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Can we have a rename user plugin?

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I was looking through the list of duplicate users labelled like Jon Bannon_1, Jon Bannon_2, etc. and realised that a few users are obvious duplicates (e.g. Jon Bannon and MKO and Daniel Gottesman) whom I merged. Sometimes this strategy failed though (I realised on time), since once LifeWorks claimed to be British and the other wrote his About Me in Chinese!

Some users were duplicates which could be seen from their identical email hashes, e.g. Matthew.

In the remaining users, we were very lucky because for almost all of them, only one of the duplicate usernames had any posts at all! Except for three users, Paul_1, Paul_2, and Paul_3, I'll figure out what to do with them later.

Now, since for each set of duplicates, besides the Paul set, e.g. Thomas_1, Thomas_2, since only one, e.g. Thomas_2, had any posts at all, I think it would be safe to rename the one user per set, e.g. Thomas_2 to Thomas.

So, can we have a "Rename User" plugin which can be used by Super-Administrators? This is assuming that making this plugin would take less time than renaming the users, i.e. less than about 2-3 hours.

asked Mar 24, 2014 in Feature Request by dimension10 (1,985 points) [ no revision ]
retagged Mar 25, 2014 by dimension10

Can a super admin not change the name manually somehow? Never tried to...

commented Mar 24, 2014 by Dilaton (6,240 points) [ no revision ]

@Dilaton Nope.

commented Mar 24, 2014 by dimension10 (1,985 points) [ no revision ]

In fact, that's exactly the feature I am requesting. Manually changing one's username. I am not requesting an automated feature (whatever that would do).

commented Mar 24, 2014 by dimension10 (1,985 points) [ no revision ]

If the user had their reason for created multiple accounts, which isn't against the rules, why are are you merging them?

commented Mar 24, 2014 by physicsnewbie (-20 points) [ no revision ]

@physicsnewbie Aargh! The user created multiple accounts on TP.SE, simply because they didn't remember their previous account, or something as simple as that.

commented Mar 24, 2014 by dimension10 (1,985 points) [ no revision ]

@physicsnewbie Also note that without merging and renaming, the users will be clueless as to how to regain their account.

commented Mar 24, 2014 by dimension10 (1,985 points) [ no revision ]

You will get this plugin (number 10) this evening.

Aargh! did not login. polarkernel

commented Mar 24, 2014 by anonymous [ no revision ]
edited Mar 24, 2014 by polarkernel

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1 Answer

Done, this new plugin is now available under "Rename User". Note, that in Q2A it is not possible to create mutliple account with the same name. This is checked in this plugin.

answered Mar 24, 2014 by polarkernel (0 points) [ no revision ]

@polarkernel Thanks!

commented Mar 25, 2014 by dimension10 (1,985 points) [ no revision ]

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