Changing SL Account Name?

[RealVioletWitch]

Earlier this year I think, there was something about how we'd be able to change an account name / avatar name? Not like the display name but for real changing the actual account name.

Did that ever become a thing, or was it just forgotten or whatever? Or still coming?

If anyone has any info on that, would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Kizz]

UPDATED: More Details on the Upcoming Ability to Change Your User Name in Second Life

UPDATE Nov. 15th: This evening, I watched the recorded livestream of today’s Second Life Town Hall with Grumpity, Oz, and Patch Linden, and I wanted to add an update to this blogpost about the eagerly-anticipated ability to change your SL user name.

Grumpity reports that the team at Linden Lab is still working on it, but this project has been more complicated than anticipated. She now estimates that this will be released within the second quarter of next year (2019), rather than this year, which is definitely a major disappointment.

As for the cost of this new service, Grumpity estimates that it will be “on the order of a few months of Premium membership” (which is currently US$9.50 monthly, or US$22.50 quarterly, or US$72.00 annually). So expect this to cost about 20 to 25 dollars, which is about what I expected.

Grumpity stressed that these name changes are not meant to be (or replace) display names. She added that it should be possible for you to go back to a name you had before (for a fee).

Linden Lab will also be accepting suggestions from SL users for possible new last names, so watch for that announcement sometime in the future!

 

[Free]

>> but this project has been more complicated than anticipated.

I've been warning people: This. Is. Rocket. Science.

 

[RealVioletWitch]

Thanks Kizz!

Seems crazy to us that it's so complicated. Like, literally should be just change one or two entries in a database, right? First name, last name? Do a check that the combo isn't already in use?

Knowing LL they'll find ways to make it incomprehensibly complicated, and utterly underwhelming after taking forever to implement. /grumpy

Figure it'll be, type in what you want on the website, pay the USD fee, and wait 4 to 6 weeks for LL to get around to making it happen.

 

[Noodles]

Thanks Kizz!

Seems crazy to us that it's so complicated. Like, literally should be just change one or two entries in a database, right? First name, last name? Do a check that the combo isn't already in use?

Knowing LL they'll find ways to make it incomprehensibly complicated, and utterly underwhelming after taking forever to implement. /grumpy

Figure it'll be, type in what you want on the website, pay the USD fee, and wait 4 to 6 weeks for LL to get around to making it happen.

I always thought each avatar was identified primarily by UUID, so it seems like it should be easy, but maybe they aren't. I mean supposedly Playstation Network doesn't let you change names because your name IS the Identification system and it would break a bunch of stuff, moreso in older games.

 

[sldenizen]

I'll believe it when it happens. It would be interesting to create a new avatar and change its name to the name of an avatar that LL banned many years ago for no reason that was ever made clear.

 

[Spirits Rising]

I'll believe it when it happens. It would be interesting to create a new avatar and change its name to the name of an avatar that LL banned many years ago for no reason that was ever made clear.

They have made it very clear that they will not allow you to use any existing name nor will you be allowed to simply type in your own First Name/Last Name combination.

You can type in your desired First Name but just as it was some time ago, you must pick your Last Name from a pre-defined, occasionally changing list.

 

[RealVioletWitch]

You can type in your desired First Name but just as it was some time ago, you must pick your Last Name from a pre-defined, occasionally changing list.

That's not great but it's close enough. Even if we could just change the first name and keep the existing last name would work too. Gonna stay very impatient tho for when we can finally do it.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Free - Rocket science is pretty easy, there's Newton's Laws, relativistic effects if you go stupid close to the sun, and the Tsoliovski rocket equation (but you can derive that from Newton's Laws if you're hardcore).

Rocket engineering, that's the hard part.

 

[Penny Patton]

I always thought each avatar was identified primarily by UUID, so it seems like it should be easy, but maybe they aren't. I mean supposedly Playstation Network doesn't let you change names because your name IS the Identification system and it would break a bunch of stuff, moreso in older games.

My fuzzy understanding is that UUIDs were added after avatars. So accounts basically use the avatar username as the UUID. Then avatar's also have a UUID, but all the important stuff still looks at the username and that's the problem.

 

[RealVioletWitch]

We're still impatiently awaiting this, but it looks like the last news was saying Q2 2019. So, three more months of waiting.

Wonder if they'll quietly abandon it, or announce another delay. :/

 

[Qie Niangao]

I think the delay may be less about technical challenge and more about a bunch of interdependent pricing decisions (this name change thing will not be cheap!) including the whole "multiple Premium level" scheme.

 

[RealVioletWitch]

So 19Q2 has come and gone and we haven't heard anything more on this name change front. Figure it's been quietly abandoned?

With that tilia thing coming in effective next month, that means there's not one but two accounts that'll have to be changed if you change names in SL now?

Bah.

 

[Fenix]

Hasn't been abandoned, they're still actively working on it. Durin SL16B, there was a meet the Lindens event where they were interviewed and took audience questions. I was able to be there when Oz talked at length about the name change project. It's still coming. What's slowing things down is that they have to crawl through every last bit of SL's code...

Oz explained that SL was originally coded in such a way that it cached account names in a lot of unexpected places. And at the time, it was assumed that account names would NEVER change, and was coded without safeguards for that possibility. As a result, the devs need to take extra precautions as they comb through the code - because they don't want to hit a case where a changed name does something crazy like disconnect an avatar from their inventory.

It's very slow going, but is still going!

 

[Sid]

It was just not a really smart move (so sort of right up LL's alley) to announce the name change thingy, long before it was ready to be implemented.

 

[Ziggy Starsmith]

They should have never removed the original last name thing to begin with.

 

[Andi]

They should have never removed the original last name thing to begin with.

When M came aboard for some reason one of his visions was to always make the place easier to sing up for and less of a struggle to choose a name, Not the brightest one in the bunch. but I'm going to wager the way it was done was not very well done and nobody commented on major changes or they are having to rebuild old code from very old repositories. I think this is going to take a very long while.