Multiple user identities, or something like it.

  • Hey, all!

    So here’s the deal, I run roleplaying games (currently on phpbb3, but that’s neither here nor there) where many users have multiple accounts for their different characters. Say someone has the characters George, Anne, and Leroy, they’ll need to be able to make a post that says “Posted by George” and then another one “Posted by Leroy,” etc.

    I’m heavily considering switching to wordpress/bbpress instead of my current software, but something has me super curious: can you all think of any way to give multiple identities to a single user?

    I did find a way to let people use the same email address more than once to create accounts, so that’s my “fallback” option, but I’m looking for something a little less messy.

    One idea I had was to figure out how to create multiple “Nicknames” for each account, and then when you create a post (blog post, forum post, or otherwise) it might give you a drop down with all your nicknames for you to choose one.

    Likewise, it might be nice to have accounts just be LINKED to a specific username or have some kind of switching thing going on–ie George, Anne, and Leroy are three separate accounts all owned by Player 1. Player 1 logs in to George, then has an option to switch to Anne or Leroy, etc.

    Maybe something akin to how gmail lets you link mutliple accounts and you can switch between them. I don’t know.

    So anyway, any ideas? I’m totally up for brainstorming this one and am not in a rush, I just feel like there’s got to be something somewhere.

    Some keywords I tried searching for / have seen used for other software, if it helps:

    — User Sub-Accounts
    — Multiple Linked Accounts
    — Multiple Display Names
    — Child Accounts

    etc.

    Any advice? ??

    PS: I realize this is the most trivial subject in the entire world for needing a WP plugin, but what can I say. RPGs are my playground for trying out new WP stuff before I use it on serious sites. ??

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Timothy Jacobs

    (@timothyblynjacobs)

    Yeah you wouldn’t want to have to have three accounts even if they have the same email address and password, logging in and out would be a pain in the ass.

    Are you planning on having people posting from the front end of your wp site, or the backend?

    Thread Starter mandarific

    (@mandarific)

    From the front end, I guess, since I plan on using bbPress to replace the forum.

    I was thinking maybe something akin to a checkbox on the post-response area that just said “Post As: [dropdown menu of nickname options]” or something in the fantasy land where I knew how to code that kind of thing, but couldn’t find a plugin that was even kind of similar.

    Timothy Jacobs

    (@timothyblynjacobs)

    That is what I would do. You aren’t likely to find a plugin for that, as you have found out. It is never too late to learn to code! I’ll do some thinking, installing bbPress, I’ll tell you if I get anywhere.

    Thread Starter mandarific

    (@mandarific)

    Ha, thanks! It’d be cool if you did. ??

    I know a little bit about php and what not but most of what I work with isn’t that…er…in depth. It doesn’t SOUND too difficult though, so maybe I’ll have to investigate further. We’ll see!

    I think the multiple-usernames-per-email thing will be an okay solution in the mean time (when I finally get around to making the switch) even if it’s not ideal, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for figuring out something cooler before that point.

    Thread Starter mandarific

    (@mandarific)

    Okay, so I just found this: https://www.dev4press.com/plugins/gd-taxonomies-tools/

    I’m considering using this to give people an option to basically post their character name and profile link so that they can at least differentiate between specific characters for each post. HMMMM. Could possibly set up a custom post type for ‘Character’ (similar to a listing in a directory, I guess?) too so that we can manage who has what and what not.

    Wonder if I could get a drop down menu to then select from a list of the custom posts? Hmm indeed.

    The gears are turning. ?? Figured I should post my thoughts here in case you (or anyone else) had any thoughts or wanted to see what I came up with.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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