5 ms·

No, the reality is that everybody got used to it and nobody cares. What serious pages are there where you could not just create another account if you start to

by aluhut 9y ago

No, the reality is that everybody got used to it and nobody cares. What serious pages are there where you could not just create another account if you start to being ashamed for what you have right now? This is seriously a no-problem and giving people numbers is the worst way you could go from here. We are not some kind of 70s science-fiction robots who would love to be called by numbers....damn sometimes I have the feeling that commentators on here are robots. Please go outside some time and ask real people what they think about the new genius idea that just came into your mind.

laumars 9y ago
I'd prefer user names which were changeable rather than numbers; but lets be honest, a numeric only system isn't without precedence: ICQ. To be honest, given user names are just an arbitrary reference, you could probably also include phone numbers, IP addresses, social security, national insurance and house numbers into the list of prior art as well. Not that I'm advocating the use of numbers instead of names. Twitter I think gets it right where they give everyone a number which is fixed but you can assign yourself a name; which can change. Most of the time people choose not to, But the option is still there.
- aluhut 9y ago
  I come from the ICQ time (...hell I still have it). The fact that you had a number, did not make it good in any way. At the same time we already had IRC where everybody had usernames and it was much better if you had to tell someone who you are. It is by far easier to remember. If I'd tell someone (in Germany) that my nick is Aluhut, they'll have a picture in their head instantly. If I'd tell them that I'm 13475456, they'll ask me to write it down for them.
  - Sylos 9y ago
    For reference: "Aluhut" translates to "tinfoil hat".
    - aluhut 9y ago
      Exactly. You can see it the moment you read it.
  - laumars 9y ago
    You could argue your preconception point as a negative as well. To quote the GP: > The reality is that a relatively small handful of privileged early adopters get good usernames that match their identities, and everyone else gets screwed. These identifiers then act like tatoos that you got a long time ago and are stuck with for the rest of your life: people end up reminded every day of a sport they can no longer play due to an injury ("hockeystar") or loves lost ("iheartjessie"), attached to a joke that is no longer funny or to a thought that they found adorable as a 13 year old (when you are legally asked to "choose a username": a modern era coming of age scenario) but which adults find inane, or to a nickname that means something different than you realized to some people and now can't change. The best happy medium is a user name that can change. But so many places make them static (sometimes for reasons no better than they just made "username" the foreign key in their users table) > I come from the ICQ time Likewise; that's why I used it as an example ;) I think comparing ICQ to IRC is a bit disingenuous as they occupied slightly different use cases.
    - aluhut 9y ago
      I never seen it as something negative. There are many letters/signs. There is creativity and Peter23 will always be only Peter at best. Changing a nick in IRC is as easy as joining a chan.
      - laumars 9y ago
        We are talking about more than just IRC though. Plus at risk of repeating myself, I'm not arguing against users names on the whole; just systems which have user names that cannot be changed
MaxBarraclough 9y ago
> What serious pages are there where you could not just create another account if you start to being ashamed for what you have right now? Depends what's associated with the account, no? If it's something like Steam, your username might be tied to hundreds of dollars of purchases. If it's Slashdot, you'll lose your sweet low user ID. If it's StackOverflow, you'll lose your various reputation scores.
- dannyw 9y ago
  Thankfully, for steam your username is not displayed to any other person. You have a profile ID (globally unique, alphanumeric, you can change as many times as you want), and a profile name (not unique)
  - gsich 9y ago
    you can't change your profile id though. That's what's called a "steam id". You can change the URL (steam custom url) however. But accessing your profile with the steam id will still work.
  - ValentineC 9y ago
    Unfortunately for Steam, your login username is still displayed in some places like the top right of the Steam app and any computers you choose to share your library on. It's also likely that they used the login username as a primary key, which means it's unlikely to be able to be changed anytime soon.
Sir_Substance 9y ago
>This is seriously a no-problem Most users have at least two email addresses because most of their mail is routed through email addresses like "PartyChick88@hotmail.com" but they don't feel comfortable putting that on job applications and medical forms. It is a statistical certainty that people have missed job opportunities and subsequently defaulted on mortgages because they sent off a bunch of job applications on their "business" email address and then forgot to check it because they don't use it much. One of the more common office security failures is to have your email client auto-fill to someones personal account instead of their company-issued account, resulting in sensitive documents leaving the auditable environment of the office email server. Now for sure, it's not exactly up there with global warming and north korea, but I'm not sure I'd call it a "no-problem". It's a fundamental UX failure that we're only just now starting to see get fixed with email address aliases becoming a more widespread feature, and even that is just a patch. We've all gotten used to it, but that doesn't mean it's not a problem.
- aluhut 9y ago
  Well, the problem here is obviously not the nick but the inability of someone to drop an old email address or just forward it to another one. You don't have to have it in your mail client. You can manage that from the webinterface and never again login to that mail address. I'm/was doing quite a lot IT support for friends, family their friends and so on and have never heard of anything like that. I'm also sure that the domain @hotmail.com would be enough to not get you a job on certain businesses. > One of the more common office security failures is to have your email client auto-fill to someones personal account instead of their company-issued account So...you are sending private emails from your business account? Again it's not the nick/names problem. The problem is your behavior. This is the root cause here and doing some make up won't solve your problem.
  - always_good 9y ago
    These comments have made me realize how many HNers are absolutely clueless about what people do and like in the world.
Zhyl 9y ago
The reality is that usernames are seen as a computery tech internet thing rather than a business thing. Unofficial, maybe even frivolous. In business you have customer account numbers, bank account numbers, membership numbers, invoice numbers etc. There is no conflation with identity - you are not your account with your bank, gym or stationary supplier. It is only because of internet forums and login usernames that we have even gotten to this state of affairs in the first place. Usernames (or internet aliases in general) were a routinely mocked part of internet culture by mainstream culture. People these days use services in spite of usernames rather than because of them. The president of the united states has 'real' in front of his name. Think about that. In no other medium do we have people asserting that they are the genuine person they are claiming to be. Its tautological.
- aluhut 9y ago
  In business I have mainly my mail address. It's forename.surname@company This is the most common identification uniform. Pretty easy, looks good on your card and can be remembered by the client who knows your name. Everything else you've listed is part of a identification procedure that happens mostly between you and a machine. Not between two humans (taking out the call center semi-human who needs to type that into the machine first).
- always_good 9y ago
  Dunno, what decade were people making fun of usernames? Starting back when I first downloaded MSN/AIM, people were having fun coming up with usernames and trading them. Everyone at school. Everyone. People weren't just tapping random key combos either. They were coming up with their own identities because that's what people like to do. I can't believe these comments that think people are itching to be assigned a #Reference ID on the internet. For example, you also think the mainstream used internet message boards.

