General Discussion has been reopened following unexpected maintenance

[EarlG]

5. I mentioned it in the DU 20th Anniversary post

but did not give details -- it's pretty straightforward though. Once we turn it on, everyone will get a link in their profile that they can click to take them to a page where they can enter a new username. It can only be done once, and once it's done it cannot be changed until the next time we do a name change amnesty (which could be years in the future, so we urge everyone to make sure they're serious about the change, and make sure they've spelled their new name correctly).

Posts that were made prior to a name change will not be altered -- they will still belong to the member, but they will retain the old username. New posts made after a name change will have the new username on them. Posts counts and other account details will not be altered in any way.

If a member changes their username, for 30 days following the change they will have a line of text displayed at the bottom of all their posts which reads "This is the DU member formerly known as [old username]", in order to minimize confusion.

I'll be posting an announcement tomorrow with these details.