Changing user name

When I originally signed up for this site, I figured make up a name, just like any other. But MP.com has a different community and people use their real names. Is there anyway I can change my user name but keep the same tick list, contributions, photos, etc?

Send an email to Andy Laakmann, the site landlord, and he'll take care of it. Click on the Contact Andy Laakmann link on his home page.

ryami wrote:When I originally signed up for this site, I figured make up a name, just like any other. But MP.com has a different community and people use their real names. Is there anyway I can change my user name but keep the same tick list, contributions, photos, etc?

That's a really cool thing to do. There is history here with how this site came to be- how climbingboulder.com and other sites were being turned off and how this site got formed. Anyway, it involves the changing community and the elimination of the anonymous log-in. Those are key elements to the survival of the site.

Taking responsibility for what you say, putting your name and reputation on it, etc... it encourages a more responsible and pro-social community.

This is a cool post topic, good to read that the interest of this site is getting to know climbers as people.

Tony Bubb wrote:Taking responsibility for what you say, putting your name and reputation on it, etc... it encourages a more responsible and pro-social community.

I agree with Tony's statment, but would add a different reason people might make up a name when they sign up for MP.com - concern about posting too much personal information on the internet. I just went with my first and middle name when I joined MP.com a year ago. However, after meeting and climbing with several MP.com members I met through this site, I wouldn't have an issue with using my full name anymore. In general, I judge the postings by individuals who use their real name to be more credible than those posted by individuals using a made-up name. Furthermore, I'd be much more likely to go climb with someone new if they use their real name (though for women partners, I'm less concerned about the use of first-name only).

Ryan Kane would like to thank Andy! Goodbye anonymity!

Ryan, sorry to be late on this subject, but what was your nickname before you came out? The BASE jumping forums are usually hardcore with the nicknames thing, and they talk a TON of smack.

edit to add: You mock with your quickness again Avery!

Cool move ryami.

Kateri Ann wrote:I'd be much more likely to go climb with someone new if they use their real name...

KA-

I have both a real first and last name -- wanna go climb or something?

Kateri Ann wrote: I'd be much more likely to go climb with someone new if they use their real name..

Hey Avery - you no longer qualify as "someone new" :)

For what it's worth, my use of a nickname is not because I want to be anonymous; it's laziness! I'm registered with my current nickname on several other climbing-related sites and just used the same one here so I wouldn't have to keep straight which username to use on which site.

Anyway, my real name is included in my user profile for everyone to see. Other details by request only, heh heh.

John Liles

And Sven, I bet you don't even live in Colorado. Your just posting that to be cool aren't you.... It's ok to tell us Mississippi is your home state....

Dave Holliday wrote:There really is no way of knowing if anyone's "real" sounding user id is actually their name... How I can independently verify that anybody is who they say they are on this forum? I can't and you can't so preferring the content of posts with a "real" sounding moniker seems a little off to me.

True, you don't know if someone's "real" name is their real name. The only way I have independently verified someone is who they say they are is by meeting them and getting to know them. Would I climb with everyone who had a "real" name on this site? No. I'd be more likely to consider going out with them, though, if they used their real name in addition to being frequent visitors on the site, posting decent comments (versus dumas statements), and if they appeared to have sufficient knowledge about the sport to be a safe partner. No matter how "ok" someone may seem, you really don't know until you meet them. So in my case I just use the "real name" as one of several filters. Also, when I go with someone new I invite them out with my current group of climbing friends for single-pitch cragging, until I know they're a competent climber and belayer and someone who I could trust.

Dave Holliday wrote:There really is no way of knowing if anyone's "real" sounding user id is actually their name. Ryan Kane, Tony Bubb, Kateri Ann, Dave Holliday, Mike Morley. How I can independently verify that anybody is who they say they are on this forum? I can't and you can't so preferring the content of posts with a "real" sounding moniker seems a little off to me.

Actually, I can. And it does not take much effort. I can start with the phone book, google, etc...
Then there is the fact of asking around, and it turns out that the community is so small that someone you know has likely heard of this individual if not met and climbed with them. I believe in the principle of the 7 degrees of separation. But it is more like 2 degrees in our little vertical world.

Anyone who googles the 'unlikely sounding' name Bubb will find out that there are a few Tony Bubb's out there- me, a British patent attorney, and a Dirshingham preacher who apparently played the organ nude, Oh, and my long-since-dead and formerly drunken great great uncle who died crossing a train track outside of his pub, and who's father sued the railroad... leaving legal documents from a century ago that are now all part fo court and property records and thus available on the net.

