Display name change for admin, depending on the date

[rustyadmin]

The situaition is this, as would be many forums:

The admin of board has changed hands. Sometimes news admins do not want to be associated with what a previous admin did but all admin posts will be associated with him/her regardless of display name change.

The idea is to have code which, when it is an admin post, shows the display name depending on the date.
I'm pretty sure I had code like this when I was the admin of a board several years ago; I'm pretty sure its doable, but it was an older version of proboards and I've forgotten the details.

[Tim Camara]

Account sharing is actually against the TOS. Section 8 states: 

You may not use the account, user name, or password of any other member at any time.

[rustyadmin]

Surely admin is an exception. I can understand the rule for other members but if the original creator of the forum decides to leave, he may hand the reigns onto somebody else. Otherwise, once a founder leaves, the forum could fold. You can't tell me that forums abide by that rule for change of admin. Admins are changing all the time.

[Stinky666]

Aug 7, 2013 20:00:00 GMT -8 rustyadmin said:

Surely admin is an exception. I can understand the rule for other members but if the original creator of the forum decides to leave, he may hand the reigns onto somebody else. Otherwise, once a founder leaves, the forum could fold. You can't tell me that forums abide by that rule for change of admin. Admins are changing all the time.

If this happens then they can hand over ownership of the admin account to someone else, by making a new thread in the Support board on this forum

[rustyadmin]

I don't see the point. I've taken over admin of a forum recently, it was handed to me. I was given the password so could go in and change the global account link. Why is the ability there to do it, if I am now being told it is wrong?

[Stinky666]

Aug 8, 2013 2:59:29 GMT -8 rustyadmin said:

I don't see the point. I've taken over admin of a forum recently, it was handed to me. I was given the password so could go in and change the global account link. Why is the ability there to do it, if I am now being told it is wrong?

The ability isn't there for people to do it.
The way in which people like yourself do it, is simply the normal way of logging in.

[rustyadmin]

So, getting back to the OP, this is a legitmate request then, isn't it?

[Ryan Roos]

What Stinky666 said is correct.


To expand on what Tim Camara was trying to explain to you...

The TOS rule was specifically created for 'admin' accounts. That is the account above all others that cannot be shared. When admins share accounts and one of them decides to break the partnership it can get messy. When we get involved we then have to determine who the real admin is. We have a few ways of doing this that I won't share here. But needless to say, any account you think you've taken over you haven't. At any time the original admin can come make a claim and you'll lose your forum. If we catch you doing it, you could lose your forum. We receive claims all the time from fake admins trying to take control of forums. The systems we have in place are to protect legitimate admins from this. It also helps us return control to a real admin if someone manages to get the account and change the password. We prove the original admin is who they say they are and their forum is returned and restored (as much as possible).

To prevent the scenarios above (and many more) we forbid the sharing of accounts. Maybe it's something as harmless as letting someone else log in as the admin to add a code. But this is the internet, you likely don't know them in real life. Even if you did, all too often the person simply changes the password and you're toast until you come to us for help. Transfers of ownership can be done officially here. All non-official transfers are treated just like any other dispute. We prove the original owner and that person gets the forum.

You can claim that admin transfers happen all the time, but that is not the case. And when they are happening unofficially they aren't really happening. As I said the original admin can take the forum back at any time even if it's just so they can delete it.

As for your request, you've put us in a bit of a bind. Your request isn't crazy and is even possible. Except you've told us that you're doing it because you break the rules often enough that you want a way to display names differently (since you and the admin before a date are different people). We can't help you with a request that directly ties into a violation of our terms of service. It's like asking us for a way to cut through glass, but you mentioned that it's because you intend to rob cars.

We will discuss this further. If we decide to move forward with the request we will post here letting others know they can help you.

---

One last thought that may apply to you to help understand why this is a problem...

Let's say, hypothetically, that you have already taken over as forum admin on one of our forums. You did this unofficially. 2 Years passes. Somehow, someway, someone else gets into your account and changes the password. Doesn't matter how it happened. You come to us for help to get your forum back. The forum you've been admin of for 2 years. We ask you some questions and look at some info and we find that you aren't the original admin at all. We deny your claim. The bad person keeps the forum (possibly) and they then destroy it. We have no way of helping you since we have no way of proving you are who you claim. And depending on the circumstances the person who currently has control doesn't need to defend who they are (most of the time). Because you didn't officially transfer the forum there's nothing we can do.

[rustyadmin]

Funny you should say that. That is exactly what happened with another forum I was given to run for quite a while. I shared the password with someone I had trusted and they shared it with someone they trusted but that third person didn't like how I was running it and one day I found myself locked out of the forum. This person drove away some of our most loyal members and it's now pretty desolate. This person that took it over has mental problems and there is no reasoning with them to give it back.

The first person who started it has long gone but had handed over the reigns to me. I was told by someone, when trying to get it back, that I needed the original password and to come to you guys with that. But I only had the password he had left me which wasn't the original one.

Anyone, I had no idea about the TOS as regards to all this. Thanks for clearing that up.

Another thing that occured at the time of all this mess - there were other forums around the same topic with many cross-over members. At the time I asked for some automatic way to import/export posts and threads from one forum to another which would be handy. Presumably this can not be done.

If it COULD however, one could create a new forum, then copy the posts, then destroy the orginal forum. But then there would be the problem with the forum name. The current one is perfect; any alteration to the name would not be as good. You could go further though by recreating the forum after destroying it and copying again.

The forum I have been given has only been going for a few weeks so I don't think it's worth the effort. There are not that many posts. I'm thinking it may be superfluous to what we want in any case. I might create a facebook page and/or group instead.

I take it as current admin I can still physically remove the forum?

[Ryan Roos]

We talked about it and your request can be fulfilled by any member who would like to assist you with this. However we also request that you cease account sharing.

The prime admin can delete a forum. If you want to transfer ownership in the future come to Support and post in the Support board. Feel free to start a new forum yourself any time you want. As for your copying between forums request, you are correct that it is not possible.

[rustyadmin]

The forum has been deleted.