771843 - Show full names (as opposed to usernames) in "Contributors to this page" credits

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Collaboration, defect)

Description

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

Like many of the bugs I submit, this one is up for debate. I would prefer this change, but some others may disagree.

I would like if full names, not just usernames, were listed in the credits at the bottom of the page. We can use the names that users provide in their user profiles.

Actual result:

Contributors to this page: jswisher

Expected result:

Contributors to this page: Janet Swisher

Comment 1

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

I agree, except I think users should be allowed to opt in/out of this, so that users that don't want their real name disclosed should have just their username shown.

Comment 2

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

(In reply to Eric Shepherd [:sheppy] from comment #1)
> I agree, except I think users should be allowed to opt in/out of this, so
> that users that don't want their real name disclosed should have just their
> username shown.

Thanks for the insight. Do you foresee someone in particular using this? I would imagine that most people wouldn't mind -- the name would be published under that person's developer profile, anyway.

Comment 3

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

I would like something like this:

David Walsh (davidwalsh)

I like the full name because people who work hard and updates docs deserve name recognition; I know I'd appreciate it.  I like having the username, however, because they'll be more recognizable on IRC and forums, as well as offers Sheppy a more recognizable name to spot spammers, do-gooders, and do-badders.

Comment 4

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

Agreed, I would like that too.

Comment 5

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

(In reply to John Karahalis [:openjck] from comment #2)
> (In reply to Eric Shepherd [:sheppy] from comment #1)
> > I agree, except I think users should be allowed to opt in/out of this, so
> > that users that don't want their real name disclosed should have just their
> > username shown.
> 
> Thanks for the insight. Do you foresee someone in particular using this? I
> would imagine that most people wouldn't mind -- the name would be published
> under that person's developer profile, anyway.

If the name is always visible in the profile, I guess it doesn't matter here.

Comment 7

[Florian Scholz (Open Web Docs)]

+1
Bug 799621 #c0 says it all.

Comment 8

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

I'm pulling a Romney and flip-flopping on this.  Since the "Name" field is optional, we'd end up with a mixed bag of formats in this section, and that would look bad and inconsistent.  I think we should leave this as-is.

Comment 9

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

I mostly agree. We might be able to do something where we show the Name field when possible, falling back to the username...

Comment 10

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

That's what I meant by inconsistent, sheppy...

Comment 11

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

(In reply to Eric Shepherd [:sheppy] from comment #9)
> I mostly agree. We might be able to do something where we show the Name
> field when possible, falling back to the username...

I like this idea. There would be inconsistency, but I don't know that it would really be a problem.

Comment 12

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

It's even possible it might help encourage people to update their profiles...

Comment 13

[Luke Crouch [:groovecoder]]

-1 for name+username fallback. If we really want to do names we should do something like Slashdot's "Anonymous Coward" for users without names.

+1 for just using usernames.

Comment 14

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

I never thought I would start such a debate here... :-)

Wondering what Ali thinks...

Comment 15

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

I think this would look bad:

David Walsh (davidwalsh), groovecoder, Some One (anonyman), jsandman, axelj, Joe Blo (jblo)

I think simply using usernames would look better and be more consistent.

Comment 16

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

Yeah, I think that would look bad.

I think Sheppy was thinking more along the lines of...

David Walsh, groovecoder, Some One, jsandman, axelj, Joe Blo

Comment 17

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

(In reply to John Karahalis [:openjck] from comment #16)
> Yeah, I think that would look bad.
> 
> I think Sheppy was thinking more along the lines of...
> 
> David Walsh, groovecoder, Some One, jsandman, axelj, Joe Blo

Yes, that's what I had in mind.

Comment 18

[Luke Crouch [:groovecoder]]

A quick scan of some other dev sites:

* Wikipedia - shows usernames everywhere
* GitHub - shows usernames everywhere except on the user profile page where it shows their real name
* StackO - shows a 'display name' which is the single textual identifier for a user

What's the value we're trying to add/gain by displaying full names over usernames? Easier to identify? More personal?

Comment 19

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

Two things:

1. More personal.

2. When I can finally do Wiki Wednesday again, I'd really like to be as often as possible able to use people's real names instead of their usernames. This would be a lot easier with real names used in all places that users are identified.

By listing real name if available and falling back to username, it may help encourage people to provide more information to fill out their profiles, too.

Comment 20

[Marc-Aurèle DARCHE]

As explained in Bug 799621: Contributors would like their contributions to be easily found on MDN when their name are searched on the Internet. This is an incentive to spend more time working on MDN (this goes into item 1. of Comment 19.)

This feeling is shared by non-Mozilla employees MDN contributors like Florian and I.

Comment 21

[Florian Scholz (Open Web Docs)]

fwiw, SUMO has a "Display name" offered in the profile settings as well.

Comment 22

[BMO Automation]

MDN Web Docs' bug reporting has now moved to GitHub. From now on, please file content bugs at https://github.com/mdn/sprints/issues/ and platform bugs at https://github.com/mdn/kuma/issues/.