Should be able to change name after upgrading from trial

When I started my trial account, I knew NOTHING of SL.

Looking back, I would have chosen a much, much different name at character creation.

But now I'm stuck with it.

I think new users should be able to change their name when they decide to "join up" and no longer be a trial member.

But... theres absolutely nothing wrong with your name. And SL accounts are only $10...

You also could have cancelled this account and opened a new non-trial account at the end of your trial period, instead of activating this account.

Besides, there's been some discussion in the past about allowing people to change their names. And Philip has been receptive to the idea on some levels, although I think there should be restrictions, and possibly a fee.

Yeah, I realize now I could have opened a new account, but when I started I knew nothing of SL, even how the billing, land fees, etc. worked.

I now pay $40/mo in land fees, and as I understand the system, there would be no way for me to avoid that fee for both my old and new characters if I have my new character buy up all the land (from my old character), because my old character would still have to pay the land use fees for that month.

It's not that big of a deal, I think I will start a second account though, just to have the identity that I now wish I had.

History shows that LL doesn't have a problem with a few alt-accounts, as long as they aren't used specifically for abuse reasons.

My suggestion at this point would be to create and activate your alt account THE DAY BEFORE your monthly fee is due on your Aaron account. Then transfer property, etc to the new account (tier up) and then tier down the Aaron account. This way you only "waste" one day's worth of tier fees during the changeover.

What name would you have instead?

my understanding is that our key is a hash of our name. everything we own is tabled and bound to us by our key. so we actually end up with a new account with a new name because it would create a new key and we'd be starting over with new inventory, ratings and linden balances anyway.

What is wrong with "Aaron Levy"? Sounds like a good distinctive name to me.

ahhh,, unless you are female?



+++++++++

Nothing "wrong" with it really, but it's too close to my ... um ... RL name.

I had an easy idea for this - much like Aaron, I didn't know how all of SL was going to work out, having not played it.

Also, not everyone can just do the $10 thing - what about those of us with lifetime + 4096 square meters accounts?

My idea was simply to charge something like L$1000 per letter in your name you wish changed, and L$1000 to change to a different last name. I use FlipperPA as a username most places on the web to distinguish from the other Flippers out there. However, in SL, I'd much rather just be Flipper Peregrine since the last name, my AV, and jackass personality give enough distinction from any other potential Flip/Flipper/Flypaper's.

Regards,

-Flip

I know of at least one person who *has* succesfully gotten their name changed, so it *is* possible.

There is no reason a name cannot be changed. Everything in SL has a name that is mutable (changeable), and has a non-changing UUID/GUID/Key that the system actually uses to identify it.

If this were true, then everytime you renamed an object in your inventory, a new UUID/GUID/Key would have to be generated.

well frankly i don't remember where i got that impression anyway. i'll defer to a linden answering the original post and see what they have to say.

At LEAST let people fix lowercase first names.

Now we know your real life name! We shall track you down and send you shampoo samples and door-to-door salesmen! We shal send you junk mail! Mwaha ha!