many thousands of users and has a great sense of community. Indeed all of the most active and most popular forums on the internet do not require the mandatory use of real names for exactly the reasons I outlined.

I don’t see how the use of real names would in anyway increase people’s willingness to ask questions and for the reasons I mentioned I think it only serves to restrict debate and questioning. Essentially in a forum that really wants to promote free discussion on any topic people should only be judged on the quality of their posts (their reason, logic and knowledge) not on their name.

As you say there are some arguments for and against but it’s simply a matter of principal for me.

Regards
Oliver

[Chris Allen]

nice work mark.the new forum is great aswell.how do i update my username to show that im a bts member?also ive noticed that when posting the forum is subscribing me to threads.not sure how to turn that function off.thanks
-chris

*edit just figured out how to turn the subscribe to thread feature off lol

[Andrew climance]

I quite understand that most people don’t mind using their real names, I generally don’t (it’s Oliver St John, just to prove I'm not being paranoid about my identity ), but I do believe in the principle of peoples' right to anonymity in the context of online forum and the associated benefits.

I’d hold up Arachnoboards as an example of a forum that uses the pseudonymity method that is; highly successful, has many thousands of users and has a great sense of community. Indeed all of the most active and most popular forums on the internet do not require the mandatory use of real names for exactly the reasons I outlined.

I don’t see how the use of real names would in anyway increase people’s willingness to ask questions and for the reasons I mentioned I think it only serves to restrict debate and questioning. Essentially in a forum that really wants to promote free discussion on any topic people should only be judged on the quality of their posts (their reason, logic and knowledge) not on their name.

As you say there are some arguments for and against but it’s simply a matter of principal for me.

Regards
Oliver

Oliver,

I may be missing the point here, but isn't announcing your real name in this thread kinda beating down your argument about the right to anonymity and the principle of never posting on a site if you were forced to drop your username in favour of your real name?

I'm not trying to start an argument, it just seems contradictory.

For the record, there are forums out there (a couple of football and lifestyle ones before anyone starts sniggering behind their hands) that I would most definitely wish to remain anonymous, due wholly to the nature of the posting on there. This, however, is far from 'that' kind of site and I have no problem using my real name.

Yours,
Eldon Finkwinkle III

[Adam Smith]

I personally prefer that real names are used and reduces the number of spam and false names to try and promote their garbage. I for one am fed up with going on to a website, forum or search engine and have pop ups the last thing i want to see on a forum I use regularly is it being high jacked and nothing but porn and viruses and whatever these sad people conjur up. Just a few weeks ago on the BTS bulletin board there was an ad for swingers-mate in CA. That we dont need to see in the forum.

[Larry Shone]

Does this mean I am breaking the rules by not having my surname listed?

[Adam Smith]

Not breaking a rule, its voluntary if you use your real name but suggested as it gives a close nit feel and to be more formal amd talking to people with real names gives more personal feel there is no need to feel embarrassed by asking a question as everyone has questions even the most experienced has to wonder about things thats why we keep them to find out more. I like to use real names generally as it is much easier when meeting people you have been chatting to online at exhibitions cos last year there were many I may have spoken to but never got to chat too as only knew by nickname. I use spider_mad on taranatula store but thats my email so isnt really an alias as such as the 2 are linked. Like I say i prefer people to use their names as it reduces the amount of people trying to stick porn pop ups and trojan viruses and god knows what other disrupting behaviour they try to cast on the forums.

[Glenn Wilkinson]

Does this mean I am breaking the rules by not having my surname listed?

I was wondering the same thing myself after reading "To facilitate this we are embarking on a purge of usernames that are not within the rules of the forum. We have set up an infraction called – Username Violation!"

[Mark Pennell]

I was wondering the same thing myself after reading "To facilitate this we are embarking on a purge of usernames that are not within the rules of the forum. We have set up an infraction called – Username Violation!"

Glenn / Larry
OK just to let you know when I said a purge on usernames, this is names like 1234_monster etc

These really do break the rules, names like Larry and indeed Glenn are ok but I would prefer your full name, but saying this you have been activated because you have a traceable email addresses… not hotmail or gmail etc.

Support the cause! Add your full name; make this the most friendly - proud to ask! Proud to reply! Forum, on the internet. You know it makes sense...

Safe, secure, friendly it’s the BTS way… plus I have plans which would work out the best if we had real names as users…. but without the support these won't happen.

Cheers
Mark

P.S I don’t join forums under any other name than my real name - Mark Pennell I stand by my responses’ and I am happy to take criticisms.

[Glenn Wilkinson]

How do i go about changing my username to meet the required criteria? I had a look in the User CP section but couldn't see the option.

[Mark Pennell]

How do i go about changing my username to meet the required criteria? I had a look in the User CP section but couldn't see the option.

Thanks Glenn - All done! enjoy your new user name

Should anyone else wish to update thier username just ask away I will complete this for you.

Regards
Mark

[Stephen Bryceland]

I do not see the problem in using your real name.. I still consider myself as inexperienced on the subject of T's and i have kept them for over 8 years.. It does not matter how much experience i have i would always have Questions to ask.... you can never have all the answers as someone will always know more or have good advice to give... why create a problem out of nothing.