Suggestions

I was just looking at the pinned post on general chat about 'Grampa Jim' who has passed away

... I just wanted to see some of the old threads where he had posted because I didn't remember him during my time here

I searched at Google and found threads like this one

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/general_topics/thread/813206

... it seems to have been started by him because people are addressing him but his board name is 'Unknown' and his post count is 0

in the thread there are posts by other people called 'Unknown' with post counts 0

this makes things very confusing

what is the reason for deleting the boardnames of members whose accounts are deleted ?

it just seems to mess up threads in the archives

If the account is deleted then all the standing data information associated with that account is also deleted automatically.

but obviously their posts on the boards remain ... so not all data associated with the account is deleted :-)

I find it odd because it is not the case at any other internet forum I am familiar with ... when an account is terminated the posts remain on the boards with the username still associated (and information like join date and post count still visible )

I also think this was not the case in the past at this site although I am not old-timer enough to recall expressly

I guess at least we know if someone's name is still on their posts their account may have reverted to free but it is still open so there is a hope of getting a reply to a private message !

Originally, the board name was copied across from the account details each time a posting was made and held on the message. However this caused a problem if the member changed their board name as old postings were showing their old name, not their current one. A number of members complained about this as they no longer wanted anyone to see their old name.

GR changed the way it worked so the name on a posting always shows the members current board name as per their account. Rather than save the name on the posting, it is 'looked up' from the account details each time you display a posting. To see the effect I have temporarily added an extra n to my name so if you look back at all my old postings you will see they reflect this too.

The downside is that if the account is deleted, there is no name to show, hence it appears as 'Unknown'

maybe I will get a reply from Phil Moir ?

:-)

( I am not really asking for a lengthy explanation of why this happens, I am suggesting it is not a useful thing to do and maybe it could be changed ... since on other forums I am used to this does not happen I would think there might be a way to prevent boardnames from disappearing from posts ... )

Yes, but as I said it used to be like that, but was changed because members didn't like it that way.

Personally if I removed my account from this site I would also expect GR to remove all previous references to my name too, so on that basis the suggestion would not have my support.

You can't please all of the people all of the time.....!

I believe the problem of names being displayed has been solved ... I just checked this

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/ancestors/smith?page=160

and posts from 2002 no longer have surnames displayed as board names e.g. John Smith is now just John ...

* unfortunately * surname is still displayed when you click on boardname ... and this is true for accounts opened today still ... it is this that really needs to stop whether for old accounts or new accounts, people's real names should not be displayed on a casual click just because they have not realized this would happen or understood the wisdom of protecting their identities ...

this is an important point of its own ... but it really seems to me that boardnames on posts could be preserved if the posts themselves are preserved even when account information has been deleted

but for now I wonder whether I can just wait and see whether there is a reply from the site developer ................ thanks