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@Velocio
Sparky, what Branwen said.
The patronage to reserve username is literally to get a line in a hard-coded file that works out that Sparky can only ever belong to the person with the email address blah@blah.com
Then when LFGSS, or perhaps YACF, get imported... the import system would say "We have a user called Sparky I want imported", and the platform would either allow or prohibit it. In the case of the later you would get some temporary ID and encouraged to change the name when you logged in.
Why all this complexity?
The mechanics forum today... why is it that all that knowledge isn't on the Glasgow FGSS site? Why is it that it's duplicated?
If you consider that a microcosm could actually appear on multiple sites (depending on permissions, privacy settings, etc)... then you realise that users from one site can appear on another. Effectively allowing a pre-existing Sparky from LFGSS to appear on the Glasgow site if they chose to make the Mechanics microcosm visible there... but what if Glasgow imported data after creating their site and choosing to have the Mechanics microcosm and there existed a totally different fellow named Sparky on the Glasgow site?
So there is already a small outside chance of username clashes in the design. It's a small chance, but it exists.
Hence, before it's created I can make a file that overrides such clashes and determines the outcome. And the criteria is simply preference given to those who helped fund the creation of the system.
Someone asked me at LMNH "Couldn't I just donate and reserve 'Velocio'?"... the answer is yes, you really could. And I would honour it too. On the new platform the import of LFGSS happens after the platform has launched into beta and undergone testing. If it's first-come first-served it truly means that you can only guarantee your username by being first to reserve it via a donation.
And in case people are thinking: I'm going to donate hundreds of times and buy everyone's username!.. We wouldn't honour that. 1 reserved username per patron, not per patronage.