by aluhut 9y ago

laumars 9y ago

I'd prefer user names which were changeable rather than numbers; but lets be honest, a numeric only system isn't without precedence: ICQ. To be honest, given user names are just an arbitrary reference, you could probably also include phone numbers, IP addresses, social security, national insurance and house numbers into the list of prior art as well. Not that I'm advocating the use of numbers instead of names. Twitter I think gets it right where they give everyone a number which is fixed but you can assign yourself a name; which can change. Most of the time people choose not to, But the option is still there.

aluhut 9y ago
I come from the ICQ time (...hell I still have it). The fact that you had a number, did not make it good in any way. At the same time we already had IRC where everybody had usernames and it was much better if you had to tell someone who you are. It is by far easier to remember. If I'd tell someone (in Germany) that my nick is Aluhut, they'll have a picture in their head instantly. If I'd tell them that I'm 13475456, they'll ask me to write it down for them.
- Sylos 9y ago
  For reference: "Aluhut" translates to "tinfoil hat".
  - aluhut 9y ago
    Exactly. You can see it the moment you read it.
- laumars 9y ago
  You could argue your preconception point as a negative as well. To quote the GP: > The reality is that a relatively small handful of privileged early adopters get good usernames that match their identities, and everyone else gets screwed. These identifiers then act like tatoos that you got a long time ago and are stuck with for the rest of your life: people end up reminded every day of a sport they can no longer play due to an injury ("hockeystar") or loves lost ("iheartjessie"), attached to a joke that is no longer funny or to a thought that they found adorable as a 13 year old (when you are legally asked to "choose a username": a modern era coming of age scenario) but which adults find inane, or to a nickname that means something different than you realized to some people and now can't change. The best happy medium is a user name that can change. But so many places make them static (sometimes for reasons no better than they just made "username" the foreign key in their users table) > I come from the ICQ time Likewise; that's why I used it as an example ;) I think comparing ICQ to IRC is a bit disingenuous as they occupied slightly different use cases.
  - aluhut 9y ago
    I never seen it as something negative. There are many letters/signs. There is creativity and Peter23 will always be only Peter at best. Changing a nick in IRC is as easy as joining a chan.
    - laumars 9y ago
      We are talking about more than just IRC though. Plus at risk of repeating myself, I'm not arguing against users names on the whole; just systems which have user names that cannot be changed

