Discussion Board Display Name vs. User Name: 5/18/2009

The PDGA Office has received numerous requests over the past several weeks asking for the old UBB functionality of a "Display Name" that is separate from a user's login or user name.

Our initial attempt at restoring this functionality was not completely successful without significant modifications to the existing vBulletin base installation. After further consultation with Jelsoft (creators of vBulletin) we received the following response:

Unfortunately we do not support the concept of a separate 'display' name in the vBulletin® software. While we do understand your concern with migrating from UBB, we made a decision early in our programming cycles to move away from this practice as it allows a major security threat. By allowing users to create and change their custom 'display' name, it opens up the potential for users to have multiple identities and even steal other's forum identity. This poses a serious threat to the integrity of the forum and that of it's users. We have received numerous messages and requests for this option, but we continue to stand by our decision to keep our forum software secured in the best interest of our customers.

In order to adhere to the existing vBulletin security procedures and support our existing users from the old software we have decided to allow users the ability to change their user name. Please note that this change can only be done by an administrator and the specifics are listed below.

1) The ability to change alter an account's user name will expire on June 15th, 2009
2) The account in question must be linked to a PDGA number.
3) Each PDGA member will only be allowed to change their user name once during this period.
4) The desired user name must be in good taste (as determined by the administrator) and must not be currently in use by another user.
5) The user name must be between 5 and 20 characters in length and must consist of alphanumeric characters plus the space.
6) All requests must be sent directly to [email protected].

Thanks,

David Gentry
PDGA Tour Manager / IT Lead