Runetracker for stats tracking

[Mannichester]

Clicked em all.

[Kaejer]

Here are three more members to click:

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=Ihull90

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=1man__Rmy

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=Esme94

[Dr Brad]

Clicked!

[beefeater555]

7 times, need 3 more.

[Lady in Ice]

2 more now

[Geve]

All three people need 1 more click each

[Garnoidish]

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=lids%2011 not a member, just a close friend

[Kaejer]

Here are three more to click (also don't forget to click on Garn's link above this post):

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=Killyou704

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=Shunter+1964

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=Lydbird

[kingedward20]

http://runetrack.com/history.php?user=m0+mz+i2+us

[Sir Chris]

Muchos clickos...see all that Spanish through school paid off!!
Although everyone I clicked on was already done

[Dr Brad]

I just read the following at the Runetrack forum. I think we've all grown accustomed to having the Runetrack sigs:

http://runetrack.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=1

I'm Sword Kill11. As a RuneScape tool developer myself, I've been going around on multiple forums raising awareness for a potentially major issue that will arrive within the year effecting all fansites that do RuneScape stat tracking. It's very important that the stat tracking community be highly informed on this issue as it heavily effects all of us, and so we can start giving helpful and suggestive feedback as soon as possible.

As you may know, Jagex is preparing to make a huge infrastructure update, allowing players to change their Display Names (see Developer Blog: Display Names - Changing Names). Essentially, a player will have 1 Account Name (a private name identifier only known to that user) which will always remain the same, and a changeable Display Name (the name that everyone else sees in-game when they click on you, and on the hiscores). While I'm happy to see such an elaborate and desired feature coming to fruition, I feel that there's a few things which definitely need to be ironed out first.

Now, the issue: Fast-forward to later this year when this update is released. All of our stat tracking tools that have recorded a detailed history of a user's stats will obviously have to be based off of a player's Display Name, as Account Names will remain private and will only be known by the user themselves.

But, what happens when someone changes their Display Name? For example, Player A, who has a very detailed stat history on RuneTrack.com, decides to change his Display Name to Player B. As there's no mechanism to inform fansites of these instant Display Name changes, when the hiscore stat tracking programs go to capture Player A's stats - they'll get nothing. All future stat history of Player A on fansites will simply be marked with 0's and error messages. The now Player B may decide to create a new stat tracking account, but they'll obviously have to start from scratch with none of their true history being displayed, simply because they changed their Display Name.

Worse yet, what if another account swoops down and picks up the Display Name "Player A"? The stat tracking page for Player A will then show a volatile change of stats, simply laying this new account's stats over a previous owner's stats - and so on in this messy fashion for however many accounts swap in and out of the Display Name "Player A".

As you can see, this update has the potential to destroy the ability to accurately track someone's RuneScape history. With players' Display Names being swapped around, it would be impossible to have an automated system to merge and swap stat tracking accounts along with it, as there's simply no way our programs can know whether someone changes their Display Name, much less what they change it to.

Fansite Admins/Developers: Your stat tracking pages would become messy, inaccurate, and corrupted.

Players who use any stat tracking website: Every time you change your Display Name, you would have to create a new stat tracking account, and all of your previous stat history/awards would not be carried over, and may even be overwritten if someone else snags your previous Display Name. All of that interesting stat history and analysis you get from stat trackers would be no more. Even if you never change your Display Name, the stat history you look-up for other players would be inaccurate, because you won't know how many different accounts with different stats have held that Display Name in the past.

Now the good news is that Jagex is aware of this issue, and thankfully looks to be taking positive steps to come up with a solution. Mod Duncan, one of the update developers, has posted a thread in the RuneScape Forums thread, Dev Blog: Changing Names, where he is kindly answering questions and looking for feedback.

Here's a few quotes that stand out, relating to the issue:

Mod Duncan @ http://forum.runescape.com/forums.ws?16 ... light,#214 wrote:

I'm more likely to read this thread than a separate one you create I can see that clan members changing their names will require some paperwork, but I don't think there's much we could do to alleviate that beyond the existing friends interface changes.