MaxBarraclough 9y ago

> What serious pages are there where you could not just create another account if you start to being ashamed for what you have right now? Depends what's associated with the account, no? If it's something like Steam, your username might be tied to hundreds of dollars of purchases. If it's Slashdot, you'll lose your sweet low user ID. If it's StackOverflow, you'll lose your various reputation scores.

dannyw 9y ago
Thankfully, for steam your username is not displayed to any other person. You have a profile ID (globally unique, alphanumeric, you can change as many times as you want), and a profile name (not unique)
- gsich 9y ago
  you can't change your profile id though. That's what's called a "steam id". You can change the URL (steam custom url) however. But accessing your profile with the steam id will still work.
- ValentineC 9y ago
  Unfortunately for Steam, your login username is still displayed in some places like the top right of the Steam app and any computers you choose to share your library on. It's also likely that they used the login username as a primary key, which means it's unlikely to be able to be changed anytime soon.

Sir_Substance 9y ago

>This is seriously a no-problem Most users have at least two email addresses because most of their mail is routed through email addresses like "PartyChick88@hotmail.com" but they don't feel comfortable putting that on job applications and medical forms. It is a statistical certainty that people have missed job opportunities and subsequently defaulted on mortgages because they sent off a bunch of job applications on their "business" email address and then forgot to check it because they don't use it much. One of the more common office security failures is to have your email client auto-fill to someones personal account instead of their company-issued account, resulting in sensitive documents leaving the auditable environment of the office email server. Now for sure, it's not exactly up there with global warming and north korea, but I'm not sure I'd call it a "no-problem". It's a fundamental UX failure that we're only just now starting to see get fixed with email address aliases becoming a more widespread feature, and even that is just a patch. We've all gotten used to it, but that doesn't mean it's not a problem.

aluhut 9y ago
Well, the problem here is obviously not the nick but the inability of someone to drop an old email address or just forward it to another one. You don't have to have it in your mail client. You can manage that from the webinterface and never again login to that mail address. I'm/was doing quite a lot IT support for friends, family their friends and so on and have never heard of anything like that. I'm also sure that the domain @hotmail.com would be enough to not get you a job on certain businesses. > One of the more common office security failures is to have your email client auto-fill to someones personal account instead of their company-issued account So...you are sending private emails from your business account? Again it's not the nick/names problem. The problem is your behavior. This is the root cause here and doing some make up won't solve your problem.
- always_good 9y ago
  These comments have made me realize how many HNers are absolutely clueless about what people do and like in the world.

Zhyl 9y ago

The reality is that usernames are seen as a computery tech internet thing rather than a business thing. Unofficial, maybe even frivolous. In business you have customer account numbers, bank account numbers, membership numbers, invoice numbers etc. There is no conflation with identity - you are not your account with your bank, gym or stationary supplier. It is only because of internet forums and login usernames that we have even gotten to this state of affairs in the first place. Usernames (or internet aliases in general) were a routinely mocked part of internet culture by mainstream culture. People these days use services in spite of usernames rather than because of them. The president of the united states has 'real' in front of his name. Think about that. In no other medium do we have people asserting that they are the genuine person they are claiming to be. Its tautological.

aluhut 9y ago
In business I have mainly my mail address. It's forename.surname@company This is the most common identification uniform. Pretty easy, looks good on your card and can be remembered by the client who knows your name. Everything else you've listed is part of a identification procedure that happens mostly between you and a machine. Not between two humans (taking out the call center semi-human who needs to type that into the machine first).
always_good 9y ago
Dunno, what decade were people making fun of usernames? Starting back when I first downloaded MSN/AIM, people were having fun coming up with usernames and trading them. Everyone at school. Everyone. People weren't just tapping random key combos either. They were coming up with their own identities because that's what people like to do. I can't believe these comments that think people are itching to be assigned a #Reference ID on the internet. For example, you also think the mainstream used internet message boards.