# Possible to change name on FA account?



## Tycho (Jan 27, 2008)

I've recently decided that using names from minor video game characters for account names and such pretty much blows.  Wanted to institute something more original based on a character I created for an online game.  Is it possible? Would it be possible at least to kill the old one and start the new one (watches and such can be reinstated, I'm sure)?


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## MadPlumber (Jan 27, 2008)

If you want to start a new account, then I suppose I would suggest submitting to registration process you did before to create your newly-desired account name, writing a journal in your old account to inform your watchers, rewatch all your watched users from your old account, terminate all the watches from your old account, and just let your old account go dormant.


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## Tycho (Jan 27, 2008)

/shrug

OK, I guess.


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## yak (Jan 28, 2008)

No, unfortunately a name change on FA is not possible, due to technical reasons - not because of a policy or something like that.


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## Slyther (Jan 28, 2008)

> No, unfortunately a name change on FA is not possible, due to technical reasons - not because of a policy or something like that.



Hmm, I was told otherwise in my introductory thread. Could explain why I havn't gotten a reply from the admin I sent a message too.

I had this same question as well, and now if I'm reading this write I'll have to just recreate another account and spend some time transfering faves, watches, etc.?


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## yak (Jan 28, 2008)

Yes.

The possible source of confusion may be that a name change is possible here on the forums, not on FA itself. Forums are completely separate from the mainsite, have their own user database, not identical to the one on the mainsite - and are located on another server.


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## RezzyWoof (Jan 28, 2008)

I guess you could change a database entry manually...


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## Stratelier (Jan 28, 2008)

When yak says "technical issues", I'm assuming that things like pictures or comments are stored by username rather than an ID number (or worse, if username is the primary key for an account).  Either of that being the case, changing one username by force would dis-associate all comments, journals, submissions, etc. from the user account -- their account page would be blank, and the comments/pictures/etc. would display an error message (or break entirely). In that case, obvious fix would be to have comments/pictures/etc. associated by user ID, but that's NOT trivial to accomplish considering users may have hundreds or thousands of submissions and comments .

Changing a username would also break any :usericon: tags, and there's nothing can be done about that unless there's going to be empty db space simply for recording "username A redirects to B", and _that_ has its own technical issues itself.


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## Slyther (Jan 28, 2008)

Thanks for the clear-up, I guess I'll go create a new account and start transferring everything over.


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## Nicona Shadowwolf (Feb 4, 2008)

yak said:
			
		

> Yes.
> 
> The possible source of confusion may be that a name change is possible here on the forums, not on FA itself. Forums are completely separate from the mainsite, have their own user database, not identical to the one on the mainsite - and are located on another server.



So how would I go about getting my forum username changed?


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## yak (Feb 4, 2008)

Shadowwolf_CO said:
			
		

> So how would I go about getting my forum username changed?


PM an admin here, they'll set you up.


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