Community Identities
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
<div class="IPBDescription">Handle naming on the new NS site (long)</div> Hey everyone!
As most of you may or may not know, there is a new website for NS that's almost ready for release. It will replace the current natural-selection.org, is much faster, and takes advantage of community contributions for news, gallery images, frequently asked questions, etc. It's going to be great.
It's also going to be the permanent home for the NS community, which will later grow into the a bigger UWE community. I'm hoping a big percentage of you guys will continue to play and enjoy NS over the coming years, and that when it's ready, a lot of you will enjoy (and buy!) the big retail game I'm starting work on. Details are still scarce, but I'm designing it such that if you like NS, I think you'll LOVE this. It will be a 'AAA' title with a multi-million dollar budget, and on a new next-generation engine. I'm really excited about it.
Anyways, to make sure the community stays active and is able to gracefully grow as we release more games, I've focused on persistent player identities. The idea here is to promote community quality by encouraging everyone to identify as their 'handle' whenever possible. That means on the forums, in IRC, and most importantly, in-game.
To do this, I've decided to restrict the handle naming guidelines a bit, compared to the current forum rules. I'm doing this to keep handles pronounceable, easy to type and easy to remember and spell. The downside is that to make sure this is ready for the future, I need to make the changes now.
So when we move to the new site, all registered members of these forums will be migrated automatically. Your member number, join date, number of posts, etc. will all be preserved for all of eternity. However, some of your handles will need to change. This change will happen automatically, and I've calculated that it will affect 4.2% of the members of this forum, so I know MOST of you won't mind. What I want to know from you is, if your handle is changed, how much will you mind? Are there tweaks I should make before it's too late?
<b>The new naming rules are as follows:</b>
<b>1.</b> They must be between 3 and 32 characters long. They are case-insensitive.
<b>2.</b> Numbers and non-alphabetic characters are not allowed, with the exception of spaces. Spaces aren't allowed at the start or end of a handle, and only one space is allowed in a row.
<b>3.</b> There may not be more then four upper-case characters in your handle.
<b>4.</b> If in the process of converting your handle, it was no longer three characters, the last character in your handle was repeated.
<b>Examples: </b>
<b>TyrNemesis^</b> becomes <b>TyrNemesis</b>
<b>Relic25</b> becomes <b>Relic</b>
<b>x5</b> becomes <b>xxx</b>
A full list of handles as they exist on these forums and what they are changed into can be seen here:
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/handle_analysis.html' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/handle_analysis.html</a>
This is a very important decision, because soon, it will be impossible to change without causing huge problems throughout the community. This has to be changed now, and I'd like your help making sure that these requirements are reasonable and that you guys will be OK with having your name changed in this way.
<b>Important update:</b> I previously ran the handle analysis on the wrong data. If you check the link now, you'll see a full list of handle changes. The percentage of handles changed is now 34%, which is higher then I'd like, but am still OK with. Also note that I've definitely decided to allow anyone who's name has been changed during the conversion to change their handle to any other legal name if they desire. It's going to be way too much work to ensure cohesion by doing this manually, but I think it's better to have some people change their name completely then to be stuck with the ugly l33tsp3ak for the next 10 years.
As most of you may or may not know, there is a new website for NS that's almost ready for release. It will replace the current natural-selection.org, is much faster, and takes advantage of community contributions for news, gallery images, frequently asked questions, etc. It's going to be great.
It's also going to be the permanent home for the NS community, which will later grow into the a bigger UWE community. I'm hoping a big percentage of you guys will continue to play and enjoy NS over the coming years, and that when it's ready, a lot of you will enjoy (and buy!) the big retail game I'm starting work on. Details are still scarce, but I'm designing it such that if you like NS, I think you'll LOVE this. It will be a 'AAA' title with a multi-million dollar budget, and on a new next-generation engine. I'm really excited about it.
Anyways, to make sure the community stays active and is able to gracefully grow as we release more games, I've focused on persistent player identities. The idea here is to promote community quality by encouraging everyone to identify as their 'handle' whenever possible. That means on the forums, in IRC, and most importantly, in-game.
To do this, I've decided to restrict the handle naming guidelines a bit, compared to the current forum rules. I'm doing this to keep handles pronounceable, easy to type and easy to remember and spell. The downside is that to make sure this is ready for the future, I need to make the changes now.
So when we move to the new site, all registered members of these forums will be migrated automatically. Your member number, join date, number of posts, etc. will all be preserved for all of eternity. However, some of your handles will need to change. This change will happen automatically, and I've calculated that it will affect 4.2% of the members of this forum, so I know MOST of you won't mind. What I want to know from you is, if your handle is changed, how much will you mind? Are there tweaks I should make before it's too late?