Rest assured that things like hiscores-lite will still work with display names (and the lookup will be based on your display name), so there won't be two different names to track per clan member.

^ Unfortunately, this is exactly the cause of the huge issue I've outlined above - unless something is done, there will be *no* way for us to know 'if' and 'to what' someone has changed their Display Name to, as Display Names can be temporary and changed without warning.

Mod Duncan @ http://forum.runescape.com/forums.ws?16 ... light,#226 wrote:

So you just want a way for your external tool to notice name changes?

Ie if "Bob" changes their name to "Kate", you'd want a lookup for "Bob's hiscores" to return "Here are the scores. PS, Bob's name is now Kate"?

I can't make any promises but just clearing up what you're asking for.
Mod Duncan @ http://forum.runescape.com/forums.ws?16 ... light,#736 wrote:

With regards to the external sites that like to use the hiscores for lookups, we're still seeing what we can do about that. My initial thoughts about having some kind of "previously known as X" notification on the hiscore page got shot down, unfortunately. We realised it would allow hijack groups to easily track everyone's name change history - and thus work out the original account name, even after people had changed their names. This would take away one of the main points of the update (the increased security), so we're going to have to look into alternatives.

^ While this is all good information, it clearly reveals that Jagex still do not yet have any working solution.

The key solution I believe we need is a new kind of hiscores lite feed that will preserve an account name's stats for a limited amount of time on a player's previous Display Name, for users that have recently changed their Display Name. In addition to this, the feed would inform the user that this Display Name has been abandoned, as well as what that account's new Display Name is.

This would still keep Account Names secret and secure, because it would only show their future history as "This player is now known as X" for a limited time until someone new takes the abandoned Display Name, instead of past history as "This player was previously known as X" (which was Mod Duncan's initial proposal from the above quote that was shot down). The safety feature in this suggestion would be that you couldn't back-trace a Display Name, only forward-trace from the initial Display Name. Fansites would be able to trace initial sign-up Display Names forwards to learn their new Display Names, but hijackers *wouldn't* be able to trace new Display Names backwards to their original Account Names. You can click here to read more of my suggestion in further detail, or of my later follow-up post where I offer some additional analysis.

Now that you know the potentially damaging impact of this update, we need YOUR support! What can you do?

Formulate and post suggestions on the Dev Blog: Changing Names thread, and give constructive feedback which lets Jagex know how important this issue is.

Spread the word to other players - while they may not understand the exact mechanics of how stat tracking fansites work, be sure to let them know that if this update goes live without any solutions, all of those fun and interesting stat trackers they use will be no more.

Spread the word to other fansites in the stat tracking community. The more support we have the better.

Thank you for your time and support!

~ Sword Kill11
RuneTrack.com Administrator

[Geve]

I have expressed my thoughts and worries with Hid over this issue since it was first released as a possibility!

There are some potential possibilities, which i feel uncomfortable with.... screw the tracking scores!
What about the eejits we have came across in game? They now have the possibility to approach us without us knowing their original identity?

I truly hope a solution is found, keep our clan safe!

[Kaejer]

It seems like they could just leave it up to the user in the way that they can input their display name into their profile to change it. Then just copy paste its contents onto the new display name, but this would mean they would have to create an account system or some sort of confirmation method to make sure random people aren't changing people's display names that haven't actually been changed.

Anyways here are two more profile links to click:

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=Bishycool

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=Slash11223

[Tamal]

I've been bitten by the name-changing bug:

(complete)http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=fxrw

[Hid]

All complete, thank you !
Please click on the links for people, that changed their names:

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=h_id

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=kayezz

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=joi_division

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=just_gibs

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=lagrobania

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=H_U_L_L_Y

http://runetrack.com/profile.php?user=fxrw

More to come when people post their new names.