A Forum Merge Problem of a different nature. (LONG)

[Krayt Tion]

I'm posting my lucasgamesforums problem in this thread as per instruction.

My problem here is not any duplicate names but the lack there of.

I'm sure you all realize by now that the 'duplicate' names are the result of the same users signing up for various forums under the same name.

For example, if a user signed up for the JediKnightII.Net forum under "Bob" and the GalacticBattles.Com forum under "Bob" you would find two entries for "Bob," each one reflecting Bob's respective accounts. I have yet to find an expection to this rule.

When the first merge between GalacticBattles and JediKnightII.Net was completed, I checked the user list and found two of my name because I had signed up for both forums. The dates for each account were perfectly reflective of the date I had joined each forum. Completely understandible.

Hours later, when it was still only those two forums merged together, I checked the usernames again. My gb.com username was gone. No big deal, I thought, since my JKII.net account has an earlier registration date and reflects more posting done by me. I noticed that although one of my "extra" accounts had been deleted that not one other person that I could notice had their extra account deleted.

Now let's fast foward to today. You've merged just about all of the forums in the lucasgames network, including the original jediknight.net forums. Cool, I thought, I'll be able to use my original name from 1997!

Nope. GONE. Only my JediKnightII.net account remains, while you can look at others like Kurgan, Aristotle, WeedSmoker, hell, anyone that I remember back from the original jk.net days still has a duplicate or original name from that time period. Except me. It was a time when UBB was so young it couldn't even keep track of the date you registered. It shows up on all the oldbies as 1969.

Guys, this wounds me. The JediKnight.Net forums were my first UBB forums, my first community forums, my first forums ever way back in 1997. The reason I came to JediKnightII.Net to moderate was due to the fond memories I had of that place during those times. Now, as the communities merge, I found I have lost my internet heritage, for very questionable reasons it seems.

I smell foul play. The removal of my duplicate GB name after I'd already seen it, combined with me not being able to find one damn person from the old days who doesn't have their old school duplicate name, makes me think it was manually deleted. I posted with my name on the jediknight.net boards just a few months ago so I know it was working fine.

I know how many things can go wrong with a massive move like this but I doubt you can chalk this up to server or computer error.

If someone in the adminstration deleted my extra names to somehow help me along, you might have well just slapped me in the face. :\

Please get back to me in this thread if you can, I still need to be attending to more wordly things at this time, and did not want to have to come out and say this.

-Krayt Tion

[ChrisC3po]

I'm not really sure what happened Krayt Tion. I'm sorry about that. But I really doubt it was intended...

I do believe a while back about 5,000 users were deleted from JK.net.

Also in UBB, you could have a different user name and alias, in vBulletin alias and user names are the same thing, which could be causing your problems.

[Aristotle]

Krayt, you're absolutely right about having your extra accounts removed. In fact, I removed them this morning after checking last night for some duplicate accounts for some people I saw online.. you were one of them I checked, only because I happen to see you online and know you've been with us for years.

I simply deleted the accounts with the lesser post numbers... which is what we intend to make a practice of unless someone specifies another account to use. It was actually just an attempt to help you out.

If you want some information changed in your profile to reflect something any other account gave you, just let us know.

Eventually, we want only ONE account for everyone.. in fact, I just deleted 3 of my own.

Oh.. by the way... you only had a couple other accounts each with less than 20 posts. If you're talking about your Old, old jk.net account.. Code Alliance guys wiped out about 2,500 old members on our forums a year or so ago by accident.

Kurgan is next on my hit list. :)

[Krayt Tion]

It might indeed just be a computer error, its just I am a tad bit disappointed to see it gone. At least I could have someone to blame if it was deleted. ;)

I never had any aliases in UBB so I doubt that is it.

Some suggestions while I'm here- I recommend you give people a choice about what account they would like to keep. If they can't reach you in a certain time you'll just have to make your own call. That way we can avoid people being as upset as I am.

The way it looks to me is either you do some extra work now to communicate with people or you do extra work later dealing with people that are upset because their original account was deleted.

I wish I had to time to give some more suggestions now but as you are aware I cannot. Good luck with the rest of the transition.

[Krayt Tion]

Whoops, Aris snuck in there while I posted.

*Wipes Brow*

Thanks for the reply. Well, it is good to know what is going on then. As long as you can chance any of the details in the profile its all good by me! Situation resolved.

Before hearing your comments, Aristotle, I recommended giving people a choice. You explained that you were going by post count and not registration date, which is fine for some, bad for others. I think as long as you announce that all duplicate accounts will be deleted based on post count unless the adminstration is contacted within X amount of time, you guys should be fine.

Thanks for responding so quickly guys. :)

[Redwing]

I'm hurt...my account at RS is gone...I'm not a Rogue anymore...I don't have 4227 posts, I have 4.... :(

If possible, could someone delete all my duplicate accounts except my Rogue Squadron one? I'll be forever in your debt :D

EDIT: From what Aris says, I guess that'll happen, but just making sure...^_^

[ZeroXcape]

I know I'm a bit late, but here's my two cents Krayt Tion:

I also joined JK.net back in the day '97 and network wide, I should have something like 5000 posts. Look at me now though, I've got a few dozen since I started over. While it is a pretty cool thing to be registered before some of these people were bord (heh) and have more posts then some forums... who cares? The people that know you are really what these forums are about, and if anyone questions your rank amoungst the community... just let them know.

We knew we'd lose many of the little things with the forum merge, but look at what we've already gained. "Out with the old and in with the new" ... and if you're both old and new, great :)

=======

Redwing: I'll look into it now. If you guys read Aristotle's announcement, that's what he was saying ;)

[ZeroXcape]

RedWing: someone must have already gotten to it :luke:

[Ikhnaton]

Krayt, if it makes you feel any better, my alternate username of Ike was deleted from any forums in which it existed.

[Krayt Tion]

Hey... this is a done deal as far as I'm concerned, the data can be changed. I'm not going to bother anyone with any profile changes until I am able to return to the forums. I felt a bit guilty about bringing up my issue with all the real pressing issues likely still in the lurch, but to be fair there was only one person that had used this forum for merger issues at the time of my post. Plus, I felt it best to find out the truth of my situation before it got lost in the cracks amidst all the other little things during my absence.

In response to zX, : to each his own, I say.

I'm not terribly concerned with post counts, heck, jkii.net users likely know me as the premiere Force Long Post master behind Kurgan and certainly Kurt Plummer. ;) Just say no to Spam, kids. I've preached quality over quanity any day and posted many a thesis to match.

I am also in a very difficult position right now with my absence, being on the outside only able to look in most of the time. Haven't felt this frustrated for a long time and despite assurances I'm just trying to preserve what I can, sorry if I've come off a little overzealous.

Finally, I agree we've gained so much with this merger. Star Wars is going through a gaming Renaissance right now thanks to the re-doubled efforts of LEC. Not only do we have some great games that are either out or up and coming, but we have a new, unified community to embrace them all. [btw, long time no see Ike.] Frankly, I haven't been part of anything quite like this since I've been on the internet, no matter what forums I have joined. This is an exciting time for all Star Wars gamers and I look forward to my return! Good luck peoples, see you all eventually on the forums and in gaming nirvana.

[Aristotle]

Krayt,

You're a class act, and there's always a seat at our table for you, whether you leave for 1 hour or 1 year.

Just remember to pop on in and join us for discussions...whether good, bad or indifferent. As that southern gent says on those motel commercials ... "We'll leave the light on for ya" :cool: