Display Name in addition to Drupal's username
Should Drupal's user object support a "display name" in addition to it's current "name" field? Currently, the name field is used both for logging in and serves as the name that other users see. Because the name field is used for logging in, it must be unique.
Modern websites, like Facebook, allow users to have non-unique names. In this model one could log in with a unique email address, and choose any name they like to be shown next to their posts, on user search results, etc. Currently there are third-party modules which approximate this sort of behavior, but fall short of the goal because of limitations in Drupal core.
So what changes can and should be made to Drupal core? Please come to this BoF to discuss. Time and place TBD, I'll update this post when known.
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scheduled Display name BoF
Join me to talk about display names...
Friday, 3:35pm, room 142.
Hope to see you then.
Aww, bummer!
This is a really hot topic for me, and something I've been pushing against for quite a while now, but with little actual success. I really wanna be there for this bof, but I have to attend the Intro To Simpletest from 3:45 to 4:15 (30min). How long will you be in room 142?
Missed you, but let's talk
Missed you, but let's talk when our paths cross, or online...
We were booted from that room when the next BoF started. There's a lot of us frustrated by this.
author form field
Hey all, during our BoF we talked about ways to change the author field on node edit forms, to take into account that display name and login name might be different. On further reflection, I don't think we have to do anything about that. I think our patch should simply use the unique login name in that field. That is, do exactly what core does today. Sure, it may be a little awkward when users have display names different from login names, but a third party module can alter that form, rather than core.
Support our patch
Dan and I made it to the code sprint. We got started on a patch and will try to push it through. Once checked into D7 I (or someone) will backport for D6. It's not really a bug fix, so it may never get into D6, but I'll still make a patch so I can use it personally.
So lend your support by commenting +1 to this patch: http://drupal.org/node/394282