NetWater Tech Blog

To this day, SMF (Simple Machines Forum still doesn’t show users the real (registered) name of an online user, but whatever custom name they have chosen for themselves. This makes it hard to know whom someone really is, especially if you want to send them a PM and you can’t find them by their original name.

Basically in your theme’s BoardIndex.php look for “//Some basic color coding…” and change to below:

:startcode:

// Some basic color coding...
if (!empty($row['onlineColor']))
$link = '<a title="View the profile of ' . $row['memberName'] . '" href="' . $scripturl . '?action=profile;u=' . $row['ID_MEMBER'] . '" style="color: ' . $row['onlineColor'] . ';">' . $row['realName'] . '</a>';
else
$link = '<a title="View the profile of ' . $row['memberName'] . '" href="' . $scripturl . '?action=profile;u=' . $row['ID_MEMBER'] . '">' . $row['realName'] . '</a>';

$is_buddy = in_array($row['ID_MEMBER'], $user_info['buddies']);
if ($is_buddy)

:endcode:
-nw