What are my options when I rename my journal?

When you rename your account, you have several choices to make about how to display your new username and how to handle your relationships.

Username Display

You can choose whether or not to forward your old username to your new username. If you forward them, anyone loading your journal at the old username will be redirected to your new username, and your old username will not be available for anyone else to use. If you disconnect them, anyone loading your journal at the old username will not be redirected to your new username, and your old username will appear as though it was never registered, which means that anyone will be free to use a rename token to change their name to the old username.

In both cases, all comments and community entries you made under your old username will be updated to show your new username, so renaming is not an effective way to completely divorce yourself from your old username. If you need to change your username for privacy or safety reasons, it is better to delete your old account and create a new one instead of renaming your journal. (It's not technically possible for us to prevent comments and community entries from updating to show your new username, due to the backend structure of the site.)

If you have used your Dreamwidth account as an OpenID login on any other sites, you probably shouldn't disconnect your old username and your new username. If someone else is able to register your old username, they will be able to use it as an OpenID login as well, which means that they may have access to your account on those other sites. We are in the process of implementing checks to minimize the chance of this, but it's still something you should be aware of.

Relationships

When renaming, you can choose to clear some or all of your relationships with others. By default, all relationships will be kept. You should uncheck the boxes for each relationship you want to clear. For instance, if you want to keep all your existing subscriptions, but clear yourself from the reading lists of people who are subscribed to you, you would leave the "Keep outgoing subscriptions" box checked, but uncheck the "Keep incoming subscriptions".

You also have the choice to clear your existing community memberships and remove yourself from the admin position of communities you admin during the rename.

Forwarding Email

If you have a @dreamwidth.org forwarding email address (a paid account benefit), you can choose to forward all email sent to your old username to your new username. To choose this option, you must choose to forward your old username to your new username.