Important - user name vs display name on forums

[admin]

We want to upgrade to 4.0 version of the forum software and it comes with an important change

• Currently when registering user picks the user name and later can select additional display name. 
• New version of the software merges user names and display names into one - and only user name used at registration will be shown. 

When upgrading we have to select what do we keep for older accounts. User name or Display name. 

 

My suggestion is to keep the user name (and not display name) because many users do not have a display name chosen. 

The only concern is that some of you will lose the display name that you like and will have to stay with the user name.

[Henrik]

+1

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Ugh.  Is there a way to copy existing user names to the display name field for those that don't have them prior to the merge and then use the display name?  I'm not a fan of losing my current name.

 

Edit - I handle SQL Databases for a living, I'd be happy to work up a query if you wanted me to.  

[SeamanStaines]

I agree I think I would prefer to keep my current name

[Olof Cederström]

I agree too. Who would want to use thier old username anyway?

Edited October 13, 2015 by Olof Cederström

[Adam Creutz]

I too would like to keep my current username

[ObiQuiet]

Is the user name what is used to log in to the forum? If so, I suspect it won't allow spaces and punctuation, so using display names might not work so well...?

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

It accepts spaces just fine.

[Oliver H. Perry]

Admin, the IP Boards forum says that it "merges" the username/display name, and you can "select which one to keep".  Would you consider asking them a question to see if it is truly a merge?  If so, if you chose "keep display names" and someone didn't have a display name, it would use their user name.  I believe the setting is asking you what to do if there is both a display and a user name for a user, and if that's the case, choosing to keep display names is an easy choice as those of us with display names chose them for the reason we didn't want our user name.

 

I suppose the better question would be - if you were to choose "Display Name", what would happen to those users without?  Is the upgrade script smart enough to just assign those users their UserName instead of nothing?

Edited October 14, 2015 by Oliver H. Perry

[Henrik]

As long as we do not get absurd names ingame!