difference between ‘display name’ and ‘nickname’

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So what is the difference between ‘display name’ and ‘nickname’? And where are each displayed. And which is in the database for DM?

I am asking again as it was never answered in a closed thread.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Cybertooth

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wavy’s Profile @ AskWoody

You can see yours here.  Most of the time they are the same.  I believe the nickname is used for DM, it’s the users in the wordpress database.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan, I’m curious: why wouldn’t the “display name” and the “nickname” just automatically be (and stay) the same when someone registers, what is the technical reason? Seems to me this seemingly artificial distinction has led to needless confusion, certainly so in my case.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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It does.  I was trying to find a workaround for the DM issue the other day so I only changed one not the other.  There’s no confusion in the software.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Cybertooth

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Susan Bradley wrote:

I believe the nickname is used for DM, it’s the users in the wordpress database.

Also, the poster’s username will not turn blue when you use an ‘@’ with it, unless that is the poster’s profile name, too.

MVP Alejr is an example. Maybe, you’ve noticed that the username with an ‘@’ — @Alejr — will not turn blue because that is not the profile name. The profile name of Alejr is @bigal67. That left me confused until Alejr explained.

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Cybertooth

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I signed up to create a profile a few years ago as Willygirl, and later changed my username to Myst, as it stands now. But my profile name Willygirl is still active and valid for reference in “tagging”, username Myst doesn’t work for tagging or as a search for PM.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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Kirsty

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WCHS wrote:

MVP Alejr is an example. Maybe, you’ve noticed that the username with an ‘@’ — @Alejr — will not turn blue because that is not the profile name. The profile name of Alejr is @bigal67. That left me confused until Alejr explained.

It’s even stranger than that!

If I select “Edit Profile” on the upper left of the forum where my name is displayed, it shows the following for my profile:

                Username: bigal67
     Nickname (required): Big Al
Display name publicly as: alejr (with 6 other options in a "drop-down")

I know from experience that, to send someone a message, I must use the name that appears with the @ in front of it when I view their profile like this.

Which is not always the same as the display name shown in their posts and, at least in my case, may not be their Nickname.

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WCHS, Cybertooth

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Just another Forum Poster wrote:

If I select “Edit Profile” on the upper left of the forum where my name is displayed, it shows the following for my profile:

Username: bigal67
Nickname (required): Big Al
Display name publicly as: alejr (with 6 other options in a “drop-down”)

Maybe, you see it this way because you have more viewer privileges than a regular user does. I see a much more extensive editing display with fields for First Name, Last Name, in addition to Display name. There is also a field for ‘Nickname’, but it doesn’t say anything about it’s being required.

Since all are the same, it’s not as confusing, in my case. But, still confusing where all three are different!

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Myst

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WCHS wrote:

Maybe, you see it this way because you have more viewer privileges than a regular user does. I see a much more extensive editing display with fields for First Name, Last Name, in addition to Display name.

I also see all those other fields, if fact, the 6 other options shown in the drop-down for my “Display name publicly as” are various combinations of what’s in those other fields.

I didn’t mention them in my post as the thread is about display name vs nickname and sending messages and I wanted to keep it “on-topic“.

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WCHS

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Can anybody give a cogent explanation for offering (1)  a “Username”, (2) a “Display name”, and (3) a “Nickname”??? And then a cogent explanation of the purpose of making any of them different from the others? All I can see this accomplishing is to create confusion and head-scratching, as attested in this thread.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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WCHS

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I think the issue is that we have two pieces of software – the DM uses wordpress.  The forum uses bbpress – that are offering up users/profiles/names etc.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Cybertooth

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I think it’s a matter of getting the site developers to talk with Susan. Frankly, I’m not too concerned and try to work with what’s handed to me here. I’ve noted in my first comment how I discovered there was a “nickname” or “username” vs “Profile” name, and the process in trying to ‘tag’ someone in a comment, or performing a search in “Private Messaging”. That process being you need to know the member’s profile name to properly link a tag or message them. The way to do this is check on an individual’s profile to see their associated name to their main account that is labeled with “@“ and their profile name at the very top. Originally I wanted to just explain how I discovered the multi-identifications associated with setting up an account membership here at AskWoody. Whatever the site developers and Susan do is fine with me. I make adjustment transitions easily.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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WCHS

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Corrections:

WCHS wrote:

MVP Alejr is an example. Maybe, you’ve noticed that the username display name with an ‘@’ — @Alejr — will not turn blue because that is not the profile name profile name /username. The profile name profile name/username of Alejr is @bigal67. That left me confused until Alejr explained.

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[Fred]

Still doesn’t show my correct display-name :

“Fred” gives no return, “@Fred” “@fred” no results

Suggested to let you set my socalled nickname to “FredNL” gives nothing to be found.

Is there a good manual that can be used?

.

