Changing User Names - pipTalk Forums

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fractal007
Senior Member

since 2000-06-01

Posts 1958

0 posted 2009-08-23 12:31 PM

In short, is this possible? I would like to change the user name under which all my current and previous work on this forum is posted. If that is not possible can I change it for future writings?

The reason I ask this is because I would like to see my stuff survive but I don't want potential employers to google me and find some dark poem I wrote when I was in high school and then cross me from the list. Yes, I should have been more careful in my future planning but nobody's perfect.

Alison

Member Rara Avis

since 2008-01-27

Posts 9318
Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!

1 posted 2009-08-23 01:41 AM

Just out of curiousity, how will they know it is you? I just see a screen name. I used to have another name here and I just rejoined under my real name.

Good luck - and good advice about thinking how we use the net.

Alison (once known as "aziza")

Ron

Administrator

Member Rara Avis

since 1999-05-19

Posts 8669
Michigan, US

2 posted 2009-08-23 10:33 AM

quote:
I also want to extend everyone a special one-time offer to either change or merge your User Names. This has been requested in the past and I've unfortunately had to tell people it couldn't be done. Once you select a User Name you're pretty much stuck with it (unless you want to lose your previous posts). The reason was simple. Your User Name is embedded into every post you've ever made and the only way to change it is to change ALL the references to it. That would mean sweeping the entire forum database of over 60,000 pages and nearly half a million posts. Ouch.

The above quotation is from eight and half years ago, fractal. We now have over a quarter million pages and 2.4 million posts. The computer would have to look at every single one of those posts to see if it belonged to you and, if so, change your old name to a new name. While not impossible, I honestly don't see the likelihood of a new name change sweep any time in our immediate future.

I'm really curious, though: Do you actually apply for jobs as fractal007?

fractal007
Senior Member

since 2000-06-01

Posts 1958

3 posted 2009-08-23 12:16 PM

Ron:
Well no, but I used to have my real name in the copyright under my posts. I got rid of that a few years ago.

I don't think my writing is that bad or dark but there have been phases

Ron

Administrator

Member Rara Avis

since 1999-05-19

Posts 8669
Michigan, US

4 posted 2009-08-23 12:27 PM

If the copyright name has been removed from your Profile, it will eventually be removed from your poetry as well. It should already have been removed in the Archives? If necessary you can expedite the removal in open forums by tracking down your work and adding a new reply. That forces the software to rebuild the page using your current Profile.

And, yea, I completely understand about the "phases." I suspect most employers (at least the ones you'd want to work for) would understand, too. People, like good poems, aren't always butterflies and rainbows.

fractal007
Senior Member

since 2000-06-01

Posts 1958

5 posted 2009-08-23 03:17 PM

Hi Ron:
Thanks for the info. Yes it looks like it has been removed in the archives. The open ones are still there but your trick of adding a reply seems to be working to change the name on those posts. I am not too concerned about them. I understand the copyright risks but I actually have a strategy for handling that kind of risk already. If I write a poem or story that I like I'll try and post it to three places on the internet at roughly the same time.

I don't think I've got too much here that is dark aside from the teen stuff I wrote but who didn't write dark poetry as a teen

?

I am still very happy that I joined this place and that I've still got an active though slow account that is now almost ten years old. That makes piptalk.com the oldest active online community membership I have.

Sunshine

Administrator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-06-25

Posts 63354
Listening to every heart

6 posted 2009-08-23 05:53 PM

quote:
That makes piptalk.com the oldest active online community membership I have.

Rather a great note, isn't it? To show a potential employer that you have the skill, leadership, tolerance, ability to stick to something you enjoy?

Some of the upsides of online community memorabilia is to say: this is how I've matured; this is how I relieve stress; this is how I interact with people in a two-dimensional universe; this shows some of my better qualities; etc.

If a potential employer were to find you online [and it happens] can you explain away your "dark" moments? Of course you can, and I say this because your conscience is saying, "hey, I've grown past that!"

Find the positive of your writings on line, sir, and you'll find that your employer will probably nod and agree that he's got the makings of a long-term employee in his eyesight.

Because as Ron says, not everything is "butterflies and rainbows."

fractal007
Senior Member

since 2000-06-01

Posts 1958

7 posted 2009-08-27 10:40 PM

Hey Sunshine:
Thanks for the encouragement. I agree with you regarding sticking to things. I think that my online profile is probably a lot cleaner anyway that that of a lot of other people. The worst I've got really is more like blog posts on controversial topics like religion rather than incriminating photos of me involved in drunken debauchery etc

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