Heads Up!

well that's a plus no one can argue with

Please Read

One part of the changes being wrought on A2K is that we will be putting usernames to new uses, and certain uses require a more restrictive character set due to limitations beyond our control. Therefore, we will be putting more restrictions on the characters you can use in creating user names, and if a current user name has what will be disallowed characters, it will have to be changed.

One thing you can do to help with the transition to the new site is to make sure that your username fits certain parameters required by the new site. Your username must consist only of the following characters:

" ", - , _ , A-Z , a-z , 0-9

In English that is: space, dash, underscore, A to Z, a to z, and 0 to 9.

That's all that will be allowed -- no asterisks, no apostrophes, no commas, no parentheses, no periods, etc.

Also, dashes, spaces and underscores can't be repeated. If your name is currently "Larry -- Curley," it would have to be changed to "Larry - Curley."

Before the new site launches, Craven and another developer will be automatically modifying any usernames that don't conform to the new parameters. However, the result may not be what you want. We highly recommend that if you have a username that does not fit within the above parameters, you contact the Help Desk and ask for a name change. We are happy to accommodate that request. Please give at least three possibilities in case your first and second choices are already taken.

If your own username is fine, you can also be of help by keeping an eye out for any members who have usernames that do not fit within the parameters and referring them to this post.

Thanks!

That's all that's allowed???






Okay, dibs on A-Z.

Jes- I think I know what you meant, but isn't your announcement contradicting?

Phoenix, I thought all the commas were just separating the different types of characters.

Same as the "in English" sentence, but with the characters replaced by words. ("_" to "underscore", etc.)


I call 0-9!! :-)

soz- I knew that. I just thought that the way that it was written might be confusing to some people!

I'll be dash.

Phoenix--



Some people are confused some of the time and some people are confused all of the time but all of the people are not confused all of the time.

I'm betting that before the switch is done someone will write to the Support Desk and ask, "Why can't I be *fish?"

what's an Asterisk Fish?

J^B comes to mind as someone who will be affected. Is he still active?

Yep, he'll be affected.

Jespah, is there any indication if there will be any modification / elimination / amalgamation of any of the existing forums?

It doesn't appear that there will be much of a reduction, although we have some that have never been very popular that are probably going to be renamed. Nothing's set in stone yet, sorry to be vague. There are going to be a lot that are added, though. We've seen a number of areas where it would be good to have a forum and there just isn't one, so a topic gets lost in General. The theory is that the changes will fix some of that.

Thanks for asking!

FYI, ladies and gentlemen: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=77451

Will this downtime be regular maintenance, or the debut of the "new" A2K?

I'm thinking it's just regular maintenance.

Perhaps deep cleaning the old until we're on with the new?

Is there any cost to this change??? If so, are we in a position to pay for it?

Mapleleaf

Mapleleaf--

I understand Craven holds the pursestrings because Craven owns the purse.

A2K is his baby, expenses and all.

This goes back to the discussion about the origin of "google".

Google: Coined in 1940, supposedly by the nine-year-old nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasmer, when asked for a name for an enormous number. Perhaps influenced by comic strip character Barney Google (namesake on an old song, with lyrics something like "Barney Google, with the goo-goo-googly eyes, Barney Google, had a wife three times his size...".
Partial source: http://www.etymonline.com/g3etym.htm