Are we still supposed to be using our real names and photos?
not
but favored, is somehow more familiar
Yes, real names are used on the forum. This is explained when you enable forum access.
As far as photos, it’s always nice to know who you’re talking to but it is not required.
I belive there was a GPDR related privacy argument just the other day (e.g. 4 years ago) and it was decided that last initials, e.g. “Mike D” and “Markus R” was allowed?
after the migration of the new forum software our family names become public.
Yes, you can contact a moderator if you want to go by your first name and last initial. We understand some may not want their full last name revealed. But the default is to show the first and last name.
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I’ve asked for FirstName + LastInitial (and been granted it) but I just realized that very old forum posts, in which someone quoted a reply, quote the full name. I realize this is not an easy problem to solve, but mention it mainly so that people are aware that privacy steps often don’t work.
Example post - my posts are listed as “First L” but replies that quoted older posts include my full name:
@Sam_Rowlands to answer a question with a question, “Why do you ask?” 
I just realized t’other day that is a handful of people without their last name and also with icons without faces (technically I have a dog’s head in mine). So I wondered if this rule is no longer being enforced.
According to our avatar pictures:
You are a dog that does the programming, with a human for PR purposes.
I have a full head of hair.
Is it a violation of forum rules if one’s avatar photo is somewhat misleading? 
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You know it’s pretty bad, when you dog has a better looking face than yourself…
So you do have a beard then… Yellow skin and live in world with zero environmental lighting.
Edit: Mike, we’ve interacted with each other for at least a decade, we don’t always agree (which is actually a good thing), but there’s a level of trust of there.
Thanks - and I agree - I think that’s what we all want in a good forum community, right?
The question is more about “how to get there” - do technical rules such as “real names” help or hurt?
There was a long discussion about this around the time we switched to Discourse (and other related topics on the old forums). Switching to requiring some semblance of users’ real names made the forum a much more inviting place compared to when users could just enter anything they wanted. Back then, troll posts and outright attacks were common, as well as using forum names to spoof identities.
I’ll talk to the Xojo admins and see if we can do anything about modifying old posts with quotes that contain full names to match the current naming for your account, but I’d say it’ll probably be something we’d have to do manually.
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In our case, I believe it’s because we’ve been a part of the same community for a long time. IIRC you were also on the NUG, were you on Hotline before that (I recall writing my own Hotline client to talk about REALBasic development on Hotline).
In other cases, I’ve become friends with other members outside of the forum (this is where full names and avatars really help) and the more interaction I have with t’others the more I begin to trust them. I’ve made some good friends this way. So certainly being able to connect with members outside of this forum help to build trust.
@Anthony_G_Cyphers is an exception to this rule, but it wasn’t too difficult as we’re all familiar with his company and his wares 
So the current stance is that we’re not going to go back through old posts and modify them. If there’s a dire need, we can do it, but it’s not something that’s super easy to do. For some names it might be easier than others, for some users it might be easier than others, but either way it takes a bit of work to accomplish.
I’d reach out to hello@xojo.com if this is something you do need.
In my experience, this particular requirement has helped greatly. I refer to the original RS forums as “The Wild Wild West”, and I actually left the community for about five years because of personal attacks, hounding, and trolls. At one point I couldn’t post anything without a certain user with an anonymous name berating me for selling my products or personally attacking me. Since real names have been required, the community certainly seems much friendlier.
Now, whether it’s because those users can no longer do those things without putting their signature on it, I can’t say for certain, but there was an immediate change in tone on the forums. I believe we should all strive to make the forums a place where users can feel at ease asking and answering questions about Xojo, and this is just one policy that seems to have helped.
I came in at RB 3 in April of 2001, and never heard of Hotline… When was that (and what was it!) ?
The NUG and the beta mailing list were how i learned a lot way back when!
BTW In terms of bug reporting I remember RealBugs (and it’s clone by Kevin Ballard REALInsects) Fogbugz and of course Feedback and now Issues… were there any others?
-Karen
I don’t recall it ever being that bad in my 20+ years … and the only things that still sticks out was the behavior of Brad H. (someone who was talented but difficult to deal with)
Some people IMO who were branded trolls, were just people passionate about the product but very frustrated with some things about it.
-karen
I don’t know what to tell you. It happened and was enough to make me say “OK, I’ll just sit over here and keep doing my work and not worry about the forums.” It was the same on rbguru before the original RS forums. Maybe you didn’t see it, or pay attention to it, but it was there.
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