When you install your bbPress forums, it asks you what would the username for the administrator.
Display names are not unique (several members can have the same display name), so I hate to think what would happen if you tried to use them for login…
Display name is very important for any non-English user, since the login name can only contain standard English characters. It also gets used by people that change their “visual identity” without needing to create a new account (reasons are many, from marriage to joining a new gaming guild).
If you are concerned about spoofing, then add something to the template which clearly differentiates user roles in the template: Special icon, color changes. Regular forum users will get to know what a “real admin” looks like when they post, and anyone simply changing their display name to “Admin” will just look like a joke.
Another option would be to blacklist certain names… except people always find ways round by replacing certain characters.
If you’re still determined to get ride of the Display name, just don’t use it in your templates. If it doesn’t display against posts, it becomes irrelevant. You’re looking to hack my-templates/../post.php . If there isn’t a suitable function (I can’t remember), use bb_get_user(get_post_author_id()) there, which returns an array with all the author data.
The _CK_ plugin is nearly what I needed because it disable display_name for all user, also for admins and moderator.
But with my previous plugin to show display_names in bb_press 0.9.x and this new plugin to disable them in bb_press 1.x , I could make my own version of plugin
BBpress : Display Name 2
I just proposed it in the official bbpress.org/plugins list, but I don’t know how this “requests” works. I guess I have to wait some validation/moderation.
Thank you all for your answers