M.C. Steenberg
16-03-2008, 10:52 PM
Dear members of the Discussion Community,
Some of you will have already noticed the system prompting you to update your account details with new settings on titles, and may have seen that the 'Display Name' setting in your Profile has disappeared.
This past week week we concluded the long project of moving over entirely to a username = real name policy, rather than the 'midway' approach we had in place for the past 16 months, which allowed people to have usernames that weren't real names, as long as their Display Name was their real name (it was necessary for us to begin the move with this 'middle of the road' approach, given that many members had registered over the previous years, with all sorts of usernames). Six months ago we changed the policy for new registrations, so that all new members used their real name for their username; and since then we've undertaken the large project of writing to existing members of the Community who had usernames that weren't their real name, in order to change them over (and since some 600+ existing members fit into this category, it took some time). This process is now complete, and as of this week, all members of the forum have their real names as usernames.
As such, the 'Display Name' setting has been removed from the User Profile / Account Settings, since it is no longer necessary. At the same time, we've also made changes to make it easy for members to alter their titles (e.g. 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Fr'), which might change over time. To do this, we deleted the old 'Title' field in the profiles, and have replaced it with two new settings: Personal Title and Title on Posts. These are described in a new section of the Community Handbook, entitled How do I change my title (e.g. 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Fr'), or my name is at appears on my posts? (http://www.monachos.net/forum/faq.php?faq=vb_user_maintain#faq_acct_displayname) This new system gives much fuller control over titles.
I trust members will be happy with these changes, which we've been working on for well over a year. The policy of using real names in the Discussion Community is something we view as absolutely critical to the kind of community we wish to foster, and I know from comments I've received from several of you, that it is generally much appreciated by members.
Finally, we've updated the Terms of Use to reflect these recent changes. You'll find the relevant section in Part III: Use of the Forum by Registered Members (http://www.monachos.net/forum/faq.php?faq=mb_tos#faq_tos_part3).
INXC, Dcn Matthew
Monachos.net
Some of you will have already noticed the system prompting you to update your account details with new settings on titles, and may have seen that the 'Display Name' setting in your Profile has disappeared.
This past week week we concluded the long project of moving over entirely to a username = real name policy, rather than the 'midway' approach we had in place for the past 16 months, which allowed people to have usernames that weren't real names, as long as their Display Name was their real name (it was necessary for us to begin the move with this 'middle of the road' approach, given that many members had registered over the previous years, with all sorts of usernames). Six months ago we changed the policy for new registrations, so that all new members used their real name for their username; and since then we've undertaken the large project of writing to existing members of the Community who had usernames that weren't their real name, in order to change them over (and since some 600+ existing members fit into this category, it took some time). This process is now complete, and as of this week, all members of the forum have their real names as usernames.
As such, the 'Display Name' setting has been removed from the User Profile / Account Settings, since it is no longer necessary. At the same time, we've also made changes to make it easy for members to alter their titles (e.g. 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Fr'), which might change over time. To do this, we deleted the old 'Title' field in the profiles, and have replaced it with two new settings: Personal Title and Title on Posts. These are described in a new section of the Community Handbook, entitled How do I change my title (e.g. 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Fr'), or my name is at appears on my posts? (http://www.monachos.net/forum/faq.php?faq=vb_user_maintain#faq_acct_displayname) This new system gives much fuller control over titles.
I trust members will be happy with these changes, which we've been working on for well over a year. The policy of using real names in the Discussion Community is something we view as absolutely critical to the kind of community we wish to foster, and I know from comments I've received from several of you, that it is generally much appreciated by members.
Finally, we've updated the Terms of Use to reflect these recent changes. You'll find the relevant section in Part III: Use of the Forum by Registered Members (http://www.monachos.net/forum/faq.php?faq=mb_tos#faq_tos_part3).
INXC, Dcn Matthew
Monachos.net