lol... I'm sorry about that. I have no idea where mine is from. But if we had some policy in place, it would save us some time and avoid any kind of misunderstanding in dealing with the person ourselves.
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As much as I want the name Tree, I don't think we should take others usernames. Some people leave for a very long time and then come back, I was one of them.
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Ok, I was inspired by some MMOs that have some policy for that in place. WoW, for instance, has a paid name change service, and they have this policy in place for inactive users character names. So, if an inactive user comes back to playing the game, they're prompted to pick a new name for the character whose name was taken.
I think that like we could pick another name, the inactive users can pick another if they're back as well, especially when theirs are not being used at all, while we are active and "using" our names here. As I said, it could be done in a case to case basis, but maybe it'll be too complicated. :s
Just out of curiosity, for how long have you been inactive here before you came back?
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rereading your idea, I think it could work and would be nice, but the first time I heard about this, the person suggested deleting inactive accounts, so I'm against that.
But yeah, I want what you're proposing, free up the name Tree!
And I was inactive for about a year and a half. My computer got bricked for 6 months, and I forgot about the site n that time. I rediscovered it about 8 months ago.
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No, deleting accounts would be bad and would screw up the database and statistics!
Thanks for satiating my curiosity. :P
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partypooper: entered 1 giveaway. logged out 3 minutes after registration and never came back. i cri evrytiem.
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i just realized the guy you mentioned was on sg for 4 days, 4 hours and 45 minutes. if only he logged out 1 minute earlier, i'd have hope for half-life 4.
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Wait, what? I thought you wanted OfficialPetOfSteamgifts or something.
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It's yours. Poor MuIIin's name is actually MUIIINS, because the one with two L are taken and abandoned
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Hahahaha! I actually haven't noticed until now that you're Muiiins.
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I called you mullins, then searched mullins and now im disappointed
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xDD
i didnt realize your name was muiiis, good luck.
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i see you everywere and i always read your name muLLins
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JustArchi is cuter and sounds humble. Better than just Archi xD
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Don't give him the idea... One "muiiins" is enough...
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reserve this one just in case: http://www.steamgifts.com/user/c0ez0
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lol. Stop!
But I could change it to http://www.steamgifts.com/user/FIicker , though. :P
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Hm, careful, Fiicker is getting dangerously close to Ficker, which is german for fucker ;-)
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lol, I was kidding, but thanks for the heads up. I didn't know that. Although, I've seen FLICKER once, and the contraction of the capital L and I together formed a perfect square U with the font it was written in. :(
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Well, Flicker (or actually Flikker) is the dutch variant of fucker, so....
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Sounds like a reasonable request.
Maybe the other user could receive an email notifying him/her that since he hasn't used the site in the previous year and because someone requested the username, he/she has 10 days to login or have the username changed to [TemporaryName], with no other change being made to his SG account.
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That might be reasonable as well, but maybe some will just login to lock their name again and never come back, kind of defeating the purpose of it a little. :P You know how some people are... But it might be the "fairest" way to do it...
EDIT: BTW SG doesn't email its users, so not sure it would start now. :P
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Yeah I had to use TheChack instead of Chack, probably the worst thing that could happen to me in my entire life!
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I usually have three different nicknames I choose from. And all three of them were (and the other two are) still available.
Conclusion: you guys just want the wrong usernames :P
Just kidding. I agree, this should be a thing somehow.
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booo! :P
Maybe we choose "common" names that are picked often. :( Hard life!
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i always confuse elunes with itunes :O
it's still available if you wanna change lt, i even made you an avatar :3
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Now that's interesting! It's not because of her though. I was looking for nicknames once and I found a bunch and 'Elunes' was one of them and I just liked it because "luna" is Latin for "moon" and "e" or "ex" means "from" or "out of". "lunes" is not a correct form of "luna" though, it would be "lunas" - or to be grammatically correct "luna" I believe, but meh, whatever :P
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That's my second recommendation of a username today. First one was Mullins who suggested "itunes" because my nickname reminded her of itunes. And now here you are! Well.. I'M NOT GONNA CHANGE IT, FOLKS! :D
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Haha oh my god. I might have done it just for fun if I was an apple fanboy, bur I don't like apple at all, so I won't :P
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I'm perfectly fine with mine, but after someone obviously leaving the site after days of registration and haven't returned since years... sounds weird that they should lose their names, but they kind of should/could? the change to ID then offering a namechange after they login is quite a reasonable option, if they would return.
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Your phrasing is a little weird here: "sounds weird that they should lose their names, but they kind of should/could?" do you mean they shouldn't lose the name?
