I’ve impersonated the system user to change the name and avatar to make it look way cooler and personalized for my forum. However every time I update the forum it renames the system user back to “system”. It’s not so bad to go in and rename it back, but I’m hoping there is a better way to do this. I guess I could make another user and re-author the system posts, but doing it the way I did just seemed to be the most intuitive.
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around renaming the “system” user in Discourse. Initially, users like BDub and sull tried changing the system user’s name and avatar but found that the name reverts back to “system” after updates. codinghorror and sam advised against renaming the system user, as it could cause issues with internal code. However, codinghorror later suggested making the system user’s name an admin site setting.
Currently, the site setting “site contact username” allows automatic messages to come from another user, but renaming the system user isn’t officially supported. Falco mentioned that changing the automatic messages to an active admin solves the need, but niemeyer found that renaming the system user is configurable. However, codinghorror stated that this is still untested.
Some users, like ohlafl and rsmithlal, have successfully renamed the system user, but the name reverts back to “system” occasionally. rudzainy suggested a semi-permanent solution by creating a helper function to replace “system” with a custom name in the view layer.
I believe that this should be(come) an officially supported action (renaming and re-avataring the system user).
7개의 좋아요
That would be great. There is also the “site contact username” setting that I change to the same name, although this does stay set so I don’t have to worry about it. I only mention it because I’m pretty sure it was set to “system” when I started the forum, and might be a good part of the potential future system renaming feature.
1개의 좋아요
I was just looking to do the same on my forum. So, what is the best way to do this as of now?
“rename system username and change avatar.”
Changing the system user name should work OK in theory because we refer to the system user by ID and not name in the code … can you confirm @sam?
Do not change the system username, it is the unique identifier for the account.
In any case changing the system user avatar is definitely 100% safe.
1개의 좋아요
no guarantees here, code would need to be reviewed to confirm. we kind of expect the username to be system.
Except for that
- Avatar should be changeable eg: Profile - system - Discourse Meta
- Long name should be changeable
If either of these are reverted after seeding they should be raised separately as a bug.
3개의 좋아요
Got it, thanks for clarification on this.
In Russian forum system doesn’t make any sense though.
2개의 좋아요
we only support alpha in username handles so a much huger and more complex change would be needed.
Not necessarily, the name of the system user could be an admin site setting.
4개의 좋아요
I know this is an old request but just +1 on this one. Making it an admin configurable setting sounds like an amazing idea.
7개의 좋아요
Is there any update on whether the system username can be renamed, @codinghorror ?
4개의 좋아요
This would be appreciated. In our goat farmers community named “Козовод” (means one who farms goats) - I’d configure the system to use exactly that name with Russian letters.
Well, even if still limited to username-allowed symbols, being able to make this change in any way would be very helpful.
1개의 좋아요
I see there’s a system user setting now.
Is it okay to rename the system user by now, or still a problem?
1개의 좋아요
The is a site setting site contact username that allows the automatic messages to come from another user.
Renaming the system user isn’t configurable yet, but changing the automatic messages to an active admin of the site solves that need.
2개의 좋아요
Oi Rafael,
Right, that’s the setting I was referring to above.
It actually is configurable. An administrator can easily rename the system user via the configuration interface. The question is whether there is internal code that still refers to that user by id as indicated earlier in this thread, or if this is now fixed and it’s fine to rename that user.
2개의 좋아요
At our forum we’re trying to build personas around the system and bot user which are in line with the theme of the forum. It works very well to rename these users and change their profile but I wonder if there’s any way that I can make these changes persistent when updating the forum?
2개의 좋아요
아직도 그런 상태이며, 테스트가 이루어지지 않았습니다. 다만, 
대신 시스템에 더 친근한 기본 아바타를 사용하는 방안을 검토하고 있습니다.
7개의 좋아요
이러한 동작이 여전히 발생하는 것 같습니다. 시스템 사용자를 "BetterTogether"로 이름 변경하고 시스템 사용자의 관리자 설정을 새 사용자명에 맞게 변경했지만, 가끔 경고 없이 시스템 사용자의 사용자명이 다시 "system"으로 되돌아갑니다.
사용자명을 "system"으로 되돌리는 메커니즘이 무엇이며, 이를 방지하는 방법은 무엇인가요?
감사합니다.
3개의 좋아요
안녕하세요. 저는 이곳에서 초보입니다 
이론적으로, 뷰 레이어에 헬퍼 함수/메소드를 만들어서 "system"을 사용자 정의 이름으로 대체하는 것만으로 해결할 수 있을까요? 이렇게 하면 사용자 정의 시스템 사용자 이름은 뷰 레이어에만 영향을 미치게 됩니다. 이는 반영구적인 해결책이 될 수 있습니다.
현재 저는 커스텀 디스코러스 테마 개발에 시간을 집중하고 싶기 때문에, 백엔드 관련 사항에 대해 너무 걱정하고 싶지 않습니다.
제 사이트의 모든 공식 계정이 <SiteName> <AccountName> 형식을 사용하도록 하는 것이 좋겠습니다. 그리고 다른 용도로 사용되지 않을 수도 있는 별도의 사용자 계정을 만드는 대신, “system” 사용자를 이름 변경할 수 있는 프론트엔드 중심의 솔루션이 있는지 궁금합니다.
그럼에도 불구하고, 특정 사용자 이름을 찾기 위해 매번 모든 사용자 이름 변수를 하나씩 확인해야 하는 것은 별도의 사용자를 만드는 옵션에 비해 더 비효율적이라고 생각합니다.
여러분의 의견은 어떠신가요?