Changin SL surnames.

Just having read the transcript of the town hall, I wanted to weigh in my thoughts and hope that others will add their own.

Exclusivity

There are two aspects to exclusivity when it comes to SL names: Exclusive full names, and exclusive surnames.

The former has to remain as is now. To prevent all kinds of confusion, possible grief, complications, etc, no one should be able to use a full name that is in use, or has been in use. In RL we are able to clearly differentiate between two people who have the same full name; it's not so easy in SL. There are an infinte combination of first and surnames that can support millions of different names in SL, and I can't see any arguments to support multiple accounts with the same full name.

On exclusivity of surnames: I am sure many of us find this an appealing idea, but I think this is a very very bad idea. As much as it would be nice to tie up a surname for only your friends and family, I believe as the world grows it will cause problems. Being told that a new user can not have the name 'Smith', Jones', or 'Davies', because someone tied them up a year previous, is surely not going to aid in LL's goal of their world supporting a population of millions.

I can see how it would be handy to tie up a name for businesses, just like ACS has. So maybe two types of avatar should be implemented, a personnal and a business type, with it clear on the profile which of the two it is. A personnal avatar would not be able to have an exclusive surname, but a business one could. Of course, this leads to the same problems I have indicated above. But if the name is something that represents a listed business, is unique, is not something that would also be a popular personnal surname, then it could work. ACS is a good example of a name that would qualify with the above. It could get messy of course, and possibly business association and avatar names should be completely seperated.

Identity Problems

It's my belief that if anyone wants to change their name to make a fresh start so to speak, they should create a new account. Name changes should be for vanity purposes only, and the previous name should be indicated on the profile. It wouldn't necessarily have to be indicated for good; maybe after a period of, for example, three months, your 'previous' name would be cleared from your profile.

Limits On Name Changes

I would suggest that there shouldn't be a maximum number of times someone can change their name, but each account should only be able to change their name once in a given period e.g. three months. Each time the name is changed, the previous name is listed in the profile as described above.

Cost And Availability

It seems pretty clear that some time in the future, LL are going to at least reduce stipends, if not elimate them. That being the case, they need to start coming up with some ideas to add value to Premium accounts, or watch the number of Premium Accounts take a rapid nosedive. I would propose that Premium Account members can change their avatar name at no extra cost. Fitting in with what I stated above, any account could only do this once every three months maximum. This feature should also be available to Basic Account holders, but LL could charge a small fee for those accounts.

Exploitation

I'm sure that there are many that fear SL names becoming another Domain-Name-type exploitation, and some are probably rubbing their hands together gleefully at the thought. We can only speculate whether LL would like to encourage or discourage this, but if it's the latter, it's pretty easy to avoid: Simply do not permit the transfer of names. This, coupled with non-exclusive surnames should do the trick.

Haven't really gotten involved in the conversation on changing names / picking surnames etc. because LL will implement what they want to anyway, so much of the discource is moot.

But, I do have to say, that allowing people to purchase exclusive surnames simply does not scale well into the future. It might give a short term monetary benefit to LL but it will mean that as time goes on surname options will become limited and, as you say, we'll see some sort of name hoarding by people where they charge an expensive fee so you can have "<any name> Smith". I can only believe that the idea of owning a surname is being done mainly as a source of income for LL. I can see no other reason to implement such a plan.

Anyway, I've always found it extremely ridiculous that you cannot just pick your own surname at sign up rather than having a poor fixed selection choice.

It has always seemed odd that we can rename land parcels, objects, notecards, textures, well just anything except our characters.

BUT, it's a matter of maintaining most holy immersion in a protected wora'uld. This above all things practical, scalable or useable amen.

The facts that they're now arbitrarily ditching the protection of our immersion and still not open-ending it, but charging fees, indicates that they've already spent their eleven-million and it wasn't enough.

Where can I get the transcript?

I planned on attending but slept late.

edit: found it

I'm such a dumbass..

Anyway I only want a name change so me and my sl partner have the same last name

There Transcript; There Castle.

I'm avoiding all this because it confuses me. And because life is short and the options and problems and transcripts are long.

