Tech Forum

For the beta directory (https://beta.lds.org/directory), where do the names for members come from? Specifically, what determines if just a first name, or a first and middle, or a preferred name is displayed?

In my particular case:

• On the beta directory my first and middle name are shown
• In MLS, my preferred name is simply my first name
• In CDOL, my name is shown with only my first and last name
• In the current LUWS, I have specified my preferred name to be my first name
• In my LDS Account, my Display Name is my first name and middle initial and last name; my first name is simply my first name

Given all this, I don't understand how the beta directory includes my middle name. Yet other people in the ward are listed without middle names; some are listed as Bob or Jim when I know that their full names in MLS are Robert and James.

Where is the preferred name for the beta directory specified?

Is it simply your full legal name from MLS?

Now that you point it out, I don't see a way for the user to edit their preferred name. Without knowing where it's getting it's information from, it seems to have less functionality then the current LUWS.

RussellHltn wrote:Is it simply your full legal name from MLS?

Now that you point it out, I don't see a way for the user to edit their preferred name. Without knowing where it's getting it's information from, it seems to have less functionality then the current LUWS.

Yes, it is my full legal name from MLS. It wouldn't be too surprising if that were the rule for the beta directory. But it clearly is not, as proven by people I know whose names show up without middle names, or even with shortened names, when I know for certain that their full names (including middle names) are in MLS.

Alan_Brown wrote:Yes, it is my full legal name from MLS. It wouldn't be too surprising if that were the rule for the beta directory. But it clearly is not, as proven by people I know whose names show up without middle names, or even with shortened names, when I know for certain that their full names (including middle names) are in MLS.

Perhaps a preferred name is specified in MLS, even though it is the same as their first legal name?

lajackson wrote:Perhaps a preferred name is specified in MLS, even though it is the same as their first legal name?

Indeed, those people with a name in the directory of Jim or Bob have that name specified as their MLS preferred name. But if the MLS preferred name were the source for names in the beta directory, then my middle name would not appear in the beta directory, since my MLS preferred name does not include my middle name.

The answer must be more complex than a single source -- there is no simple answer that could possibly fit all the cases I see.

Do you know if any of those sources had your middle name anytime recently (the last few months)?

I'm wondering if it's a old data.

Alan_Brown wrote:But if the MLS preferred name were the source for names in the beta directory, then my middle name would not appear in the beta directory, since my MLS preferred name does not include my middle name.

I see that the source would not be LUWS, since you said that is your first name.

Perhaps there is a setting in the beta directory for you to set a preferred name there? Maybe the beta is not getting the preferred name from anywhere? Or have none of those other folks logged into the beta?

And after that, I am out of ideas.

RussellHltn wrote:Do you know if any of those sources had your middle name anytime recently (the last few months)?

I'm wondering if it's a old data.

I'm pretty sure that CDOL included my middle name once upon a time, but now uses only my first name. All the other sources have been stable as I described them for multiple years.

But I would think that CDOL would be the least likely source to have an impact on the directory. Most members of the Church are not in CDOL, so that would be a strange source for a name in a member directory.

lajackson wrote:I see that the source would not be LUWS, since you said that is your first name.

Correct.

lajackson wrote:Perhaps there is a setting in the beta directory for you to set a preferred name there?

Not that I can find, and I've hunted all over.

lajackson wrote:Or have none of those other folks logged into the beta?

There are many members of my ward listed with their full name, and many listed with their preferred name. I would doubt that any more than a handful could possibly have logged into the beta. So there's no way that logging into the beta affects this.

lajackson wrote:And after that, I am out of ideas.

I was about to say the same thing, but I have just one more. See my next post.

I don't understand the logic behind this if it's true, but it's my last theory for now - perhaps it's pulling from a different source for you because you've logged into the beta.

I see my full legal name in beta, but then, I logged in to look. My middle name isn't in LUWS or MLS preferred. It is in the CDOL, and off hand I don't see where I change that.

I know it doesn't make much sense to pull from the CDOL, but then it has to pull from the CDOL to get user rights. Perhaps it's pulling from the same MLS data stream that refreshes the CDOL?