Account management updates

Continuing on from the ZC updates, here's what I plan to make happen with regard to handling accounts.
Update: Okay so this is slightly harder than I thought it would be, so I'm going to roll this out in stages. See below! - Username changes DONE! Currently you have to contact Support to get a full name change. I want to automate this process. It will still be subjected to frequency limits, but it will be doable without staff intervention. Staff can still perform name changes if necessary, for example if an account is locked for inappropriate usernames, or if a name change is urgently needed outside of the frequency policy. Status: DONE You can change your username on the Farm Page, under Options > Others. - Email changing Users will be able to change their email address, but doing so will result in the account being deactivated until the new activation email is received. In case of any issues with this, Support will be able to help. Status: Coming soon Work will begin on this part of the update sometime in the coming week or two. - Account closure Accounts cannot be deleted because everything on PFQ is a big, interconnected web. However, they can be closed (so you cannot log in unless you go through the password reset process to re-establish access) or anonymised (personal data such as name, email address and date of birth are deleted). Both of these are handled by staff on request and after validation of account ownership. In future, this process can be done by the player themselves. Status: Pending Some additional tweaks to the database are needed to make this update work properly. There may be a brief maintenance required. Stay tuned for further updates. Each of these updates are a substantial change that may be destructive if your account is compromised. May I take this opportunity to remind you to enable two-factor authentication to secure your account if you haven't already, and also remind you to never ever give anyone your password. Even "trusted friends" can betray your trust "as a prank" or because you upset them somehow. It's not worth potentially losing your account. This update is expected to arrive late February to early March.

This sounds interesting! :0

This sounds amazing, thank you for the updates and everything. This will also make staff have more time for important measures while users can change there names and make the task simpler. Im really excited for these and all the new changes to come.

Looking forward to these changes as well. So username change will still have frequency limits, is that time limit going to remain the same (1 year) or will it be adjusted at all? Another question, I'm assuming the automated process of usernames is not going to include freeing up usernames of accounts that haven't been online since the opening of PFQ or so? (I know there are a lot of names locked behind accounts that haven't been online since 2015 or so and am just curious about this)

Looking forward to the new changes. c: Thank you for keeping us updated.

Thank you staff & others!! Looking forward to this as well and glad this was updated. Don’t forget to sleep and drink water lol

I was actually thinking recently about PMing mods to ask if they can lock me out of my account for 1 month or so, as I have a lot of school work that I am not doing and almost no willpower... ^^" Is that something we will be able to do ourselves after this update? Not sure if I am understanding the part about account closure correctly.

Names will not be freed up. While unlikely, those Users may come back. how would they be able to retrieve their info or login if the username they used is no longer theirs? Whatever username they chose will always be their username. They got it first, and thus get to keep it until they decide to change it of their own accord. Many apologies for the letdown. ;w;

i was wondering if it costed anything or not for getting your username changed or not, but can not wait for all of these changes. I wish there was away to have more daycare passes cant buy ZC, cant do much with the ZC that I have at the moment. and cant buy them off the market going broke just doing that. will there be changes for that in the future?

Actually there are a lot of options for this situation, I can think of 4 right off the bat but I will give the simplest one as an example. - Someone who is active wants a username of a user who hasn't logged in for 6+ years - Email is sent to user who has that username saying they have 30 days to login or their username will be changed (You could use the user account number as their new username, if that number is taken add an underscore/extra number/letter/etc) Support tickets can also be made, so if they are having trouble logging in they can contact support with just their email. There are various ways to do this, so it's not really a "how would they be able to do this" because it is something that definitely can be done, it's just not wanting to offer it which is fine as it is more work for no reward and probably annoying to do and implement. Edit: I would still love my other question answered about time limit for changing usernames remaining once a year or being adjusted if possible :> thanks for your response to my other question mocha