I figure I'll just wait to see what options I've been given, and then probably just keep my three names anyhow.

coco

I would like to add one more concern under Hiro's "Exploitation" section. There is an article about cloning over at the SLHerald. The basic idea is that you select a name that is very close to the name of a well-known, well-respected user, and then use that name to scam people.

For example, Somebody could create the account Aimee Webber or Aimie Weber then approach new users with "big opportunities in fashion!" (for a small fee of 1000 Lindens).

Right now, this kind of scam is not possible, or at least it's very difficult. The time period during which any last name is open is smaller than it takes for most people to earn enough notoriety to be worth cloning. However, if the lastname restrictions are lifted, these kinds of scams will become more likely.

This isn't exactly a dealbreaker, just one more concern when thinking about this issue.

How about people who want to change their name just because they don't like the one they have, because, well, they didn't know what SL was about when they signed up, really... but don't want to throw away all the no-transfer content they have bought?

This isn't a "fresh start", this is a "I used hotstud66 because that was my yahoo email" fix.

If you don't like your name, you should be able to change it, no questions asked, no "this person is a name-changing scum" indications in the profile, once per person. Not once per avatar, once per person, specifically because this is a real problem that real people really have to deal with.

If it costs as much as creating a new account, that's fine. But it shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars in no-transfer content as well.
And rightly so. Without stipends there's really no point to distinguishing between "Premium" and "Basic" any more. Just let anyone buy tier.

And restricting name change to premiums is silly. There's nothing magic about "premium account", it's a $10 one-time cost to go premium for one month to change your name, so all that does is change the price.

I had the same thoughts on this subject, but it's going to be one of those areas that are impossible to police. I can't imagine LL would want to get involved, and would take a similar stance to the one they have on copyright issues. Even if LL did behave less than passively on this issue, how close to a name does it have to be before action is warranted?

Exactly. Which is why I kind of hope they keep the current lastname restrictions in place.

Well that is for vanity reasons then, is it not?



I think you are going a little over the top here It's not to label people "name-changing scum", but to identify that avatar as the one formerly known as Mr X. The only reason I can see for someone not wanting this on their profile for that short period, is to completely seperate themselves from the avatar, not just the name. If that's the case, they are best opening a new account IMO.

This is one of those tricky propositions. It would be nice to change the last name for whatever reason, but there should be limits. I read the transcripts as well, and there were a few good ideas. In my opinion, I think letting anybody change their name once, should be free. If you want to change it again, there should be a fee, and should be some sort of time limit, like only once a year, once every 6 months or something like that, and a cap on how many times you can change your name for the lifetime of your account.

I can understand that those of you who have made names for yourself don't want other avatars with very similar names. Perhaps a way somebody could invite you to change your last name to theirs (this would be handy for couples or families) and this would only apply to existing names. If you make your own last name, it might require Linden approval.

Those are my thoughts, for what they are worth...

You left off a smiley. Here, have an extra. (I'd give you more but the forums complained about the number of images)
I don't follow. They're keeping the same avatar, the same content, everything but the embarassing name. How does this imply they want to get rid of the avatar, not the name?
I assume most of the stuff you buy is transfer/no-copy, or you wouldn't consider this as an even vaguely comparable concept.

Oh, that reminds me... a new account also means they're permanently down one account in that household.

Thanks. I see your and raise you a

When I say avatar, I mean the reputation of the name that is attached to that avatar, it's content, etc. That is all we really have in SL.

I assume you don't follow why I have made these suggestions, or you would not make such assumptions

My proposal is not intended to place obstacles in the way of someone who wants to change their name, but who still wish to keep their inventory, and/or their business (if they have one). I am suggesting that if someone is in that position, that they should also take the reputation associated with all that with them. If that person was to have their old name displayed in their profile for a short period, say three months, that would be one way to implement that.

I am still stuggling to see why you are so opposed to that, other than that you're worried it will signify you as "name-changing scum" *shrug*


So what's new? That's always been the case; that's an informed choice we have.