And anyone who googles me will know I've been climbing (or at least talking about it on the net) since 1991... when rec.climbing was formed, went to Purdue U from 1990-1995, run 5K races, run with the 'Satan's Minions' in the flatirons, (usually bringing up the rear) of the line-up, and that I got in flame wars with John Byrnes when I was 21 years old...

You can find out a lot about a lot of people on the net. Googling prospective dates is a modern trend. Why not climbing partners?

Personally I am most suspicious of people who will not stake their names and reps on what they have to say. That's not 100% of the time, but I generally trust well-filled-out profiles as opposed to others. Because it would be a lot of BS to go to just to fake one just to flame people.

Either way, that's how I see it, for right or wrong.

old name was ryami. randomly made up name to protect my identity, like I use on other sites. MP is different than other sites because climbing is a different activity. I feel safe with my identity in cyber-climbing-land because every single climber I've met has been a genuinely good person.
some of my best friends made during college have been climbing partners that I've known half as long as drinking buddies. climbing partners literally hold your safety/life in their hands - talk about building a trusting relationship!
also, when I'm not climbing (like today, f^@#ing rain), I check this site about a billion times a day to read the pointless rants, the useful climbing insights and to plan out my next adventure. there is some REALLY great stuff on this site and I'd like to thank everyone that has contributed to it.
Hank- I've tried not to talk too much smack, even before the name change. most of my posts regard pointless fun, aimed at my personal enjoyment in the climbing world as opposed to the personal attacks that sometimes play out in these forums.
one example was a post I started about playing with my nuts. I think I was drunk when I posted it and I definitely played on words to create humor but because of an anonymous name, a lot of people thought it was a hoax.
Muddbutt- sorry to hear you had undesirable results from using your real name. Lucky for you guys, I'm far too inexperienced to do anything stupid and important enough to affect anyone but my own safety.
As for knowing if real names are real, I guess I'm just a more trusting person by nature than others. Sure, it bites you in the ass sometimes but it also opens you up to see true beauty in the world and everybody in it.

I just took a look at Tony's profile here on the site and noticed that he's climbed with a friend of mine Vern S.

Small world, smaller climbing community.

Art Morimitsu wrote:I just took a look at Tony's profile here on the site and noticed that he's climbed with a friend of mine Vern S. Small world, smaller climbing community.

On several occasions over the years and in a few different places. Vern contacted me over MP.com to go climb Jules Verne in Eldo, several years back. He saw my profile and then mentioned my name to Craig Leubben, who I guess told Vern he knew me and that I was safe and competent. So he chose to look me up, in part because my name was right out there- no pseudonym to cloud the matter.

I was happy to have met and climbed with Vern before he passed on.

2 degrees of separation... The story repeats itself.

Dave Holliday wrote:There really is no way of knowing if anyone's "real" sounding user id is actually their name. Ryan Kane, Tony Bubb, Kateri Ann, Dave Holliday, Mike Morley. How I can independently verify that anybody is who they say they are on this forum? I can't and you can't so preferring the content of posts with a "real" sounding moniker seems a little off to me.

You can be pretty darn sure that my real name is what I say it is (Bobby Hanson). In particular, my profile has a link to my website, which is run by my employer. I guess, for full confidence, I should include a link from that website back to my mountain project profile. I will do so shortly.

Ryan, I didn't think you were smacktalking but thought the nickname thing encourages that on other sites. This sight is somewhat smackless compared to others fer sure.
Tony, stop changing your avatar 7 times a day. That's what crazy people do.

edit to add: I am the real Hank Caylor

Hank Caylor wrote: Tony, stop changing your avatar 7 times a day. That's what crazy people do.

Avatar? You mean my personal photo?
But I am a little nuts, so do I have an excuse? I'm just not stable.

I have been adding a lot of photos to the site recently and when I scan in a new one, I put it down as my personal one... then sometimes when someone asks for one they know I took, I put it there so that they can find it and down-load it with a right-click without digging through all the ones I ever posted.

Then sometimes, like with that Malaysia one, I put it up there because a Malaysian pal of mine just sent it to me. Whatever.

Plus, I like the thought of showing the good 'clipping holds' ona route called 'Circumcision.' That's not crazy Hank, that's friggin' funny.

-T.

Mike Morley wrote: Sorry to offend, Mr...Butt. My intention is not to divide. I'm a uniter, not a divider.

Ironic, considering the rest of your post.

Mike Morley wrote:In general, I take any comments, beta, advice, or what-have-you with a grain of salt from anyone not willing to stand behind their own name.

In general, I take opinions expressed by a site admin who refers to other MP users as dorks with a grain of salt.

JL