As some of you will know, I’m considering my future strategy for the web site and forum software, particularly to try to get the main web site and forum more integrated, e.g. single logon and ability to use forum info on the main site.
There aren’t a lot of options that meet my requirements. One option is to change the forum software to SimpleMachines www.simplemachines.org and then integrate that with Mambo Open Source www.mamboserver.com aka MOS.
Having tried a test migration, I’ve found the alpha test integration component works fairly well, but it has highlighted a problem. MOS only allows alphanumeric usernames, i.e. no spaces, dots, dashes or other odd characters are allowed.
Approx 10 % of the forum usernames would be affected, i.e. approx 70+ users (although some of the affected users may no longer be actively using the forum). I’d like to find out how people affected by the problem would react to a change of username. Please vote in the poll.
The Poll options are:
1 - I don’t think my username would be affected - if you’ve just got letters and/or numbers in your username this probably applies.
2- I’d be happy for the incompatible characters to be removed automatically - would require some manual effort for me, but I can do it fairly quickly before the migration with no further user input. There is likely to be some confused users who wouldn’t be sure what their new username was.
3- I’d prefer to register again and choose a compatible username - the easiest option for me, but it does mean I have to wait for the affected users to do this before I can migrate.
4- I’d prefer to choose a new compatible username for my existing account - requires manual effort for me and I have to wait for affected users to tell me their chosen usernames.
I would prefer to use just one option.
Feel free to comment/ask questions…