The reputation is attached to the character. If you change your name from HotStud69 Seaton to Richard Seaton but wear the same outfits and hang around the same places and generally keep acting the same way, you're not shedding the avatar in any sense, just the name. Keeping the name around makes that harder.
I think the problem is that we seem to have fundamentally different views about the difficulty of hiding ones identity from ones friends and acquaintances. I don't normally make any effort to hide who I am, and I periodically get people making the connection between my person and my online identity... and I'm not even a micro-scale celebrity even in the circles I travel in. Unless you stay in character, role playing full time, you're only going to be able to avoid taking your reputation along with you if you never make one.

So I'm not concerned with "hiding", I just think that for the situation I'm talking about keeping the old name in people's faces for three months isn't going to do anything but associate the old name with the new one in the minds of people who look you up... whether or not you've got any "reputation" with them to worry about, whether you've ever met them under the old one.
It's an excessive cost to simply changing a name.

I just hope that it's easier and less costly then doing it RL.
I just paid $385, and am haveing to wait 8 weeks to get mine done.
Now if I could get my SL last name to match my new RL last name.

I completly agree, i have asked several questions about how this sort of grieving would be prevented or dealt with, to Robin in the big name change Thread a couple of months ago. I still haven't seen any answer on it yet. It would be a shame if you have to go through the slow pased abuse reports when someone is impersonation you.
But sadly, i have the feeling that is exactly what is going to happen.

OK an example: if someone has a reputation for selling freebies, then that reputation should stay with them. They shouldn't be able to change names, keep all their scam stock and stores, etc, and start again; their reputation should stay with them. I can see it now: Bob's store has been taken over by Jim's Store blah blah. Or perhaps someone owes someone money to someone? Why pay? Just change your name. Similarly, those who have great reputations, would benefit from the change of name being very clear to all.

In SL, reputation is king. Many base many of their decisions with who and how they interact with people based on that. The only reason I can see for someone wanting to not have their old name on their profile, is to get away from everything that was attached to it.

I *still* am not sure why you are so against having your old name listed in your profile for a short period. What about it are you against?

No, it's the cost associated with starting a whole new account, not just changing their name.

Perhaps I should explain that my thoughts also come from personnal experience. I had a resident renting land from me. She asked if she could have a little longer to pay, and I ok'ed it. Many unreplied IM's later, I find out that the resident in question has sold her account to well known character in SL! Not only was I was 13k out of pocket, but I was sending IMs to someone, and they were going to someone else.

It's not exactly the same, granted, but you can see that the issue of identity is the foundation for both.

However if we think big and long term for the future for SL, name exclusivity is going to be hard to maintain. If we were to open up a NY phone directory, how many duplicate names would we find in there? Of course we can call ourselves names that would never be used in RL and that might buy us some room. But I think this limit will crop up eventually.

Maybe we can have SLSNs? Second Life Security Numbers. When someone opens your profile the first page looks like a little passport with your image (no dark obscuring glasses and please don't smile ), your name and then your SLSN.

We do; we call them keys. And your idea would solve most of the stated fear-based problems if the profile listed all the old names that had been assigned to the key.

People could then use their current official name but not be able to hide monikers they had used for that account in the past.

True, I could not remember if they were just called keys, UIDs or UUIDs.

As an added plus (from another thread) if you are a premium account, it lists your address in your passport. Another way (but slightly less percise) to tell the Aimee Weber of Midnight City apart from Aimee Weber of Welsh. Now if the residents in Midnight City want to let two Aimee Webers buy land and declare residence there, that's their decision. If you just have a basic account, it lists you as homeless. *sob*

For example, I was real-life stalked. I had to change address, change phone number, all that stuff, to throw them off. Granted, online stalking is rarely that bad, but still, I can easily see why someone would want to make a clean break without it being for a nefarious purpose.

Since having your key visibly listed raises much of the same concerns.

But in this scenario your best option is to create a new account. Stalking in the real world wouldn't be a problem if we would make completely brand new version of ourselves. Currently with keys, a technological savy SL stalker can find you even if you get a new name and the old one is deleted.

It seems to me that we're going to have to have easy access to keys for the name changing not to change into a huge griefing tool. If security scripts continue to ban people based on names, and not keys, then a name change will be an easy way around getting banned...


Kyushu