I don't really understand what the point of limiting it to such a high donor perk is, if someone could enlighten me I would appreciate it. I for one don't want to change my name, but I can understand the frustration of say a long time member who immaturely made a funky username 3-5 years ago and want it changed, but aren't really in the financial position to donate $300-$500 to the forum.
I completely understand that it should have strict limitations so not everyone can just change names and the community becomes a clusterfuck of "Who were you?", but I feel like it should be more of a veteran perk, meaning age wise. I would say the following must be met and the reasons are given:
-1 name change only (this is pretty self-explanatory, confusion, etc.)
-Name cannot be a major change from the original (for example if I was hamouze123 changing my name to Hamouze would be fine but if I were hamouze123 and wanted to change my name to RunescapeGod it would not)
-The decision of the above rule (major change from original) will be reviewed by a global or admin to be deemed fit
-SVU (to address Jack it's purpose is to ensure that the person is or at one point was a donor, this could be flexible and mended to say a $25 donor at least)
-2FA (don't want people being hacked and having their names changed indefinitely)
-Now this is the point of contention: EITHER 3,000 posts OR 4 year join date with at least 1,000 posts. The reasoning behind this is simple, if you made your account say a year ago and I have even seen people request name changes after they made their account a few months ago, there is no reason to have your name changed. You fucked up and you have to deal with it. The join date ensures that the person has been a member of the community for a long time and plans on staying so, and the 3,000 post count is for members who have not been along for so long but have shown commitment to the community.
These ideas are not set in stone, it's only what I came up with after reading through some of the posts. It's very flexible and I personally think that such a large donation should not be necessary.
Here is my argument AGAINST the need for a large donation perk: Basically favoring those with money and potential scam quitters. How many people do you see on the site that are $200+ donors and have only been here for a few months if not weeks? Obviously they're planning on scamming and they almost always do. Are we really going to allow somebody who joined a few months ago or even a year ago be given the opportunity to manipulate this name change into some sort of scamming opportunity?
Then there are people who want the large donation AND a join date req. This basically comes down to whether or not you are going to favor someone who joined a year ago with lots of cash over a committed community member who just isn't as financially fortunate? I'm sure someone could come up with a few names off the top of their head of some people that have been long time members who are respected who haven't donated $300 or more.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents. I'm an open minded person and I'm sure a middle ground can be found.
