ATTN: FORUM ADMIN

[SimThreat]

Please unban Luke Szklarz. Banning should be an absolute last resort for things that can't be resolved in other means.

Luke was banned recently, as well as Ace. Two very high ranked active players.

You are fucking this community over if you continue banning highly ranked active players from discussion on the boards.

If there is a major concern please post about it here.

[RWG]

I agree on all regards

Luke changed his board name to "Patrick Murray."  This isn't an *impersonation* (and therefore rule violation) since there is no eliter named Patrick Murray.  It is no different than Steven Spielberg or Walt Disney.

[Carathorn]

please state the whole story when stuff like this happens?

They both got banned for what?

[RWG]

A few days ago, Luke changed his name to "Jungle Bell Cat" a direct impersonation of Dan Berube, and was accordingly banned for 3 days (as he should have been.)

Luke got a WR during this time, so Ace then changed his name to "Luke Szklarz" and posted the WR in the WR topic (while keeping perfectace in his signature.)  This was to make the WR post seem more legitimate and more in Luke's name.  This might have been in violation of "impersonation, " despite Ace having good reason to do this.  Ace was banned for 3 days anyways.

Luke was unbanned and then changed his name to "Patrick Murray."

According to the new rules on name changes, you are not to "impersonate" any other eliter.  Patrick Murray is an irrel kid who Nate Stinson brought to AGDQ 2009 and is not remotely an eliter.  Come must have confused the rule a bit because Luke clearly was not impersonating an eliter with this name change.

[Jimbo]

This is beyond the most retarded rule on the boards or anywhere else in the community, but whatever, I'm not an admin. To quote Ngamer:

Im Ngamer (2:28:05 AM): okay Luke has his name listed but that's not why he was suspended, according to Come he  Changed name to "Patrick Murray" to impersonate/troll.  and this is the second time in a week he's trolled someone with a name change, so I'm afraid this suspension must stand

[Carathorn]

The Ban is according to the rules. Its the rule which is stupid, not the ban.

Even though rules are clearly stated, people will keep on pushing them, risking a ban. people eventually get punished and start all acting drama queen to the max. Nobody wants this!

Conclusion: Name changes on the boards with a set of rules do NOT work, this situation is the proof of that. people will continuously push the rules and create drama over them, one can just wait for it to happen.

When do admins of this site learn that allowing people to change names UNLESS  *insert exception 1,2,3 etc*  DOES NOT WORK IN THIS COMMUNITY. Get rid of the whole namechange thing and be done with it forever. We tried it, people had their fun, it did not work.

Oh, and unban Ace and Luke immediately because silencing top/respected players for something silly as this is childish and unnecessary.

[..]

The Elite Council is not a place to discuss anything regarding forum banning/suspensions/etc.

Tell your friends to grow up.

[TheFlash]

Conclusion: Name changes on the boards with a set of rules do NOT work, this situation is the proof of that. people will continuously push the rules and create drama over them, one can just wait for it to happen.

Are you suggesting that we should not allow users to change their username at all, or that they should be able to freely change it to anything they wish?

[DavidK5]

When do admins of this site learn that allowing people to change names UNLESS  *insert exception 1,2,3 etc*  DOES NOT WORK IN THIS COMMUNITY. Get rid of the whole namechange thing and be done with it forever. We tried it, people had their fun, it did not work.

Kinda agree with this. I was never a big fan of name changes to begin with, but I tolerated it. I think we've reached the point where the bullshit it creates outweighs the "fun".

[Carathorn]

Conclusion: Name changes on the boards with a set of rules do NOT work, this situation is the proof of that. people will continuously push the rules and create drama over them, one can just wait for it to happen.

Are you suggesting that we should not allow users to change their username at all, or that they should be able to freely change it to anything they wish?

first option of course. we had our fun, it does not work, it creates nothing but drama and confusement.

The Elite Council is not a place to discuss anything regarding forum banning/suspensions/etc.

Tell your friends to grow up.

true, but even the council can have a healthy discussion, regardless of their boundaries in power. Don't shut us off so quickly, Come. You might find some different points of view interesting or worth considering.

[Carathorn]

oh lol the topic was moved

ah well

[RWG]

Some admin should change Come's username to Joffrey Lannister

[RK]

Banning should be an absolute last resort for things that can't be resolved in other means.

yeah i agree. KARL FOR PRESIDENT. 

