What happened to the custom display names?
 

I logged in today to find them all gone. Where did they go?

Bobo removed them.

Yeah, you aren't alone.

http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/jo...0&entryid=8474
http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/jo...1&entryid=8485
http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/jo...9&entryid=8477

Any others I might have missed?


Anyway, bonehead move by bobo. Adding a poll to this thread pronto.

Oh. Where was this mentioned, because it sure as hell didn't show up when I searched for it?

I mean, I thought I got it taken away for having the word "fuck" in mine twice.

Shit. I didn't even get a chance to use it.

Dammit.

Sucks to be me.

Meh, it's not really that important. As Bobo says, who needs to change names every few weeks? I'm perfectly happy with mine. The only purpose for having it is for Theme Weeks. Sadly, I do participate in some of them.

NEW FEATURE: ChocoPreviousFeatureRemoved! Beta 0.71

That said, I don't think it was absolutely crucial, but it was a bit silly to take it out. It was put there so that people could freely do their namechanging whims without bothering admins about them.
And since true names are visible with the click of a button, what's the harm?

Well, there's the 'I'm too lazy to take one second of my time to click on a username just to see who the guy really is!' factor....

Doesn't matter, Freelance Wolf because if you enabled the feature which is off by default then you're full aware of what you're getting into. Be prepared to keep track of people's names and stuff if you want display names. This is perfectly fair as it's an option you willingly enable. Don't like it? Turn it off or never turn it on to begin with.

I thought it was even less of a harm since the feature is turned off by default. Wasn't it? It also kept the admin's PM box open =p.

Like Freelance Wolf said, its not exactly essential either. But if bobo thinks its honestly confusing people then maybe it is best to take it away. Bleh his site, his rules you know.

Hmm after reading my above response I would say I'm fairly neutral on this decision. I'll place my vote after work!

Yeah, the feature was off by default. A user had to manually turn it on for it to take effect (i.e., to see the custom names of other members). New users who had just registered could learn everyone's names without having to worry about custom names.

I thought it was a great, fun feature.

It is off by default. It's an optional feature and you'd full well know what it does when you turn it on. It can't confuse people if it's not on by default.

I voted NO

NOT BECAUSE I don't want Custom Display Names. I loved that feature.

But because I'd really like to see this.

That'd be pretty painful, dude.

Are you sure you want your face ripped off and nailed to the back of a tractor? =U

Actually, I voted for the wrong one, but real men don't admit to their mistakes. I think.

I'll admit I never really cared for custom display names. Thanks, bobo, for removing a feature I never had to see (because I turned them off at the first opportunity) but still didn't like.

This move also helped solve our recent lack of drama. *thumbsup*

I voted yes because I want to be cool.

This is the exact problem I have with this current situation.

That kind of mentality is what allows bobo to ignore Gamingforce for most of the year and come back, doing whatever the fuck he wants, saying that he "knows what the community wants."

I'm not sure how I feel about the custom display names, but I sure as hell know how I feel about having my face nailed to the back of a tractor. I don't like it one bit, so that's one more vote for custom display names.

Its heartbreaking, I know.
Really, who has control over what bobo can and cannot do to his forum? I'm under the impression that no one has that say. The most you can do is talk him into it, perhaps. And talking shit to him probably isn't changing his mind either.
But I understand why you and most of us are upset about it. A convenient feature where seemingly everyone wins is suddenly taken away because the head admin said so. Honestly I'm a bit curious why this feature was yanked so quickly without much reason. Yet I think bobo is right about one thing, it doesn't serve to better the community. Its all fluff and for the "Haha" factor.

Like the useless character class feature gff used to have I don't know if this feature should go or stay. Umm maybe bobo should at least give the feature a fair poll discussion with the staff?

How does anything that has ever been added to Gamingforce end up being more than just "fluff and 'haha" factor?"

Besides the "who quoted me feature", "sticky thread seperator", or the "check mark on voted threads"? Haha, not much I'm afraid. Yeah I see the double standard too. That's why I'm undecided on this whole issue right now.

the feature is removed this quickly? I really wish bobo would install them back. Well, it's not really important feature, but it's sure fun to change your username sometimes. :(

Holy shit. According to Styphon, I am now on GROUND FLOOR of GFF Drama.


This is new for me.

bobo probably removed it because he has no friends.

I voted yes. applebees must return!!!!!

I guess GFF is just too much serious business for fun! We are all very professional people with very dry senses of humor and well thought out and poignant opinions of a variety of topics, after all!

Low blow to bobo, Luxo. Low blow. :edgartpg:

Useless feature really. Don't see why there should be drama about it.

No, I think it's useful, this is alternative if we are bored with username, and want to revert it to original anytime. I think it's more efficient than requesting admin to change your name when you want one.:(

Not useless. Unnecessary, yes, but not useless.

Poll's winning by a landslide.

Birds of a feather.

Gooks up in here.

I don't mind the feature. I'd probably enable it from time to time just to see what silly shit people set their names as. I don't plan on using it myself since I like having people not be able to track what my actual username is, plus it makes me feel special that the admins <3 me enough to do so. >_>

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I don't really see a reason to remove it, especially when the reason for it's implimentation to begin with was to make name-change themes less of an annoyance for admins and removing the problem of people not being able to tell who is who during that time. I'm not sure why it's any different than custom titles or signatures, since those are features that don't serve much purpose and can be disabled as well (although they're enabled by default).

Why lie; bobo removed it because bobo didn't add it.

Also, I think blah implemented the sticky seprator.

I completely loved this feature.

Aside from the worn arguments that everyone else has given tenfold, I'd just like to say a few things from a newbie's perspective.

I find that this is a very attractive option to just about ANY forum. I have wandered around the internet, and this is the first forum I have seen which has offered such features (At least for little effort. Some have used "post point" systems, where you can essentially spam your way into a name change. This, of course, is not the way to do things).

I think that, as a forum which continually has these sorts of small fun things appended to it here and there, it stands above the rest. Many administrators I have seen are wary of doing any fancy edits with their forum code, and utilize their super-powers for only installing standard software updates.

Boring. :(

Actually, believe it or not, that was Miles.

I, myself, rarely ever used it. However, the logic for getting rid of it is beyond me....

because this is gff, and drama is what gff does best.

anyway, i call bullshit on removing display names. they're CONFUSING? how stupid do you think people ARE.

"enable display names what the fuck is this? WHOA SHIT, WHAT JUST HAPPENED. O JESUS ALL THE NAMES HAVE CHANGED, NEVER COMING TO GAMINGFORCE AGAIN, TOO CONFUSING."

Shenanigans. All Miles can do is kick me in chat.

You have two options if you dont like this feature: 1. Turning it off on your control panel option, 2. Clicking the user name to view its real name.

And also, to avoid confusion I usually use same sig so people could identify me easily.

Can I ask a silly question? A really stupid one? Since there seems to be drama around this, and for my own curiosity, what the hell did this feature do?

Are you telling me that during gonk week, I could have displayed all of those name changes to their original names for my personal viewing experience?

Could someone explain what it did? I get the impression this was a chat thing, so if thats the case, I am sorry. ;_;

I'm pretty amazed you completely missed this. Alright, it was a mod Blah installed that made it possible to change your display name, the one that'd appear next to posts, at will. He also made an option to turn them off and on, as well as which way you would see the changed names. It was also possible to click the usernames and see their original one in the postbit.

this was the basic idea, though it wasn't implemented for gonk week.

here's how it worked: in your profile, there was a field for a display name. you could put a name up to 15 characters here, and this is the name that would display on your postbit.

however, this name would only appear to other users who had the option for display names left on. and to those who could see it, there was a notification of their choice (the name could either blink, marquee, or be followed by an asterisk) that this was, indeed, a display name. a simple click on the name would reveal the dropdown menu, at the top of which the users original name was displayed. it would also only appear in postbits; the original name would be shown everywhere else (ie, journals/comments, and in the 'last post by')

or you could just turn them off and not have to see them.

admins didn't have to deal with namechange requests anymore, but the people who wanted namechanges could have them. it was easy to keep track of who was who with a simple mouseclick. people who found namechanges annoying didn't have to see them. EVERYONE WAS HAPPY.

heres the thread made back when it was still a feature:

Custom name changes thread
includes pics

except bobo :(

bobo's happiness is irrelevant. If we are happy, bobo should be happy. This is how Gamingforce should work.

But obviously, this is not how Gamingforce is working. Gamingforce seems to be broken.

Gamingforce needs to be fixed. Fix Gamingforce.

Now, why bobo actually removed this feature?

well yes the implication was that everyone was happy UNTIL BOBO TOOK IT AWAY.

NOW THERE IS ONLY MANLY RAGE.

Here is a quote directly from Bobsy himself:

So, okay. Inconsistency. He wants things to be consistent.

And hey, I can't blame him. I'm a big fan of consistency! I like things predictable too. In fact, I think we should go ahead and set the current avatars and signatures in stone. In the name of consistency, of course.

Yes, I enjoyed the OPTIONAL, NOT OBLIGATORY, ACTIVATED BY PERSONAL CHOICE & SELF-ACTION, 100% REMOVEABLE Custom titles, so I voted Yes.

Everyone voted yes so kiss this sweet feature goodbye forever and advertisements.

bobo's just upset that there haven't been any Chocodonations lately.

SOMEBODY SEND HIM SOME MONEY. WE NEED THIS FEATURE AGAIN.

Consistancy. What a crock. You want consistancy? You can turn the display off! Sheesh.

And I'm being honest, the customizable username is one of the sexiest feature you couldnt find anywhere in other forum. :(

I'm sorry, that's a straw man. I don't agree with bobo's removing the feature, but you can't equate something like that with avatars or signatures. Virtually all vBulletin boards have customizable avs and sigs, so if I register at a new board, it's expected that I will understand it. Customizable names, however, are something else.

