I just came across this comment, and even though it's old, I want to explain what's going on here, because it's a little confusing.
In the Dreamwidth (and LiveJournal) database, the primary method of referring to a user is via their user ID, which you can see on your profile. (For example, my user ID is #324.) The actual username, while it must be unique, isn't used to refer to people normally. Thus, this comment I'm making right now will be stored in the database as being made by user #324, not user "sophie". Thus, if I were to rename, the name attached to this comment will change to reflect the new name, regardless of what options are selected.
However, the same isn't true when you do a <user name="sophie"> tag. Here, users are referred to by name, rather than by number. That means that if I were to rename from "sophie" to some other name, then what would happen to <user name="sophie"> tags would depend on whether I asked for a redirect or not. If I didn't, they would be displayed with a strikethrough. Otherwise, it'll be displayed as (and will link to) the new name instead of the old one.
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In the Dreamwidth (and LiveJournal) database, the primary method of referring to a user is via their user ID, which you can see on your profile. (For example, my user ID is #324.) The actual username, while it must be unique, isn't used to refer to people normally. Thus, this comment I'm making right now will be stored in the database as being made by user #324, not user "sophie". Thus, if I were to rename, the name attached to this comment will change to reflect the new name, regardless of what options are selected.
However, the same isn't true when you do a <user name="sophie"> tag. Here, users are referred to by name, rather than by number. That means that if I were to rename from "sophie" to some other name, then what would happen to <user name="sophie"> tags would depend on whether I asked for a redirect or not. If I didn't, they would be displayed with a strikethrough. Otherwise, it'll be displayed as (and will link to) the new name instead of the old one.
Does that make sense?