adding a field for people who want to list their real names

I agree, although the list at left is already pretty extensive and I'm not sure if they allow more custom fields or not. But, it would be nice. If my speculation really is the case, possibly you could combine Orientation/Out Status into one category, such as, "Gay/Out," "Bi/Out to Friends," "Questioning/Not Out," or some such.

 

I think it would be nice, more personal. Since we all come from all over the world there is little chance that we will ever meet up face to face so I can't see why we can't use our own names.

 

id like it 2, i like ppl callin me tom not by my screen name and those that want to know my real name i tell em.

 

Oh god definately! i barely know any names and everyone seems to know my name. i'm a little slow with names. didn't know my best friend at schools name til end of second semester. sad.

 

i don't know about that but some fields are really unessisary. i don't think out status is that big a deal because thats what the coming out section is for so in anyone reads it you kinda know whos out and not. and location isn't too important. if you really want to know that it they can just look in the profile.

 

Why not just have your usernames changed to what you want to be called?

 

cause usernames are fun and there is a lot of people who want to be called the same thing (same names). since we don't know names already then we would forgot who certain members are.

 

The side panel seems to be getting awfully cluttered (just a personal observation). Perhaps putting it in your profile would solve it?

 

I agree. You have your name on your profile by the way... Micah. (You prefer Micah right?)

 

Not everyone would view Post number and Join date as being less significant. For a large portion of members EC is about the security that comes with anonymity. Therefore there would be a great deal of members who wouldn't fill in the name feature.

No, I'm not saying that it shouldn't be implemented just because some members wouldn't use it. I am, however, pointing out that its rank of importance is going to be different for everyone.

Not listening would involve not paying attention to this thread and not having 2 mods post their thoughts and considerations (to spark discussion and work out possible solutions or alternatives).

 

Well Micah is my first name, David is one of my middle names. I don't really have a preference on what I'm called, but these days at least I'm more commonly referred to as Micah, rather than David. /shrug. I might change my username

 

And he did!

What about putting the name you want to be called in your signature? Then it appears beneath your post, just where your real name would in a letter or email etc?

You could put whatever info you want to appear in all your posts there (within reason).

I still don't like the idea of putting anything else on the left side, but if we did perhaps an "Other Info" field would be better? Then if people didn't want to put their real names there but wanted to put some other info (such as "I Love Zac Efron"), they could.

Or how about we allow everyone, rather than just those with over 500 posts, to have a custom title under their names? You could then put your real name there if you wanted to (with other stuff, such as "Charlie, Emo Lover!").

I have now added the status of mods and admins as fixed text under our names so we can have custom titles too (previously if we set a custom title it would lose our status).

 

OMG that would SO not be fair! i like how we get the titles. i had to wait till 500 posts for it. it wouldn't be fair for people just to get it. and i can tell people like having that goal. seeing as most people get to 500 pretty quick. if you could just have it at 250 but making it go away all together isn't fair.

 

To be honest I don't think people would use their custom user title for their name =] People tend to like "titles" better.

 

Yup. For example, me and the weird "Miaplacidus - Rainbow Warrior" combination. And I'm Fred for everyone.

 

Rainbow warrior's cute =p

I do think signature is the best option.

 

i agree, i think the sigs prob the best option, cos then you can put whateve info you want...