LDS Account Linkage

I notice that I and some other members here now have different forum usernames displayed in the forum after the LDS Account conversion. (My forum moniker has always been boomerbubba before.) I know I executed the login linkage screen some time ago, and confirmed that status yesterday before the switch. But many other members have kept the same name. Perhaps they always happened to use the same usernames for the forum and for LDS Account? At any rate, I thought the linkage was supposed to provide continuity of identity here.

Curiously, I have noticed during the past week or so that when I log in to www.lds.org using my LDS Account, the general website having nothing to do with the LDS Tech Forum greets me with "Welcome boomerbubba." Not sure how long that has been happening. But the forum apparently does not make the linkage.

RossEvans wrote:I notice that I and some other members here now have different forum usernames displayed in the forum after the LDS Account conversion. (My forum moniker has always been boomerbubba before.) I know I executed the login linkage screen some time ago, and confirmed that status yesterday before the switch. But many other members have kept the same name. Perhaps they always happened to use the same usernames for the forum and for LDS Account? At any rate, I thought the linkage was supposed to provide continuity of identity here.

The linkage does provide continuity, but not exactly what you expected. If you look, you'll see that all your existing profile information (except for your username) is as before -- your signature, location, preferences, etc. You are still linked to all your previous posts (as is clear from your post count that exceeds 900).

If members kept the same name, that is because their LDS Account username is the same as their former LDSTech forum name.

RossEvans wrote:Curiously, I have noticed during the past week or so that when I log in to www.lds.org using my LDS Account, the general website having nothing to do with the LDS Tech Forum greets me with "Welcome boomerbubba." Not sure how long that has been happening. But the forum apparently does not make the linkage.

The forum does link to your LDS Account; there is no failure at all in the linkage. However, the forum username links to your LDS Account User Name. The general website is greeting you with your LDS Account "Display Name", which is a separate field.

You can change either your User Name or your Display Name in your LDS Account, but if you change your User Name, you'll have to ask an administrator here on the forum to relink your forum account to your new LDS Account User Name.

aebrown wrote:The linkage does provide continuity, but not exactly what you expected ...

You can change either your User Name or your Display Name in your LDS Account, but if you change your User Name, you'll have to ask an administrator here on the forum to relink your forum account to your new LDS Account User Name.

Thanks for the explanation. If there is no malfunction, I am content just to use my new identity, which is pretty much what my parents named me in the first place.

RossEvans wrote:Thanks for the explanation. If there is no malfunction, I am content just to use my new identity, which is pretty much what my parents named me in the first place.

Yeah, but the problem is I still remember boomerbubba as the guy who's an expert on GIS....

aebrown wrote:However, the forum username links to your LDS Account User Name. The general website is greeting you with your LDS Account "Display Name", which is a separate field.

<gripe>Then why on earth do we have a Display Name in the first place if we're not going to use it to display? My username has no meaning to anyone but me...</gripe>

I hate to cause anyone more work (or change their "name" again) but it certainly would be more useful (at least for me) for the forum to use the Display Name.

mfmohlma wrote:<gripe>Then why on earth do we have a Display Name in the first place if we're not going to use it to display? ... </gripe>

Agreed. I would also add that showing only a Display Name in the forum, which is different than your User Name, would add a significant layer of security to your LDS Account.

Mikerowaved wrote:Agreed. I would also add that showing only a Display Name in the forum, which is different than your User Name, would add a significant layer of security to your LDS Account.

I don't think so. The biggest issue I see is that there's nothing in the LDS Account that would insure that the "display name" would be unique as required by the forum software.

The best we could hope for is to dump the LDS Account "Display Name" into a field of the user's Forum profile (such as the "Full Name" field) and use that for the display. Note that the member list would still contain the LDS Account logins, so while it is more hidden, it's not what I'd consider "more secure".

I see the point of using the display name. It would be nice. I guess the real issue is where else would that name show up in? The Ward Directory? Some careful though would need to be given on the details.

mfmohlma wrote:<gripe>Then why on earth do we have a Display Name in the first place if we're not going to use it to display? My username has no meaning to anyone but me...</gripe>

I hate to cause anyone more work (or change their "name" again) but it certainly would be more useful (at least for me) for the forum to use the Display Name.

But note that for those who use both the wiki and the forum, the wiki has been linked to the user name for a long time. It makes no sense to have one LDSTech site link to the user name and the other to the display name.

Also, the linkage does require manual effort to be made (by the users initially using the migration tool, and by forum administrators for any changes from now on). I would think that a display name is more likely to change, which would requiree more linkage changes in the future.