UBB.Developers Forums UBB.threads 7 Development How Do I? Changing Login name ?

Is there anyway to change the login names via a hack or something ?

It is possible by either changing the first line of the member's CGI file in your Members dir, or using the same method as the "Change Password" hack.

But beware. Changing members' login names can wreak all kinds of havoc, like broken member records, broken posts, etc. and I don't know whether rebuilding member/forum stats will fix that. I wouldn't really advise changing someone's login name, there's a reason why it can't be done by default from the CP...

Funny enough I got that request from a member of forums this week.

Upon inspection I found that the member number AND login name is stored with each post and as the member had over a 1000 posts I turned down the request as I didn't want to have to edit all his posts.

What I found strange was that the login name is being stored with each post.

To me this seems a bit redudant considering that the member number is saved.

Long, long ago, member records were stored as files using the login name, so looking up a member record using the login name was easy.

Then came the switch to member numbers, which meant an index of names and numbers needed to be kept - memberslist.cgi

That could be slow, though, so in 6.0, Ted started storing the member number with the login name so that looking things up in memberslist could be skipped.

That's why they're both stored.

I have changed my name on my board from member file and another list in the directory .. I think member list.

But all my old posts turned to unregistered just below the old name. and the reaseon is as Charles said it. So, it could be, but there are consequenses.

Also, if you change it, your posts count will reset, but that is changeable.

Tell them to stick with the public display name change, it saves so much hassle...

if you have shell access you could always automate the renaming of posts.