I also take a notice, when this feature was pulled down, suddenly bobo also changed our gender into asexuals.:edgartpg: Is that punishment bonus?

No that is a temporary fix to a problem with the gender icons.

Actually, it's been this way for a while. Blah just fixed the icons so that everybody is this way to make it look like something is there. Has nothing to do with bobo.

PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO CHANGE THEIR AVATARS, GENDERS, TITLES AND SIGNATURES. IT'S TOO CONFUSING. I mean, WHOA, THIS GUY HAS A NEW TITLE, HE MUST BE SOMEONE ELSE NOW AND IT'S NOT AS IF I CAN JUST VIEW HIS PROFILE TO CHECK WHO HE IS.

CAPITAL LETTERS

Yes! We all know bobo is man of consistency!

Like how he's consistently never here, except for that one week of inconsistency where he is here!

This feature was fairly awesome. I can understand Bobo's reason for taking it down, but I sure as hell don't agree. I think this feature entirely fitted the character of GFF, and I'm really dissapointed that it got taken down.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make a post that would require someone to pull out their fancy debate terms on me. My point was that his argument was weak, and I emphasized that point with an extreme and unrealistic example.

His point that he wants a consistent username is valid, until you take into account the hundreds of theme weeks with member name changes, other member name changes and the fact that the feature was not board-wide and easily disabled, as has been said before.

Anyway, if you don't agree with the decision as you say...why did you vote against it?

I was actually wondering why nobody was changing their name anymore to the utter confuddlement of me, until I tried to change my signature and found this strange feature in the menu.

"How useless, and that just encourages people to change their name", I thought, but then I noticed it was optional. "Hey, that kinda makes sense. I don't get bothered with their community bonding experience stuff anymore, and they can change their names every other post. Everybody wins!"

Having said that, I would prefer if people would just stop changing their names altogether. But that's just me.

But you just said before that, that everbody wins.

Yeah, that's true, that's why I said I don't agree with removing the feature. I was using it myself, so how could I say that I didn't like it?

I just liked the way that option was worded.

Thanks, Aardy. =)

Oh fuck, you're right. He wanted to make money off of name changes, but never bothered to tell anyone. :(

Well shit, if he wants to make some :10bux: features I'll pay for them if they're actually worth it. Fuck.

More like, let's pay Blah to add new features.

That way, we'd actually see new features.

Yeah, you fucking DICK. COMPLETELY RUINED NOW ALLYOURFAULT

Okay. Here's my two cents--if anyone cares.

I NEVER participated in a name-change week for a few reasons:

1) The admins would have to change the name, and when you have half of GFF participating, they'd go crazy. Remember Miles' going nuts? "I'm NOT doing this again!"

2) For god's sake, even using Password Manager, I'd have to login at least once, and I'd probably forget it.

3) Searching for members was a pain in the ass. No one was who they should be.

I particiapted in this one because the display was optional. No admin had to change it, I didn't have to remember a new Logon, and searching for people was a snap.

Bobo, I can understand where you're coming from, but isn't this a community? A group of us were united in changing our names, but instead of hassling the admins about this--first when the event began and second when it would end--we were able to change it ourselves. And the option to display names can be turned off.

And how is the option to display names any different than the option to display signatures?

Personally, I think this is much ado over something inconsequential. Buut, be that as it may, the feature was harmless and completely reversible. So, aye.

Is it possible yet to find out what the "catch" bobo mentioned earlier is about the display names?

My personal guess is that they'll be time-limited this time around.

Mo0, I believe Miles said something about this feature only being activated during board wide theme chains.

I don't quite understand exactly why ANY restrictions should be put on display names. After reading over Bobo's responses in various areas on the issue, I can't help but think Bobo doesn't even understand how the feature works.

Bobo has said he want's to minimize "clicks." That's a retarded reason in itself, but we'll go with it. The feature is disabled upon registration of an account, so the real actual username of someone is still displayed in plain view, not obstructed by any sort of access system such as clicking an avatar.

Bobo has also said he want's consistancy. The best counter to that would be how GFF has allowed theme weeks and name changes in the past anyways, that is permanent ones, not temp ones like display names would be. Also, of course, the feature is turned off by default to a newly registered user, so everything is still "consistant."

Any point Bobo brings up can be countered with the fact that the feature is off by default. What then is the problem here Bobo?

Arguing this any furthur would seem to be a pointless endeavor. I don't even see why you would need to change your name outside of a theme chain, anyway.

Okay, being usable only during theme weeks sounds like a reasonable compromise to me.

Taco, I'd have to say I'd avoid arguing the issue since this is the issue that caused the forums to nearly get shut down. :/

If this feature is only avaible during a theme week what stops people from not going along with the theme and naming themselves whatever the hell they want? This feature shouldn't be restricted at all, bobo is just cranky and wants to shit on everybody

He removed before he was ever cranky. He certainly doesn't want to shit on everybody, dude. =/

oh, I thought I had him figured out :(

Let's all take a deep breath and be thankful that this feature has been brought back at all in any form and that the boards weren't brought down.