Allow us to change our account name - transgender person facing their dead name every time they manage account settings.

[Nai_Nai]

I am transgender and unfortunately when I created this account many years ago I used part of my dead-name.

So it sucks having to see it every time I go to my account details or log in. Painful even.

Please change this policy and add a means to change our account names in certain circumstances.

[Nai_Nai]

To the person who rewarded this with hilarious. You are a huge piece of ♥♥♥♥ and I hope you realize that one day.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Oh what? The same as the rest of everyone since the platform was created?

Your special circumstance is irrelevant, especially considering the risk in changing that MASSIVE database.

[Nai_Nai]

Thanks for bumping the thread bigot <3

[Brian9824]

You should use the search, but again, its extremely unlikely to be an option. A Valve employee commented years ago that do to design issues the account name is the primary key of the database, and allowing it to be changed for ANYONE would require a complete rebuild and re-design of their database which is a massive amount of work and risk for basically no benefit.

[Nai_Nai]

I would not say no benefit at all, but thank you for the context.

I have to say, it's a little odd that the primary key is tied to the name of the account and not the unique steam id. Really bad design IMO

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Nai_Nai:

I would not say no benefit at all, but thank you for the context.

I have to say, it's a little odd that the primary key is tied to the name of the account and not the unique steam id. Really bad design IMO

Yep, but when steam was first made it was a glorified updater for Valve, it was never planned that it would become what it is today.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Originally posted by brian9824:

You should use the search, but again, its extremely unlikely to be an option. A Valve employee commented years ago that do to design issues the account name is the primary key of the database, and allowing it to be changed for ANYONE would require a complete rebuild and re-design of their database which is a massive amount of work and risk for basically no benefit.

Well, it could be manually edited by a SQL admin, but NO ONE wants the risk of that and it isnt a viable solution for the masses either. Far, FAR too risky.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Nai_Nai:

I would not say no benefit at all, but thank you for the context.

I have to say, it's a little odd that the primary key is tied to the name of the account and not the unique steam id. Really bad design IMO

Well, just as an asterisk some of this information is second hand and fairly old. We're not privy to the details of the whole design, or every update that occurs.

The username doesn't have to be a primary key, but it can be a unique value that is sometimes used for relationships and joins, nothing wrong with that. Valve's DB may follow SQL normal form design principles just fine.

And it's not as if usernames are always editable on all other systems. Ever try changing the user name on your email account? Whether a username is editable or not depends on implementation regardless of database designs and lots of systems don't allow it regardless of user feelings.

Even if Valve were to remove reliance on the unique username in their database (which they may have already done, it's not as we're updated day to day about DB changes) it really has nothing to do with whether Valve is going to implement editable usernames or not. No, is still a complete answer to requests and Valve doesn't need to satisfy anyone with their decisions.

There's some fair arguments why usernames should be immutable. If Valve feels the pros outweigh the cons usernames will remain immutable regardless of database design.

[davidb11]

Yeah, this was done way back when Steam first existed.
So, changing it now would be far too much of a task.

[Mad Scientist]

Could swear this is word-for-word the same as the one posted many months ago. Anyway, it simply is and it's not like it means anything other than an account base username/ID.

Originally posted by Nai_Nai:

To the person who rewarded this with hilarious. You are a huge piece of ♥♥♥♥ and I hope you realize that one day.

Originally posted by Nai_Nai:

Thanks for bumping the thread bigot <3

Originally posted by Nai_Nai:

I would not say no benefit at all, but thank you for the context.

I have to say, it's a little odd that the primary key is tied to the name of the account and not the unique steam id. Really bad design IMO

It's an old and huge database, you don't mess with what works without risking a lot of downtime and broken dependencies. As the saying goes "If it isn't broken, don't fix it".

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Nai_Nai:

I have to say, it's a little odd that the primary key is tied to the name of the account and not the unique steam id. Really bad design IMO

Why odd?

Did Valve in the beginning realise how big Steam would become? Unlikely as Steam was originally only a updater for Valve games.

Secondly the account name is linked to the many parts which make up Steam, so imagine the chaos caused if they mess up and you cannot access your library for example.

And finally Sony tried it with PS4 and warned everyone certain trophies would be messed up. Bloodborne was one example where those with platinum lost it.

Note: I beta tested the account name change. I had a PS4, PS3 and PS Vita and Bloodborne. It totally messed up trophies for PS3, PS Vita because they no longer existed for anyone who also had those systems.

Fortunately the change could be reverted.

[Start_Running]

They don't change account names. Its not something they can do because of a mistake they made when creating the database initially.

What you can do is create a new account and family share your librarry of your old account. Beyond that. well. you're just gonna have to deal with it. you're an adeult. You can handly a silly account name. heaven knows if something like that registers as a problem for you you are living a charmed life.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Just change your Steam profile nick name , your Steam account name is not visible to the public or you unless you click on your account.

[Tito Shivan]

Steam hasn't been friendly to the idea of allowing username changes on Steam. The technical scope of the task has been brought several times by their staff as the reason not to engage with such a feature.

Of course that doesn't deny the troubles it has caused for a lot of users over the years. From people being deadnamed by their username to people having no-longer existing email accounts as permanent usernames.

[fr0bar]

Getting called your name is not a problem and it is not Steam's responsibility to build an entire technology stack to permit it.