Hi all, over the past year I’ve been lurking rather than posting. Several reasons: (1) Broke - my eldest daughter got married 2 weeks ago and the wedding plans have totally dominated my family’s life [and finances] over the past 10 months. (2) I dismantled my old layout to build a new one that makes better use of the available space, with no duckunders. And (3) I’ve decided to stop modeling CSX and return to my first love, the B&O of the early 1970’s. I want a layout with interlocking towers, depots, coaling towers and…cabeese! [:D]
With my daughter out of the house, I can now stop using my trainroom as a warehouse and resume work on the layout. The benchwork is built, my next task is laying the track. In the meantime, I have to refurbish my fleet of B&O locos from 8 years ago: Retire those units with substandard drives, and install decoders in the ones I plan to keep. I do not look forward to trying to sell all my CSX stuff, but it’s the only way I can get the money to rebuild a 1970s-era fleet of rolling stock.
I wish it was possible to change my username without destroying my existing account and starting a new one from scratch, but that’s not an option. So I’ve simply changed my avatar to show an example of the type of motive power that will inhabit the new pike. No more CSX for this kid!
Too bad you had to dismantle your old layout. I really liked the picture of the ore bridge you shared on the “show me something”’ thread, it was really great modeling. I’m positive your new layout will be just as great when you get working on it, so hopefully you’ll post some pics of the work you do on it.
As for the lack of us not being able to change our user name, I always thought that is a feature that should be entitled to us, even eBay let’s you change your user name (and they’re larger than this site). I’d suggest contacting customer service to see if anything can be done to help you change your user name. Maybe the moderators can shed some light on the matter or tell you of a better way to get the name changed.
Why not just change your username and start from scratch? Just add a note to your signature, something like “aka CSX road slug”. What are you really giving up?
I will lose links to all the old threads I’ve started under my current handle. If the forum database software works like most others I’ve seen, it erases all of the “child” records [e.g. threads, replies, and PMs] as it deletes the “parent” record [my account]. It’s a data-integrity type of thing.
Ahh, I see your point. Maybe the Forum Administrators should take this into consideration and see if it isn’t possible to change a username. I could see where it could be problematic to just let members change their screen names at will. But, maybe, such requests for a name change could be submitted with the reasons for the change and then the request could be taken under advisement.
This issue probably goes beyond Kalmbach’s corporate policy. If they had an IT administrator in-house who was saavy with relational databases, they could write an SQL script that goes in and replaces every occurrence of “CSX_road_slug” to the new username. But if they are using commercial “off-the-shelf” software, that type of data manipulation generally isn’t possible.
Do you know the username of the Kalmbach employee supervising the forums? Maybe I’ll email him/her and see if the idea is doable…
Unless it’s VERY early on in the process (i.e. 5 posts or <), Customer Service will not change a person’s user name. The reason being is that it keeps trolls and members (with a propensity for stirring up things) from changing and hiding their identity quickly with a name change.
eBay and the MR forum are completely different animals. Since the user doesn’t publicly post messages on eBay, the user’s feedback score is what gives a seller knowledge about a certain buyer and that follows him or her around indefinitely.
So, I don’t see Kalmbach ever changing their policy on name changes.
Keep the name and the avatar. CSX slug could imply that while the CSX is charging into the future, the B&O has been left behind. All my equipment is lettered for the B&O of the fifties
Incidentally, I always enjoyed the B&O here in St. Louis, but I really became a fan when my daughter lived in Baltimore for 10 years and we visited each summer. That was in the days of the Chessie System but there was still a lot of old equipment around. The B&O Museum is the best.
You could always look at it like this. CSX is just a road of slugs, and B&O is the real deal![;)]
PS, When do ya think you’ll be back down this way? The main level trackwork is complete, and we’ve started on the third level benchwork. I know that Rex would like to have you over again as well.
I dunno Carey, probably not until next summer. My SIL and family came up here to MD for Sarah’s wedding, so we’ve all kind of seen enough of each other for this season [swg]. Give my regards to Rex, and to “sherriff” Jim if you see him!
No argument from me in regards of ebay and the MR forum being different. I only mentioned one’s ability to change the user name on ebay because of how ebay handles that. Ebay usually put an icon by the new user name reflecting a name change, this notice stays on for 30 days. I’m not sure how frequently one can change the user name but I’m pretty certain that there is limit. Now if a site that has people exchanging money can allow name changes, I don’t see why a site that has people exchanging thoughts prevents it.
It would be nice to be able to do the same on this forum and I agree that the potential for trolling could be a problem here if names could be changed at will. Perhaps if a 30-day (or more) grace period is enforced and maybe a limit to the amout of times one could change their name (once every year or two) problems could be controlled. I also like the idea of submitting a request with the reasons why a name change is desired to the IT dept., but if the present forum software prevents that, maybe they’ll consider this feature in future forum software upgrades.