That naming thing

Before I rant, I should say that I really enjoy the javaranch forums. That said...

I have asked Cindy about this in open forum, but I thought I'd let off a bit more steam. I am really getting tired of seeing the "please comply with our naming stuff" messages.

The reasons for wanting to enforce this 'real name' system seem arbitrary at best. Ok, so you want to be professional. I'll tell you what doesn't look professional... allowing people to register with names that obviously break your own rules, and then have to nag them in their post! ARGH.

Can't someone write a CGI that does some intelligent inspection of the username supplied? And if you want both a first and last name separated by a space... then use two textfield in the registration form!! This seems so obvious, I can't understand why you guys don't just do it.

If you want to post, you must register. Period.
(or If you post unregistered, your username is "guest" which I already expect you wouldn't want)
If you supply a name that contains no numeric or 'special' characters in *both* firstName and lastName fields, then you can register. Otherwise you get sent right back to the form, with the helpful "we have thousands of visitors blah, blah blah..." displayed in red to tell them WHY you feel it's important for a proper first and last name.
Am I missing something?
Ok, rant over.

The problem is that this forum is purchased software that doesn't support this functionality. Any hacks that we add would be lost as soon as we upgrade. Perhaps after the next upgrade we can add that hack.

Mike, since we are all volunteers here, why don't YOU volunteer to write the name checker and keep it updated??
Then you don't have to rant any more

.

I used to run a a Bulletin Board using the UBB software that JavaRanch uses. I am going to see if I can run across some hacks sites that I have used in the past to find something that would solve this registration problem. If I can find the solution, I would be glad to volunteer to help out and keep it updated. I figure it's the least I can do, since I am visiting this site multiple times a day anyways!
I'll keep you updated...
Chris

Actually, it looks like someone has recently put in a filter to enforce many of our naming rules. Probably it was Carl Trusiak, though I haven't seen him mention it yet. But try registering a user with a single name, and see what happens. Of course, it can't detect "obviously fictious" names - those will have to be handled by humans. And the next time we upgrade our software, it may or may not be possible to keep this filter in place. But it's there for now. Thanks, Carl! (Or whoever.)

Maybe it was Johnson Chong.

Nope, I can still register with one name...
Jose
a.k.a. Joseph Russell

yep..

Hmmm... I guess I didn't test enough possibilities. I discovered jus the other day that the software does filter out some things which it didn't previously - meaning a year or so ago, before our last upgrade. I didn't look that closely at it though - I assumed someone wrote it recently to solve our problems. Will look more later when I have time. Sorry for the confusion.

Jim -
I just sent you an e-mail to your JavaRanch e-mail address with a possible fix. Let me know if you need any help getting it up and running.
Chris