4 ms·

> email addresses for usernames have the advantage of already being unique Not true. There are people who share an email address.

niij 10y ago
Care to expand? As in having a first.last@example versus firstlast@example
- mabcat 10y ago
  As in bloggsfamily@localisp.net.au that both parents and all the younger sprogs share. Still common as anything.
  - vacri 10y ago
    One of the things I loved about the original Mad Max film was that they nicknamed their own toddler 'Sprog'...
- pcl 10y ago
  Probably the most common example these days is spouses who don't email regularly. Once upon a time, you only got one or two email addresses from your email provider (I'm looking at you, CompuServe and AOL), so at that time it was common for everyone in a family to have a single address. Eventually they added explicit multi-user features -- IIRC, AOL went as high as 5 emails per account before my family moved on.
roywiggins 10y ago
I have family who share one email between two spouses. They might maintain separate personal email addresses; probably not, though.
vacri 10y ago
I mean unique as far as your end is concerned. Short of very invasive technology, there's no way to stop people from sharing a user token if they choose to do so.
- zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 10y ago
  Except, it's not a "user token", it's an address. It's as much a user token as a postal address or a telephone number is a "user token": not at all. It's a way to contact a person, not a way to identify a person. Just because you can enforce that only one person with a given postal address can create an account with your service, doesn't make it an inherent "user token".
  - throwanem 10y ago
    Yep. I designed a system once around the assumption of a 1:1 mapping between people and email addresses. I will never design another system that way.
- Kadin 10y ago
  Sure, but what if two humans share an email address, but both of them want to sign up for your game/service/whatever independently? This is a fairly common situation if you are (say) designing a game that might appeal to kids. Or old people. If you block that, you're going to lose users. Either because they just can't sign up at all, or because there's too much unnecessary friction in requiring someone to go out and sign up for an email address just to register for your service.

niij 10y ago

Care to expand? As in having a first.last@example versus firstlast@example

mabcat 10y ago
As in bloggsfamily@localisp.net.au that both parents and all the younger sprogs share. Still common as anything.
- vacri 10y ago
  One of the things I loved about the original Mad Max film was that they nicknamed their own toddler 'Sprog'...
pcl 10y ago
Probably the most common example these days is spouses who don't email regularly. Once upon a time, you only got one or two email addresses from your email provider (I'm looking at you, CompuServe and AOL), so at that time it was common for everyone in a family to have a single address. Eventually they added explicit multi-user features -- IIRC, AOL went as high as 5 emails per account before my family moved on.

roywiggins 10y ago

I have family who share one email between two spouses. They might maintain separate personal email addresses; probably not, though.

vacri 10y ago

I mean unique as far as your end is concerned. Short of very invasive technology, there's no way to stop people from sharing a user token if they choose to do so.

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 10y ago
Except, it's not a "user token", it's an address. It's as much a user token as a postal address or a telephone number is a "user token": not at all. It's a way to contact a person, not a way to identify a person. Just because you can enforce that only one person with a given postal address can create an account with your service, doesn't make it an inherent "user token".
- throwanem 10y ago
  Yep. I designed a system once around the assumption of a 1:1 mapping between people and email addresses. I will never design another system that way.
Kadin 10y ago
Sure, but what if two humans share an email address, but both of them want to sign up for your game/service/whatever independently? This is a fairly common situation if you are (say) designing a game that might appeal to kids. Or old people. If you block that, you're going to lose users. Either because they just can't sign up at all, or because there's too much unnecessary friction in requiring someone to go out and sign up for an email address just to register for your service.