pls look here...

[very_unhappy]

Can I change my nick and still keep all the stats? Also can I change my nick to one I had before AO "changed"? I know that "other" nick got banned, but can you make an exception? (You know if we keep up this way, given long enough time line we'll run out of meaningful word combos [eventually] )?

Even you mods gotta see that "very_unhappy" is as cheerful as Yates' family bath.

[nihil]

Can I change my nick and still keep all the stats?

No, it is a relational database and that is a key field............mess with that and it will screw up............ threads, posts and stats wouldn't stack up

Also can I change my nick to one I had before AO "changed"?

No, it is a unique key field so only one occurrence is allowed.

You will have to ask an administrator anyways, as Mods cannot do changes that would need to be reflected in the database relationships.

If you have an account that was banned for violations rather than just closed by member's request, I very much doubt if it will be reinstated.

[Negative]

I don't think changing a user name has any ill effects (and an admin can correct me on that if necessary) - a username is rarely a key in a table (unique, yes - key, no); that doesn't change the fact that unhappy's chances of it happening are zero, though (afaik, such a request has never been honored - because of the "social" headaches that come with it, not because of technical problems).

[acidtone]

Howdy.

Hmmm if what Nihil has said is true, then why was i offered a simple username change a few months or so back.?
{ when i had the .:front2back:. useraccount, and wanted a simple name change as i was bored of that username. }

i mean why would i get offered to have my username changed if what Nihil said would happen is true...?

Not been smart, or showing disrespect to you Nihil, but may i suggest that maybe you should go and have a little play with the vbulletin demo {A fully functional demo of the forum software}
over at the vbulletin.com site?

http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

and lastly, the only time you really need to re-build the database tables, is when there is a user account merge being done.
but once the admin has done all the needed re-builds after the initial user account merge then the tables are fine...

anyhow i'll leave it at that, like i said if people are curious as to what needs to be done from the admincp then go test out the vbulletin demo.

you get to see all the fun an admin can have at the control's.. lol

[nihil]

Hi acid~

Not been smart, or showing disrespect to you Nihil, but may i suggest that maybe you should go and have a little play with the vbulletin demo {A fully functional demo of the forum software}

Unfortunately,

1. It is a different version.
2. It is a vanila version.
3. It hasn't been populated from the DB that we have had to.

Your second paragraph sounds more like it, as we know that works. If you let the system merge accounts it will ensure database integrity.

Incidentally, I use ERDs, DFDs and the Data Dictionary to do my preliminary analyses, but I can't get them for this system

[pwaring]

No, it is a relational database and that is a key field............mess with that and it will screw up............ threads, posts and stats wouldn't stack up

The username will be a unique field, but probably not a foreign key (that'll be the user_id or whatever vBulletin uses - it's been a while since I used that particular piece of software). So in theory you should be able to change just the username and that will show up correctly everywhere, although you won't be able to change it to an existing username. Even if it didn't, an admin should be able to resyncronise everything with a couple of fairly simple SQL queries (I know because I've done it in the past, though not on AO obviously ).

[MrLinus]

Whether it can be done or not is not really the question. The question is will it be done? Historically (and I haven't seen anything to suggest that this would change) we do not change usernames nor unban accounts. Since accounts are free you can certain have this one "banned" and create a new one.