(NOTE: READ POST BEFORE REPLYING)

Username changing is a rejected suggestion because it could cause confusion about who is who, and it will lag servers. I have a solution to this issue. Instead of users' usernames being changed within the server, it would only be a visual change, and other users can view other users' previous usernames. By it only being a visual change, it won't cause confusion within the Scratch Team, especially for moderation. And to minimize lag, a user can only change their username every 30 days. Here's some concept art of a profile header with this feature.

Interesting idea. (correct me if I get it wrong) So, the URL of the users page will always stay the same, but the username at the header will change?

geometric_ghast wrote:

Interesting idea. (correct me if I get it wrong) So, the URL of the users page will always stay the same, but the username at the header will change?

Exactly.

MontyDoggo wrote:

geometric_ghast wrote:

Interesting idea. (correct me if I get it wrong) So, the URL of the users page will always stay the same, but the username at the header will change?

Exactly.

Then will they have to change every account URL to an ID instead?

god286 wrote:

MontyDoggo wrote:

geometric_ghast wrote:

Interesting idea. (correct me if I get it wrong) So, the URL of the users page will always stay the same, but the username at the header will change?

Exactly.

Then will they have to change every account URL to an ID instead?

Not quite sure about that.

god286 wrote:

MontyDoggo wrote:

geometric_ghast wrote:

Interesting idea. (correct me if I get it wrong) So, the URL of the users page will always stay the same, but the username at the header will change?

Exactly.

Then will they have to change every account URL to an ID instead?

Probably. Accounts are already setup with a user ID attached to them, so they would switch (example) scratch.mit.edu/users/geometric_ghast to scratch.mit.edu/users/38411929

this would cause still a lot of confusion, and AFAIK its probably still rejected.

also changing a large number of URLs can't be good for SEO and stuff probably

I do know that this is suggested and i did do create a topic about this suggestion, but if many scratchers DO suggest this, there might be an solution to show the old username below ⇓ the current username. I think this suggestion will still be rejected, but this may be possible to solutionize this problem. Keyword: show old username, topic , suggestion rejection, many scratcher suggests this, scratch team rejects this. Quote: have this discuss page have been used for updates

Hydrate

Jeffalo wrote:

this would cause still a lot of confusion, and AFAIK its probably still rejected.

Yep, that's right. The ability to change usernames would make the moderators' jobs much more difficult. While adding a “previous usernames” list would be better than not having one, it is still not as easy as not giving Scratchers the ability to change their usernames.

In particular, it couldn't be just a visual change since the URL for each profile depends on the Scratcher's account name. If the URL didn't change when someone changed their username, that would just add to the confusion. But if it did, that would be quite a bit of work on our part. It's already difficult for us to manually change a username.

Keep thinking of ways to improve Scratch!