Value of using full names instead of nicknames in site registration

Pierre George 4:39 PM
i call it a vision...it is not a functionnal spec .....it is a way to communicate
i do not know if and how it can be implemented in drupal .. i am basically trying to meet some concerns of pluralism - horizontality - decentralizasion - accountability etc...
Benjamin Melançon 4:41 PM
Well one part that would be good to work out-- do we ask for real names or not? We can't enforce it, but we can encourage people to use their full name to log in
Pierre George 4:41 PM
it makes sense ... because that how they know each other
4:43 PM
in wsfprocess there is a username it is only use for using the site - the real name is displayed all the time
4:44 PM
i log as pierre and Pierre George is displayed in the participant list of my orgs and groups
4:46 PM
in wsf2008.net Piere George would be displayed in the GM 2008 directory - would be displayed when people access my public profile whereever i post a mesage on the list, or in the wiki, or if iam a coed of an activity etc...
4:47 PM
may be this does not answer your point :" use their full name to log in"- do you mean there is no user name just the plain name ?
Pierre George added Jason to this chat
4:48 PM
Pierre George 4:49 PM
jason says he will be wiht us in about a half hour ....
Benjamin Melançon 4:51 PM
cool
4:52 PM
Yeah, it can be easier to just use one name.
4:52 PM
Or we can give people a username that only they see, and use their public name for all posts, listings, etc.
Pierre George 4:53 PM
they might forget it ...
4:53 PM
but it can be recalled by some reminders
Benjamin Melançon 4:53 PM
However, that would take some custom development and might be slightly increased use of the sites resources, another call to the database
4:53 PM
yes.
4:53 PM
about the reminders
4:53 PM
but that's why I like to encourage people to use their real name as their login name
4:54 PM
in my opinion, "username" as a different handle we give ourselves is a holdover from when sites couldn't take names with spaces etc.
4:54 PM
which Drupal can take
4:54 PM
So, for people who are new to web sites and logging in, asking for their full name is actually friendlier than asking them to come up with a nickname.
4:55 PM
But many people are used to their nicknames, etc.
4:56 PM
So the deciding factor is, do we want to encourage anonymity or posting as nicknames, or basically tell people "give us your real name" and if they have to lie if they want to appear as someone other than they are.
4:56 PM
The latter was my intended approach, since we'll be registering 6,000+ people who gave real names, not nicknames.
4:56 PM
But that's definitely a policy decision, so I belatedly thought to bring it up!
Pierre George 4:57 PM
we cannot prevent people from registering several times with differing names ....
Benjamin Melançon 4:57 PM
No, nor from giving false names. The question is what we want to encourage.
Pierre George 4:57 PM
in a forum people give their real names ....
Benjamin Melançon 4:57 PM
If we want real names to be associated with posts, etc. then there's not much sense in asking for a nickname.
Pierre George 4:58 PM
it is just shorter to type- otherwise i do not see the real interest of it
4:59 PM
Pierre George is longer than pierre , and if i have to log in many times it becomes a problem ... but otherwise
4:59 PM
what is the drupal site practice ?
Benjamin Melançon 5:00 PM
You can also log in with your e-mail, though that may not be any shorter.
5:00 PM
Drupal site most people use nicknames. (I use my full name.)
Pierre George 5:00 PM
how was it done in ussf ?
5:00 PM
i kind of remember i had no nickname
Benjamin Melançon 5:01 PM
For the world social forum Dan pointed out that we're likely to see first names doubled (even full names!)
5:01 PM
It's also one less field for people to type in
5:01 PM
though it would make it harder to sort lists by first and last name.
Pierre George 5:01 PM
what do you mean pierre pierre ?
Benjamin Melançon 5:02 PM
No, I mean there will likely be many people named Pierre, but only you could use that as your login name.
Pierre George 5:02 PM
you mean first come get the name and others have to find anohter one
5:03 PM
then it becomes like finding a mail adress . mine is pierregrg because pierre.george and what have you was already taken
Benjamin Melançon 5:03 PM
right. So having everyone use their full name makes things more equal in a sense
Pierre George 5:04 PM
but the number of people considered is lower for the moment this is not gmail ....
Benjamin Melançon 5:04 PM
But it's not the kind of site where everyone is on a first-name basis
Pierre George 5:04 PM
yes because there are not so many doubling of full names and you can add a - sign to differentiate
5:04 PM
no you are right
Benjamin Melançon 5:05 PM
especially since the 6,000+ preregistered people will have full names, my strong recommendation is to ask everyone to do so.
Pierre George 5:05 PM
where does this 6000 figure comes from ?
Benjamin Melançon 5:06 PM
This will also make it very easy to identify spam registrants, come to think of it. And give us a reason if we block someone by accident.
Pierre George 5:06 PM
why so ?
Benjamin Melançon 5:06 PM
um, I have a bad memory for numbers. Let me check the current www.ussf2008.net
Pierre George 5:06 PM
you mean wsf2008.net it is 1600
Benjamin Melançon 5:06 PM
err, wsf2008.net
Pierre George 5:06 PM

Benjamin Melançon 5:07 PM
yes. Very bad with numbers AND letters
Pierre George 5:07 PM
i receive a lot of spam with fake names
Benjamin Melançon 5:07 PM
Well, on sites as I mentioned the norm is still nicknames. So while a spammer who sends an e-mail as John Smith would never register on a Drupal site as that
5:07 PM
jsmith at most
5:08 PM
and usually xythodxk
5:08 PM
unfortunately, xythodxk is on occasion a real person.
5:08 PM
So if we're fighting a mountain of spam (and we shouldn't, we'll have captcha)
5:09 PM
and have to block names, we can at least temporarily block xythodxk without looking at all of their registration info.
Pierre George 5:10 PM
well may be we can skip to the next point ... while having an option for real name registration ....to be confirmed
5:10 PM
is this an important point for you tehcnically speaking?
5:14 PM
around registration i have a concern which is to have fields associated in the person profile like organisations , networks to which she is affiliated ... can be several - how this profile is accessed by others and displayed in some contexts need to be defined

filling these fields would not be compulsory but highly recommeded....
Benjamin Melançon 5:15 PM
If we let people register with nicknames, and decide we want to show their real names with their posts, wiki edits, etc. Then yes, it's not trivial to work around something that could have been taken care of.
5:15 PM
Tell me more about registration concerns.
5:15 PM
organization listing... not sure I understand
Pierre George 5:16 PM
so you mean it is relatively easy to display the registration name everywhere but less easy to display other fields associated to it ....?

we are in a site where organisation is not an entity so organisations only exist as list of people profile , declared independently by each person
Benjamin Melançon 5:16 PM
Exactly.
5:16 PM
It would be a click or two away of course, but not displayed there.

Resolution