[AEB]

Get rid of the name change option. Let people have until date X to choose and name and then the current name will be your permanent one.

[Smit]

Get rid of the name change option. Let people have until date X to choose and name and then the current name will be your permanent one.

[TheFlash]

We just had a vote on this in December...a big chunk of our posters responded, and it was a 23-21 result.  Unless a fairly significant portion of those voters switch from one side to the other, the best route seems to be compromise.

Rather than taking away the option to change names completely, the decision was made to allow name changes as long as the user's name was still identifiable on their posts.  This idea had support from a collection of longtime users here.  Ngamer set out some specific expectations in the same topic.

I can understand that some people on either side might be unhappy about this, but I think the compromise put in place seems adequate.  I cannot quite understand why people would be upset about someone who knowingly, repeatedly broke the rule facing some sort of punishment for the act.  The side who voted against changing usernames won the vote so allowing them to still be changed is a pretty nice gesture from the admin crew to those of you who like to personalize the username on a regular basis.  Is there some good reason to put up a fight against this?  If I was in charge, I might have just frozen the user's name so he couldn't change it anymore instead of banning him, but I'm not in charge of those things.

The main reason username changes were ever allowed was as a simple courtesy.  Maybe instead of that PD-specific username you created 8 years ago, you'd rather go by the name you use on twitch.  If you come back to the site at age 25 and don't like the name you chose when back when you were 12, it's nice to be able to switch to something more mature without losing the connection to all your past posts by making a new account.  Maybe you suddenly realize all the things you said when you were 16 were really dumb, and you would prefer not to have your full name as the username next to all those posts so you switch it to an alias.  Some name changes are certainly reasonable and that is the main reason the username change function exists.  I honestly never guessed people would abuse it.

A significant number of personalized areas are available for every user.  We have a generous avatar size, a personal text for below the avatar, a pretty open signature block, and also allow you to color your post text and choose from a collection of fonts and text effects.

[AEB]

I was just stating my own opinion and it would require a new poll to change the rules again, of course.

I think the name changing stuff should be handled like SDA and GameFAQs: both allow name changes if you have a good reason to change it. For example, you might think your old name is too intrusive to your private life and want a more anonymous name. I think GFAQs is more strict of the two, but those two sites are just an example.

Personally, I'm not upset at all for banning people who break the rules. Like the proof policy, it shouldn't matter who you are. If we'd applied the rules consistently, people wouldn't be as inclined to "test" them, as they currently are.

[Malaysia Airlines Flight 370]

The first time Luke was banned it was arguably a legitimate ban. Some mods might have sent a warning first, but he did quite clearly break the rule by removing his real name from his sub-title.

The second time Luke was banned (incurring a 6-day ban) he broke NO rules. He did not imitate an Eliter, because Patrick Murray is not an eliter. He also kept his real name and alias as his sub-name.

It was the same thing as if he had changed his name to John Smith and been slammed with a 6-day ban for it. Obviously Come just enjoys banning people, so jumps at any opportunity, no matter how invalid.

[Adam Miller]

You mean that guy from Only Fools and Horses isn't part of The Elite? Whaaaaaaaat?

[Thiradell]

"Oh, and unban Ace and Luke immediately because silencing top/respected players for something silly as this is childish and unnecessary."

Whether someone is a "top/respected player" has nothing to do with this.

As Thingy said, there's plenty of ways to personalize your posts/board personality without changing your username. I've always been in favor of not allowing the usernames to be changed. The examples Thingy gave about coming back to the forum years later or whatever, I would say we should have mods approve name changes for that kind of thing.

[Thiradell]

Wish I could edit to say something besides personalize personality

[Lark]

You have Come to thank for not being able to edit your posts, Third. Frustrating, isn't it?

[ManceGaydar]

You're the fucking joke Karl. You make stupid threads like this, and then delete my posts for no other reason except that they don't agree with the views of your boyfriend. Pathetic hypocrite.

[flukey lukey]

didn't know Karl had a bf

[ManceGaydar]

Apparently wasn't Karl so I guess not. I wonder which other mod or admin loves Goose so much that they feel they need to protect him from my posts.