Prior to WordPress 2.0, when you installed WordPress for the first time, you’d be known as the Administrator. WordPress 2.0 made things a lot more inviting by using the first part of your admin e-mail address, but you could still end up with a nickname like SheRuler250z — this may elicit a few strange glances depending on the topic of your blog.
Instead of leaving it all up to chance, take a few moments to create a suitable nickname that will be used anytime you post an entry or leave a comment by updating your profile. You’ll also be able to include your website’s URL (also used when a comment is left) and a brief blurb about yourself, which can be used on your custom author page or anywhere else you see fit to include your 10 second bio.
To update your profile, login to your blog’s admin panel and click on Users from the menu. You should automatically be brought to your profile page, fill in the applicable information and click on Update Profile, otherwise your changes will not be saved.
Bonus Tip: Have you already left a slew of comments on your blog while your profile was still using Administrator or SheRuler250z as the nickname? No worries, this can be easily fixed up with a database query.
- Back up your database.
- Have you backed up your database? If not, back up your database.
- Login to your hosting account and go to phpMyAdmin, then select your blog’s database.
- Click on the ‘SQL‘ tab
- When the page loads, copy and paste the following query in the text box:
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_author_url='http://www.yoursite.com/' WHERE comment_author='Administrator';
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_author='Your New Nickname' WHERE comment_author='Administrator';Be sure to change ‘yoursite.com‘ to the website or link you’d like associated with your nickname, ‘Your New Nickname‘ to whatever you’d like your new nickname to be, and ‘Administrator‘ to whatever your initial nickname was when you installed WordPress.
That’s it. Your previous comments should now display with your desired nickname and website.
