Changing registration name

Question

Is it possible to change one’s registration name? Thanks.

Answer 1

Just to provide some additional information that might be useful for someone, someday:
The reason we don’t allow the username to be changed is because it is used as the ID of the user inside of Paratext. Paratext has no other way to identify a user. This is also why no two people can have the same username and why previous Paratext registrants are forced into having the same username they had in PT7 - so PT8 knows they are the same user.

We did talk about doing some kind of migration of usernames for 8.0 to switch to an internal ID instead of using their username, but decided it would be very difficult for Paratext to maintain because we would have to have some knowledge of mappings between a user’s ID and their current username (to display inside Paratext) while offline, and the only authoritative source for this information comes from the Registry. This means we’d have to do a lot of work to cache the information and update it as it changes and figure out how to handle different people having different cached information. Not to mention the confusion that would happen when a user’s name changes everywhere inside Paratext after doing a S/R (for example).

In other words, this is not a technical restriction on the Registry, but on Paratext’s side (because the developers are lazy ).

Comments

Or perhaps, because those who prioritize what the developers spend their
limited time doing decided other things were more important!

I don’t think “Paratext developer” and “lazy” belong in the same
sentence – may the Lord give you his grace to keep up the amazing work
you do!

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anon806807:

I don’t think “Paratext developer” and “lazy” belong in the same sentence

Sorry, that was meant as a tongue-in-cheek comment because, what may not be obvious (especially in the e-mail versions), I am a Paratext developer.

Answer 2

I don’t know. You can delete your account and then register again under the desired name. But to delete your account you have to remove or have yourself removed from all registered projects first.

Comments

Thanks very much sewhite.

I sort of imagined that may be the only possibility. But I just wanted to ask in case there was a back-door route I wasn’t aware of.

Thanks very much again.

Graeme

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I am not sure, if this is of any help, but, please, note that in PT 8 you can (at least in theory) change the username by using Convert Project tool. For details, see PT 8 help:

In Paratext 8.0 (and later), you can replace the names of users on a project with the names of other registered Paratext users. This is useful in a sensitive location where pseudonyms should be used instead of real names:

          Open the project whose user names you want to change.
          From the Tools menu, point to Advanced, and select Convert Project.
          Enter a unique name in the "New Project short name" box.
          If you have edited with Paratext Live, select Clean up Paratext Text history.
          Select a user name from the "Replace old User Name" drop-down menu.
          Enter a different registered user name in the "With" box.
          Click Add.
          Repeat steps 5 through 7 for the users whose names you want to replace.
          Click Convert. Paratext creates a new project. If you want the new project to replace the project with the former user names, follow the instructions in How do I permanently delete a shared project for all project users? Once the project with the former user names is permanently deleted for all team members, have them Send/Receive and use the new project.
        
         Changing user names will replace former user names in the following places:
        
          Note authorship and assignment: Select Open Notes from the File menu, select the converted project, and open any note.
          User names: Select Users, Roles, and Permissions from the Project menu.
          Project History: Select Project History from the Project menu.

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Thanks anon982572 for taking the time to look into this for me.

However, I don’t think this is what I need. It is not names in individual projects which I wish to change but the actual name which is registered for this copy of ParaTExt (the name other users use to add me as a consultant).

Thanks again for your help.

Graeme

Answer 3

The method anon982572 suggests will probably work. However, if you’re a member of multiple projects it will probably be more work than you’re willing to do.

Say your old name was “Adam” and you want it to be “Bob”.

You could go to the PT8 registry and register as the user Bob.

You could then take any and all projects you are a member of and use the Convert tool to changethe user Adam to the user Bob. You may also need to check that the Users, Roles and Permissions menu also converts the name and adds Bob as a Send/Receive contact.

Comments

Hi mnjames.

Thanks also to you for trying to help. However, I can’t change my registration name in PT8 registry - the names fields are blocked.

I am not linked to too many projects so it is just going to be easiest to start over and re-register as a different ParaTExt user with the name that I want.

Thanks again for your help.

Graeme

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Sorry I was unclear. That’s what I meant, that you should register as a new user (I used the name Bob in my example).

The second half is to connect your old work with your new name, but as I said that may or may not be worth it.

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I have just tried doing that, and it is not working because my e-mail address is still the same. So, when I try and register, using my SIL address, the system automatically recognises me and logs me in instead of giving me the option of registering. Clever system!

I see that I am probably barking up the wrong tree. So I will just accept that my “registered name” is as it is.

Thanks again for your help, but no need to waste any more time on this. I’m happy to let it go.

Graeme

Answer 4

That is the issue I ran into. I decided I would live with my maiden name for the rest of my Paratext life. It was too much trouble to try to change it.
Lorna

Answer 5

Thanks for this confirmation, Lorna, of this weakness of the system. It’s not a big deal for me, it would have just been nice to do, had it been possible.

Graeme

Answer 6

I was able to successfully change a registration name using the following method:

1. Ask the Administrators of the projects she was a member of, to delete her current registration name from the list of users and do a send/receive.
2. Delete her current account under https://registry.paratext.org/settings.
3. Register again at https://registry.paratext.org with the new name.
4. Ask the Administrators of the projects she used to be a member of, to add the new registration name to the list of users and do a send/receive.

Comments

Thank you very much anon716631. Yes, I can see how that will work. Thank you for your help!

And thanks to all the others who have contributed earlier to this discussion.

Much appreciated!

Graeme