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Sounds evil ( you'll lose your name and identity, mwahahahaha) while they are effectively out of the site, probably not caring at all. (I think my brain went haywire in the past minutes, after derping at Mullin's comment, then here I don't even know what I meant with the should/could :D )
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lol haha, that's ok.
So, yeah, I think most of them won't be bothered and won't even notice (in case they come back after a gazillion years) that their name changed.
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My real name is KotA and I support this initiative.
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i was gone for a year but i'm back now. i think it's a bad idea. i would be sad if my acc was "purged"
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Maybe it can be a longer period, but in your case, I think you're pretty safe with this name, it's very uncommon. :) Maybe you're the only one around who uses it everywhere. :P
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I think there should be an option on our profile to "release" the name if we aren't going to use the site. As an example, on my steam my name is DaKoTa, and if i want this name on here, i would find the guy who had that name and if he wasn't active anymore i would add him on steam to ask him if he want to release the name. Then he could log on and release his name
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That's what I'm trying to do (read my PS in the OP). The only difference is that he has to actively change their name instead of clicking a "release" button. Currently if the person doesn't have 1 year here on SG, they can't change their name anyway. Problem is, there's no guarantee that he'll even accept me on Steam or bother to answer my plea.
Honestly, in my opinion, it's probably a bigger issue to bother people who want nothing to do with this site and will never come back again anymore than just dealing with it from inside. If they change their mind in the process, they can pick another name, like we did when ours were taken. In my case specifically, the guy was on SG for less than a week, and hasn't been back in 3 years.
But again, maybe the requirements could be different than what I proposed.
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The problem with people choosing a new username is that username will then become ocupied. If they "relaese" it they will become nameless, and if they wish to return to the site, they will choose a username next time they log on :-)
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Oh, I'm not sure how that would work from a technical point of view. I think they would still need to be assigned a username, even if it's a generic "u123456789" like I said up there. It's something, but it still make everything a hassle and doesn't solve the issue effectively, I think. :/
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okay, let's make it 2 years and after 2 years user gets an e-mail informing that they have 3 months to log in on steamgifts if they want to keep their username. deal?
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"Princess" is very generic, no surprise it's taken, but, wow, PrincessKenny? Who would have thought?
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Oh, wow. I actually knew it was related to South Park from steff's previous avatar and art she used somewhere, but I thought it was a thing she created because she liked the character. Now I looked it up and realized it's something from the game... :P
It makes sense that it's used then. Thanks. :)
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You'll never have this username. Not even if I get suspended forever!
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The real anna has not been on in 3 years on sg as well as steam... He's ded
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I got my favorite name so I don't need this, but it sounds like a good idea. I like your idea of not deleting them, that circumvents a lot of those "what if I just took a long time off" arguments...
My only problem is that in theory it could become confusing if people take over other users names, but that's already the case with normal name changes anyway. And one or two years of inactivity is more then long enough for me to forget the original owner anyway ;-)
If this ever was implemented someone should probably also think about permanently suspended members...
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About the permanently suspended members, you mean that somebody could take their names and suffer some sort of retaliation by other users?
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Well, I was wondering do they "time out" after a year as well or do they time out immediately cause we know they won't be back anyway or maybe never time them out to avoid someone being mistaken for them...
Not sure what I think is the best idea...
Funny, just noticed that the one person I remember as being permanently banned a few months ago was online 1 month ago... I guess cause you can still come here even if you are suspended, you just can't do anything...
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Good that you pointed it out, as it's something to take into consideration. I'm also not sure what the best idea is, but maybe they could fall into the same rules as the others to keep the system simple. Most people that remember the troublemakers are savvy enough to know that it won't be the same person (even if they need to verify it).
And yeah, you can come online, but you're blocked for most of the interactions.
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I'm so glad my name is not that common anymore.
But yes, I support this motion, even if I may forget half the population.
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Heh, doesn't that happen when people change their usernames anyway?
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Hehe, true. I usually remember people that change their avatar only. If they change their name only, I might remember the avatar. But if they change both (around the same time), I'm screwed. :P I have never changed my avatar ever since I created my Steam account!
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I don't think I ever changed it either... I dread the day when I see someone else here using my avatar... I mean, it's not really that unique...
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I have seen another user with the same character (Lupin the Third) in their avatar, but it was a different avatar. This one I'm using is not a common instance of the character hehe. :)
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Well, clearly I can't pick names I used before DeltaBladeX
http://www.steamgifts.com/user/John
http://www.steamgifts.com/user/Blade
http://www.steamgifts.com/user/BladeX
http://www.steamgifts.com/user/Delta
Oh well, DeltaBladeX is awesome :D
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Wait, l always thought you were a girl.... :O
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- waves **** around like a helicopter -
Still think that now?
