Many thanks to all users who have expressed an opinion, for or against, both on the forum and privately to me and most of all thanks to you all for understanding and finally coming to terms with it. I will be undergoing a rolling program of altering usernames as and when they appear although I'd like to think that atleast some will alter them before I get there If not, let me know and I'll be happy to do it for you.
Thanks again and keep up the good work, the forum had it's maximum ever users on line at any one time the other day, so it's not all bad
Well done Ian for stamping your little feet Due to this forum I have been lucky to meet many of its members while out birding and its always nice to know their real name as well as their nicknames.
One of my nicknames that my daughter calls me is the gentleman on the left ,something to do with the lack of hair I hope
As a newcomer to the site I welcome the use of full names.
I am also a member of a cycling club which has a very active website and the use of silly names really annoys me, as even after a couple of years I don't know who all the contributors are. I find that cliques have developed and that some topics become conversations between small groups of mysterious, childish contributors. If people want private discussions why not use an e-mail?
Fact is Tim, that every user of this forum was asked to make their username their 'real name' from the very first post, if they didn't read that post (which appears at the top of the forum) asking for this then? I'm not interested in what other forums do, I've seen Birdforum get dafter and dafter with people calling each other by their often ridiculous usernames, this is a small county and anonymity is just not necessary. The fact that people don't know each others real names is in fact slightly disturbing, more evidence of how un-personal we're becoming, you know the sort of thing, a text or email when a 'phone call would have been easier and quicker, or is that just me getting old
Anyway, if any one has any real isuues using their real name then please get in touch with me privately and I'll see what we can do, otherwise use what ever name you like on your signature. Real nicknames aren't a problem, the likes of Warfy, Riggers etc especially if that's what you get called when your out birding (which they do), but given the names I'm getting called at the moment I won't add mine
May I make a suggesion here? why not ask if members would register there real names with Judith for sightings and then continue to use ther 'nom de plumage' (as it were) for posting.
A second thought occurs to me - if sightings are taken from the forum is this not just adding extra work by duplicating sightings that regulars will send in annuallly anyway?
Missing Warfy and rezMole already and I don't even know who they are in real life
Interesting Paul, looks like we have lost our unique-ness now on this forum thanks to one or two silly names appearing, at least we will have it still on our other forums we use.
come on then ive been intrigued as to where rezMole originates from?
-- Edited by Simon Warford at 22:54, 2008-01-09
For many years I used to help run a fan web site for the band The Residents (hence the rez part). As a group of fans, we were known collectively as the Moles - The Residents did a trilogy of albums which was about an imaginary society of people called Moles. The name rezMole sort of stuck and I use it all the time - user names have to be unique, and I can usually guarentee that it wouldn't be used by anyone else!
Apologies not necessary 'king o ginge' (great email address ), this forum is entirely supposed to be for it's users but every so often I might have a little strop and stamp me little feet
Ok, fair enough, i understand your points. I do have ginger hair though hehe! but i wouldnt class myself as a weasel i don't think. Your right though maybe something a little mor named orientated would have been better. Apologies
As you already know Warfy , I had no problem with certain usernames but the more entirely odd and irrelevant ones are more widespread than you think, user names are merely that, names you use to log on, it's your signature that matters so change that to what you want. Which in your case should read 'Warfy junior'
I personally couldnt see anything wrong with warfy, hammy, riggers for example we all know who they are its obvious, rezmole im not so sure aboutbut names like "the ginger weasel" and "ratfaceboy"for example, maybe a request to the individuals concerned with silly names to change them to something like there name would have sufficed.
Hmm, seems to have ruffled a few feathers using 'real' names but rather than being all 'deadly serious' this forum, unlike others, takes sightings and uses them for the definative county records so your posts are being put to some other use besides informing others of what about or what you've seen. I have to say that I don't think it's fair to accuse me of being over serious or of frowning on joviality when all I ask is for users to use thier real names so we know who is who when people claim sightings (it's not as if I didn't make people aware of this before registering), you can call yourself absolutely what you like on your signature at the end of each of your messages (automatically appears) by clicking on your name and clicking signature on the left of the screen.
I am and always have been very appreciative of what the users to this forum have done and of how successful they have made it, it was once a very small dream and now has become a full blown, ever increasing reality but the anonymity of other forums has always tasted sour to me, perhaps I'm old fashioned (yes, I hear you!) but I like to know the name of the person I'm communicating with.
Can't really see the problem, but there you go. The possibility of things being a little more jovial, rather than deadly serious, is obviously frowned upon.
Took me a few goes to work it out too. I hope people aren't put off by the name changes if they can't log on and dont know what's happened. Perhaps an e-mail to the affected people? Thanks. Henry Cook!
My apologies for the inconvienience caused by this but the end result will enable easier communication and easier integration of records form this forum into the county database. Perhaps I should have clamped down sooner but well, there you go...
Please note that I have already changed some usernames on the forum, if you are having difficulty logging on, your username is the one that appears on any one of your posts and your password remains the same. Any problems please let me know.