Being that there have been quite a few people requesting their anonymous userID's be changed to their name, I thought I'd give everyone an opportunity to change their IDs to their real names.
A few things to keep in mind:
1) Fred will only change a userID if it is to your real name.
2) The field is (only) 14 characters, so if you need to, do not include the 'space' between first and last names. The end of your last name will otherwise be truncated automatically. If you fall into this category, post a couple of your recommended alternatives.
3) Feel free to use an underscore ("_") instead of a space, if you wish. I would also recommend capitalizing the first letter of each name for clarity.
4) If you currently have a Gallery here at FM.com, the process is different, so please do not post to this thread, send me a PM instead.
5) Please remember that these IDs will be changed as we get to them, and thus at some point your old login will (suddenly) quit working. You need to enter the new userID (your password will remain the same) to log back on, so write it down. If there is some question as to what your new ID will be (i.e. due to truncation issues), I will try to e-mail you to advise you of the new userID. Note that in 'typical' cases I will not PM or e-mail to advise you of the change, as it would triple the amount of work to accomplish the change. I believe the Forum & Miscellaneous board is viewable as a 'guest', so you can always re-visit the thread and look for your post in a worst-case scenario.
For those of you with privacy concerns, this is not (currently) required, it is just a suggestion. Along those lines and for your information, if you never return an e-mail sent by an FM.com member, they cannot discover your e-mail address. Also, if you don't have any kind of 'regional' identification in your signature or your linked website (like a city name or state), it makes it further unlikely that any privacy issues will be a problem.
In summary, our experience with the forums leads us to believe that having non-anonymous IDs fosters the 'community spirit' that so many of us found unique and appealing when we first joined the site. I hope people take advantage of this opportunity to help make FM.com one of the best digital photography forums on the internet. Also, please feel free to change your avatar to a 60x60 image of yourself, since it can make communication in the forums just that much more 'personal'.
Take care, and keep shooting!
Jeff
FM.com Moderator
PS: Please only post change requests to this thread; feel free to PM me if you have questions.