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Hmm, I can see where you're coming from. Names are a very personal thing.
I saw you mentioned about Blizzard policy and I remember seeing something about Blizzard being very hesitant about releasing old usernames before the changes regarding names came about despite the demand for it. I can't remember the exact reason but I think it was along the lines of them possibly returning in the future to the game.
One of the guilds I joined was formed in 2006 and had seem many people come and go, there were people who had passed on but still kept in the roster, usually with a nice message from the GM in their guild note. I didn't know any of them and never really asked about them but I had they were obviously held in high regard by the guildies.
When they announced they were releasing names of inactive accounts I was excited that I could finally get the name I wanted to use albeit at a cost of real money. I also knew that anyone could just nab the names that these people had chosen years ago but were now long gone. The idea of seeing a persons username and knowing it isn't them is a bit of a depressing thought. :s
I've since stopped playing wow though and never took the username I was after because I realised how much of a waste of money it was in the end.
The only real problem I can see with this is could this making impersonations easier? Say if <person> does a lot of trading, <scammer> sees they don't use SG, <scammer> makes an account on SG, takes <person> username and pretend to be them on the trading side of this website? I don't know. x_x
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I've also had that problem with Wow, but never thought about paying for the name change. I ended up liking the alternative name much more, in the end. :)
The problem that you pointed out can happen now, if they don't use SG. Unless you mean they're registered, but stopped using the site? If they use SteamTrades, it's the same profile, though.
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That's good. The name I had was basically "Akantha" but with one of the letters having an accent above it. I had the name on another server and transferred where the name was already taken. :(
Oh well. I got Akantha as my Steam URL and that's all that matters! Buahahaha.
That's true... I have no clue then but it does seem that releasing names would also include people who have an account but stopped using the site then. I guess no way around it. D:
People have got to be vigilant in these dark and trying times of people wanting your pixel inventories!
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Most people that get scammed don't bother to check anyway, unfortunately, either way. :( But thanks for the input.
Out of curiosity, I wanted to name my character Belldandy, but ended up with Verdandy in the end. :P (and I've stopped played as well)
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A lot of people have stopped playing. They're at 5.5mil subs now. They decided to stop reporting how many are subscribing. :)
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I'm lucky no one has come up with my name anywhere on any site, it is completely unique and all mine! HAHAHAHA
Now I feel so special :3
Edit: Ups, what have I done, now you will know all my secret accounts and identities :P
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Never had an issue with names since I'm the only one stupid/silly enough to pick them XD. Cjcomplex is just my last name + complex and when I was playing WoW my main was named Hupriest because he was a Human Priest.
Great idea though. Best of luck :D
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Thank you. lol @ the wow name. :P
Wait, Cj is your last name? I thought it was an acronym. How do you pronounce it?
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I'm with you. I don't know what the fuss is about :)
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Very generic too, But it's funny how most of those are inactive users... :s
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Kind of the same situation. I wonder if cg actually reads the suggestions... :P
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When I registered to Steamgifts, I tried to choose the username Flicker, but it was taken. When I turned 1 year here, I tried to change it again, to no avail... I've always used flicker as a nickname on the internet, but I use coezo when it's taken as an alternative, as explained here (kind of a long text). As you can see, this user has registered 3 years ago, and has been last seen 3 years ago as well, have never done any GA, or won any GA, and has 11 GA entries. So we can safely assume this user is totally inactive.
I've opened a ticket to ask if SG handle inactive users in any way, or if it's possible to claim an inactive user name. At this time, there's no policy to handle that, so I'm making a suggestion.
If a user has been inactive for a period of time (1 year?), and their name is claimed by another user, they would have their name changed to their Steam user ID. In the case of numbers only, letter "u" (user) + their ID (e.g. u123456789). That is so the records (GAs, wins, entries, posts etc) wouldn't be screwed up.
Maybe it's extra work for support, and it can open up the possibility of abuse attempt... Maybe it can be a hidden thing (with no "button" to request it), and it'll be granted based on a case-to-case analysis (like my case here). :P
Anyway, people, feel free to improve the suggestion if you want. :)
PS: On a side note, while searching the forums, I found this topic, and decided to start the process myself, adding the user as well, but not sure if he'll accept me or be willing to help me with this. :P
I'll be adding other solid contributions to the suggestion here:
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