Middle Names

Okay, the issue of custom last-names still seems to be on-going, and aside form the yucky nonsense of charging people for names in bulk (which IMO is a pants idea), one other issue is that of breaking scripts.
Some scripts use avatar names, for example to add someone to your allowed list that isn't around, as you are unlikely to know their key. These would break every time someone changed their name with no way for the script to tell otherwise.

My proposal is to allow for custom middle names instead. These are simple, for a small L$ fee you purchase a middle name, and it displays it above your head to other avatars.
It does not however affect anything else, scripts still see you as "Haravikk Mistral", and your log-in remains unchanged.

So it's simply a nice little bonus tag you can add, with optional quotes mb, so I could be:

Haravikk "Thinks too much" Mistral

With limits on length, but no need really for restrictions on much else. Of course middle names must be PG rated for you to travel with one in PG sims, for this reason if it MUST be adult then it can be switched on and off in preferences (where you'd probably choose one anyway, switching it off would NOT remove it though, so you switch it back on without paying again).

The fee would be very little, since it practically becomes a "status" tag, like:
Haravikk "Too busy to talk" Mistral
So some people might use it frequently.

The alternative to this is simply to have a status tag of course below your name, but I like the middle name type with a limit on size, to force snappy messages

What would this give us that group tags don't?

The ability to do this without having to make a group for it? The ability to have it without switching group? The ability to have it as a part of your name?

I seconded that idea! Seem very little bad side effect so far!

What if they charged you L$100 to have a middle name, would that be OK?
That used to be an issue, but now you can have multiple roles in a group, each with their own tag.
What does that mean? Just a formatting issue, or would you have it cluttering up search results and things?

What if they didn't. I'd probably still pay L$100 for one anyway, but wouldn't change it as often.

Doesn't change anything, you'd still have to create/own the group (waste of a group if that's all it's for), create a role for a custom title (waste of a role) and have that group active to display it. What if you're out of group slots and don't own any of the ones you're a part of?

Except that it only displays over your head and maybe as a field in your profile as I already said =/
The WHOLE point of it is it's just a fun little tag as a part of your name.

If you don't like the idea of a fun little tag in the middle of your name, then I daresay in you're in the wrong thread and should be reading something else

Well, how about that, that's exactly what a group costs. Oh, and you suggested that it'd be OK if they charged for it.

Then I guess you'll have to use llSetText like people did back when it was so much harder to get a group label.

Then you've already got it.
Yep, that's exactly what a group label is, a fun little tag that's part of your name! What makes you think I don't like it?

Groups also require 3 people to keep it from dying. At the same price for "same functionality" to NOT NEED other people to keep the "title" then it'd be worth it.

Argent, you didn't address ANY of the FAULTS of using groups, if you're going to reply just to continue being negative to the suggestion then at least do it right, or go away =/

Um...I think you mean "ANY of the FAULTS of using Middle Name"?

No I meant group
I pointed out a load of issues regarding using groups (Draco pointed out another, thanks!), which is what Argent is arguing I should do, but not a single one was addressed.

I thought groups only require 2 people now. Bring up a free alt, pay the 100L or whatever, and be done with it. While I think middle names would be neat, I'll have to agree with the descension here in that it just seems kind of a waste.

MM

That introduces another kind of server load: the space required to hold the data of a WHOLE avatar and inventory (its not empty!). A middle name would be a string of 31 characters at best. That's 32 bytes of data or about as much as an account login info.

Two. I'd be happy to make it 1. But if you don't have a single friend in SL who'd like to be able to change his or her group title, so you can share a group and each use one role, I feel sorry for you.

Haravikk: the only "problem" with groups is that they're called "groups", not "middle names". They are otherwise pretty damn close to what you're asking for... and when did ANY of us ever get EXACTLY what we wanted from Linden Labs? Not even Anshe can say that!

If you're in 25 groups already, and you've created absolutely none of them, and none of the people who have created those groups is willing to cooperate, and you need to be in all 25 all the time... but you don't need to be in 26 (or you'd already have come up with a way of shuffling groups around and could deal with 24 instead of 25)... then you and the other three people in the same situation probably ought to get together and set up a vote.

I mean, it's no skin off my nose if they go do this, but if they're going to go in and mess around with names and labels I'd much rather they did something that benefitted a few more people. Like, oh, having the label's position adjust to the size of your avatar so it doesn't get pulled down and hide your head if your hip-torso ratio is wrong. Or having the label adjust for animations and poses. Or extending your proposal to allowing arbitrary additional lines in labels, and maybe an llSetAvatarLabel(string title, string organization, string salutation, string middle-name, string suffix, string status, float offset);. Letting you supplement everything:

Title, Organization
Group Role
Salutation, First "Middle" Last, Suffix
(Status)

So I could get this...

President, Avalon Lagoon
Coonspiritor
Lord Argent "MBD" Stonecutter, Lay Pope
(Hacking on Cyberflight)

... and shift it up half a meter so it doesn't float over my eyes. THAT's a feature.

This I agree with. If you're in that boat, you just have to deal or submit a feature proposal on the voting system... ok, that doesn't do squat anyways. But the best way to handle this is to setup a group with a buddy and just make a bunch of roles with titles. I have my own group and I do just that, so I can have whatever I want in there.

MM