<b>The new naming rules are as follows:</b>
<b>1.</b> They must be between 3 and 32 characters long. They are case-insensitive.
<b>2.</b> Numbers and non-alphabetic characters are not allowed, with the exception of spaces. Spaces aren't allowed at the start or end of a handle, and only one space is allowed in a row.
<b>3.</b> There may not be more then four upper-case characters in your handle.
<b>4.</b> If in the process of converting your handle, it was no longer three characters, the last character in your handle was repeated.
<b>Examples: </b>
<b>TyrNemesis^</b> becomes <b>TyrNemesis</b>
<b>Relic25</b> becomes <b>Relic</b>
<b>x5</b> becomes <b>xxx</b>
A full list of handles as they exist on these forums and what they are changed into can be seen here:
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/handle_analysis.html' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/handle_analysis.html</a>
This is a very important decision, because soon, it will be impossible to change without causing huge problems throughout the community. This has to be changed now, and I'd like your help making sure that these requirements are reasonable and that you guys will be OK with having your name changed in this way.
<b>Important update:</b> I previously ran the handle analysis on the wrong data. If you check the link now, you'll see a full list of handle changes. The percentage of handles changed is now 34%, which is higher then I'd like, but am still OK with. Also note that I've definitely decided to allow anyone who's name has been changed during the conversion to change their handle to any other legal name if they desire. It's going to be way too much work to ensure cohesion by doing this manually, but I think it's better to have some people change their name completely then to be stuck with the ugly l33tsp3ak for the next 10 years.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
*sigh*
<!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Also: try now Dragon.
Excellent - serveice from the man himself no less! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
o and check ur inbox <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Does this mean you have found backers?
If this type of off topic comment isn’t appropriate just pm me and I will edit this out. Or just do it yourselves <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->.
Indeed. How many clans use a tag without one or more "." "=" or "["?
Removing numbers also massively reduces the amount of names possible. Most aliases (in my experience,) are a combination of 2 or more words (Meat_Popsicle, Dragon_Mech
Umbraed Monkey are three examples in this thread alone, and then there's my own alias too,) stringed together. Surely there must be more than 4% of forumites with numbers in their names. :S
Despite this, I'm all in favour, as there's nothing more annoying commanding than having a marine with a name full of l33t needing to be told something over voice comm. :|. Additionally, uniting the forums, community and game into one system is a brilliant idea, and should tighten us as a community. (No more multiple aliases for different things, so you can be recognised as a forum contact in-game.)
(NB: Finally, my choice to leave out the 7 in my name pays off. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> Damn you BlueNovember.com!)
So the name "KaMiKaZe" would work?
If the name KaMiKaZe is already registered and I get shafted right out of a name, I will be very upset =[
Is there any reason in particular for the harsh restrictions? I can understand wanting to keep the names readable, but most people spell their names a certain way to make their names unique and memorable.
Beh.
well, no more people calling me "5ky" at least <!--emo&::nerdy::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/nerd-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
edit: my name isnt on the list... doesnt seem like they're not allowed
And, if there is someone else on the boards named Cypher (for example), who happens to have been inactive for 2 years, will we be forced to pick something else even though that person will probably never come back to these boards?
<b>From Flayra:</b> Nope, hyphens aren't allowed. You should be 'Cypher' on the new site, you can try logging in with your forum password as such.
I think it would be best to leave clan names out of people's handles, as those change often enough, and clans will become integrated in the future, so wouldn't have to be hacked into your handle. This wouldn't be forced, but it would be encouraged and allowed.
So if manually requested, I would probably change:
'Scr3am' to 'Scream'
'(KCSA) Robert Paulson' to 'Robert Paulson' (if you want)
'SpaceMoogle5' to 'SpaceMoogleFive'
'5kyh16h91' to 'Skyhigh'
but probably not:
'drummerman109' to 'drummer' (it would automatically convert to 'drummerman'
I don't want to delete accounts, ever. It drives me crazy when I've created an account on Battle.net and it's not persistent. Once you're in the community, you're in for life. I may have to force this to change in the future, and allow long-dormant accounts (1 year? 2 years?) to expire, but won't do it for now. So yeah, the lower your member number, the more precedence you have on a handle.
Sound OK?
BEST IDEA IN A LONG TIME!
BEST IDEA IN A LONG TIME! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yep, this is a definite. Not for the first version, but clans will definitely be integrated later.
Taken out of context, that's really creepy <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Taken out of context, that's really creepy <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Haha yeah...
"Once you join you can't leave...hehehehehehe...you will stay forever..."
Scares me... <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Taken out of context, that's really creepy <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Haha yeah...
"Once you join you can't leave...hehehehehehe...you will stay forever..."
Scares me... <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
"You can check out if you like, but you can <i>never</i> leave!"