And now, when there is a posting announcement letter the posting link number (#1234567) has disappeared since the socalled httpS change in addressing was made.

OscarCP has posted and it’s disappeared.

Why is that?

* _ ... _ *

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Fred.

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Sorry was busy with the newsletter. I’ll get back to this today.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Fred wrote:

And now, when there is a posting announcement letter the posting link number (#1234567) has disappeared since the socalled httpS change in addressing was made. OscarCP has posted and it’s disappeared. Why is that?

Is there anybody out here?

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I’m not sure I understand what you mean?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Quite exact what the text is …: In new words

When there is a announcement email message informing that there is a posting at the website, the posting link number (#1234567) has disappeared from the text since the httpS change was made in addressing.
This posting IDnr #1234567 was and is very handy in keeping notes and to find back.

By the way, OscarCP has posted some of his thoughts and they disappeared. How come??

* _ ... _ *

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New url

https://mailing.askwoody.com/ls/click?upn=tSTtfkD6AO4rCWorsw-2F-2BQA3aqw4CGUcAhFe8CcRhI8D-2Fpjg8VElK6N2gwixO5ET-2FBmbHLEQmHzUSLZwkVPxqARevxFduRES3qtpUzASm3HA-3D_BPg_VwG7l-2Bdpw-2FSyVraKcVbQVol2bxhPosXzk4R4pYipcOCiq9Q7tQB4V-2F-2BCiArjtCA6wcPOrCkkEQR134vMg6VAttf5HYcWFWA1iSocs5VGuUA5kcbhl5TVnNB5ATwUtjbU6dcEgb9ciaz-2FkoRJUpts9q2m6i6xv-2BunohmhLiKG8yb1fypd8yYpoXRqmrzoYGiFkg703hLhA6VoAgTwiH7lFA-3D-3D

 

Old url way

Post Link: https://u7211552.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=tSTtfkD6AO4rCWorsw-2F-2BQA3aqw4CGUcAhFe8CcRhI8D-2Fpjg8VElK6N2gwixO5ET-2FBmbHLEQmHzUSLZwkVPxqAct3KX7vDZwPzsE-2B4eJ82s4-3DtIwL_VwG7l-2Bdpw-2FSyVraKcVbQVol2bxhPosXzk4R4pYipcODKtJT1lyI1Y2hdrF1HIYYvjuWJcoVQPEnArmVC-2BtnsH9X974yM3BDbQVcVoc7TAgn4XiSUXKjKW-2BT3j8l-2B6z-2BP4bBT3jmxlNby0YYi2DCmL-2FFpeEoZrz4-2BwGhHPHKaGpQNupKTDOCKIMSsG7tTFTpNPAp7y7UQIGCjJHUen-2FW2EQ-3D-3D

Where’s the code for the posting number?  The link will get you to the post.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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b

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Cybertooth wrote:

Can anybody give a cogent explanation for offering (1)  a “Username”, (2) a “Display name”, and (3) a “Nickname”??? And then a cogent explanation of the purpose of making any of them different from the others? All I can see this accomplishing is to create confusion and head-scratching, as attested in this thread.

 

I do not believe so, it is insane.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Fred, Cybertooth

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Again, it’s due to different parts of the site.  Username = log into the site

Display and nickname are typically the same (they are when they start) but can be edited.

I didn’t build the software folks, I just deal with it.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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SueW

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If I missed it please forgive me but maybe this should be a sticky in the forum.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Fred

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wavy wrote:

Cybertooth wrote:

Can anybody give a cogent explanation for offering (1)  a “Username”, (2) a “Display name”, and (3) a “Nickname”??? And then a cogent explanation of the purpose of making any of them different from the others? All I can see this accomplishing is to create confusion and head-scratching, as attested in this thread.

 

I do not believe so, it is insane.

I think you are putting it right Wavy. I did not dig-in deep enough to be sure enough about this, but it may look like this is a matter of Bad-database-management, at least between two different pieces of software that are not meant to cooperate with each other. The one software is a (free) plugin in the other software (WordPress-free). For sure these databases must operate differently in order to prevent easy cooperation. After all it’s the business model of WordPress to sell the use with plugins and all; mostly there’s a ‘nice’ maintenance contracts for that.

It’s a nice puzzle, and interesting to get explained by some sort of a database administrator in this matter.

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https://wpforo.com/community/faq/nickname-vs-username-vs-display-names/

Username is what you log in with.  This needs to be unique for obvious reasons and not the same as Nickname or display name.

You may not think it makes sense, but as showcased in this post, it’s for security reasons so that attackers can’t guess the log in.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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wavy

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The business model is that the plug ins are not free.  There are a lot of additional software beyond the base of bbpress/wordpress that keep the site going. These are all (of course) subscription based.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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wavy, SueW

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wavy wrote:

If I missed it please forgive me but maybe this should be a sticky in the forum.

Yes it should be

* _ ... _ *

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wavy

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