I'm the "smartest character-transferer" EU

[Reiterpallasch]

Well, no problem i thought, since i can delete the placeholder character and then write my usual character name on the name change window, BUT here it is where japanese programming efficiency kicks in. it greys out my previous name when i attempt to write it, and the forced name change is indeed very forced.

This is very good to know! I actually intended on doing it this way (jump first, delete placeholder after), so while it's unfortunate that it happened to you, hopefully it can save a few people headaches down the road.

That is, until SE adds a name change service. If they do it, anyways.

What is the F5 trick?

F5 is just the keyboard shortcut to refresh a page. It's not really a trick so much as just blindly mashing a button until the page shows up correctly.