I think there should be a feature that allows people to change there usernames. People could have an account id that stays the same, so people would still know who they are, and it would message all teh user's friends telling them that they changed their name, and all the forum posts and comments would be updated with their username. I think this should be a feature.
Offline
Medic wrote:
I think zis vould be nice, but vat if a hacker tried to change zeir username to zomevone else's?
They could just ban the hacker's ip, and change the username back. You could make it so that you would have to wait 24 hours before changing your username again, and once a username is changed, you have to wait 24 hours before someone else could use the old username!
Offline
WindowsExplorer_2 wrote:
I think there should be a feature that allows people to change there usernames. People could have an account id that stays the same, so people would still know who they are, and it would message all teh user's friends telling them that they changed their name, and all the forum posts and comments would be updated with their username. I think this should be a feature.
The database system is set up in a way such that it is not possible to code something that will allow someone to change their username. Sorry.
Offline
Maybe it could be possible after a complete overhaul of the website along with Scratch 2.0?
Offline
cheddargirl wrote:
WindowsExplorer_2 wrote:
I think there should be a feature that allows people to change there usernames. People could have an account id that stays the same, so people would still know who they are, and it would message all teh user's friends telling them that they changed their name, and all the forum posts and comments would be updated with their username. I think this should be a feature.
The database system is set up in a way such that it is not possible to code something that will allow someone to change their username. Sorry.
How come it allows you to change passwords?
Offline
cheddargirl wrote:
WindowsExplorer_2 wrote:
I think there should be a feature that allows people to change there usernames. People could have an account id that stays the same, so people would still know who they are, and it would message all teh user's friends telling them that they changed their name, and all the forum posts and comments would be updated with their username. I think this should be a feature.
The database system is set up in a way such that it is not possible to code something that will allow someone to change their username. Sorry.
How so? It's not that complicated. Just use MySQL and replace all the username database writings with the new username...
Offline
jji7skyline wrote:
Maybe it could be possible after a complete overhaul of the website along with Scratch 2.0?
![]()
Probably not. Website overhaul doesn't really apply to the database system, just the way the website looks. If I'm not mistaken, the username is the primary key, so to have the ability to change usernames, you would have to overhaul the database entries to make something else the primary key (which is probably not practical considering there are 800,000+ users and 2,000,000+ projects).
Last edited by cheddargirl (2011-09-11 03:27:17)
Offline
cheddargirl wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
Maybe it could be possible after a complete overhaul of the website along with Scratch 2.0?
![]()
Probably not. Website overhaul doesn't really apply to the database system, just the way the website looks. If I'm not mistaken, the username is the primary key, so to have the ability to change usernames, you would have to overhaul the database (which is probably not practical considering there are 800,000+ users and 2,000,000+ projects).
Eh, okay, whatever that means...
Offline
cheddargirl wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
Maybe it could be possible after a complete overhaul of the website along with Scratch 2.0?
![]()
Probably not. Website overhaul doesn't really apply to the database system, just the way the website looks. If I'm not mistaken, the username is the primary key, so to have the ability to change usernames, you would have to overhaul the database entries to make something else the primary key (which is probably not practical considering there are 800,000+ users and 2,000,000+ projects).
Actually, I think it mainly runs on IDs. Think about the URL to your icon, friends list, gallery list, etc.
Offline
WindowsExplorer wrote:
cheddargirl wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
Maybe it could be possible after a complete overhaul of the website along with Scratch 2.0?
![]()
Probably not. Website overhaul doesn't really apply to the database system, just the way the website looks. If I'm not mistaken, the username is the primary key, so to have the ability to change usernames, you would have to overhaul the database (which is probably not practical considering there are 800,000+ users and 2,000,000+ projects).
Eh, okay, whatever that means...
XD, okay, I'll try to explain it a little better (I guess database management talk is confusing to some people). Just for clarification: A primary key in a database is something that uniquely identifies something and is never repeated. In the case of Scratch users database, it's the username. For the most part, primary keys are usually left alone and not manipulated too much (you'll see why below).
When you upload a project, one piece of info that gets attached to the project is the name of the project creator. So If I wanted to pull up projects you created, I would look up your name in a list of 2,000,000+ projects to see which one contains your name attached to it. If names could be changed that means one would have to go through all the projects and change the data attached to the projects you uploaded - that's a strain on the site if a lot of people did that and did it often.
In the case of a tl;dr moment: the ability to change usernames isn't so bad if the database is small, but the Scratch database is pretty big.
Oh boy, I hope that's clear to understand.
Last edited by cheddargirl (2011-09-11 04:42:13)
Offline
scimonster wrote:
cheddargirl wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
Maybe it could be possible after a complete overhaul of the website along with Scratch 2.0?
![]()
Probably not. Website overhaul doesn't really apply to the database system, just the way the website looks. If I'm not mistaken, the username is the primary key, so to have the ability to change usernames, you would have to overhaul the database entries to make something else the primary key (which is probably not practical considering there are 800,000+ users and 2,000,000+ projects).
Actually, I think it mainly runs on IDs.
Think about the URL to your icon, friends list, gallery list, etc.
True, but just from talking with other ST members and the way the system is set to search for data, it seem like most main entries are majorly username based, not ID number based - for example, even if gallery URLS are based on ID numbers, the admin panel uses usernames for searching up information, and not IDs. Maybe ID number is used as a foreign key for some aspects and not used as a foreign key in others. Or it's possible that username and ID number is a compound key. I suppose we could speculate all day on the exact nature of the database, but that's kind of beyond the main point of changing usernames.
Anyway, I do recall something said by and ST member saying how changing usernames was impossible to be changed for reasons of searching ability problems, that's a pretty big indicator that username is at least one of the primary keys used, if not a compound key of some sort.
Last edited by cheddargirl (2011-09-11 04:51:22)
Offline
Ok. Does this mean you would still be able to change my username manually if I requested it? I would like to change it to Gopher, or something cooler!
Offline
WindowsExplorer wrote:
Ok. Does this mean you would still be able to change my username manually if I requested it? I would like to change it to Gopher, or something cooler!
It's not doable at this point. Unfortunately, like all name change requests, you'll need to start off with a new account if you wish to change your username.
Offline
cheddargirl wrote:
WindowsExplorer wrote:
Ok. Does this mean you would still be able to change my username manually if I requested it? I would like to change it to Gopher, or something cooler!
It's not doable at this point. Unfortunately, like all name change requests, you'll need to start off with a new account if you wish to change your username.
Offline
WindowsExplorer wrote:
cheddargirl wrote:
WindowsExplorer_2 wrote:
I think there should be a feature that allows people to change there usernames. People could have an account id that stays the same, so people would still know who they are, and it would message all teh user's friends telling them that they changed their name, and all the forum posts and comments would be updated with their username. I think this should be a feature.
The database system is set up in a way such that it is not possible to code something that will allow someone to change their username. Sorry.
How come it allows you to change passwords?
Passwords don't display on forum posts, galleries, or projects.
Offline