4 ms·

I'm impressed that you got a 5 letters username less than 3 years ago.

63 5y ago
Maybe not as impressive since it's a number, but I got mine in 2021. HN names aren't terribly competitive, it seems. Maybe it's due to the more mature culture here.
- bckr 5y ago
  > Maybe it's due to the more mature culture here. Perhaps a bit of that, and perhaps a bit of a non-existent marketplace
- kingcharles 5y ago
  HN is one of the only sites on the Internet where I was able to get my name in 2021.
  - ahmetkun 5y ago
    So are you Charles I or II?
    - labster 5y ago
      Actually he’s the spaniel. Works for DataDog.
      - kingcharles 5y ago
        On the Internet nobody knows I'm a King Charles Spaniel. Except you. You know Ꙭ
        labster 5y ago
        Ah man, don’t give me those puppy dog eyes!
    - kingcharles 5y ago
      One. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kingcharles https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kingcharles
icy 5y ago
I managed to snag this one by emailing hn@ycombinator.com to transfer it to me as the nick was dormant for years.
- gibolt 5y ago
  Was the account frozen?
  - icy 5y ago
    Not sure. There were no comments or submissions since its creation. Edit: I just realised, heh. You cheeky fella.
  - petecooper 5y ago
    slow clap
shxuw 5y ago
I got a 5 letter username less than 3 minutes ago
- lucb1e 5y ago
  Yours does not include an English dictionary word or name though (unless sh counts, but that's shorter and less common than 'max'), but yeah 5-char words being available, I'm also not too surprised by.
  - quern 5y ago
    This was the second 5 letter dictionary word I tried. :p
    - lucb1e 5y ago
      So now it's gone for all time? Thanks :p What I've done on reddit for throwaways is use 123123 as password so they can be reused. Not a one has gotten 'hacked' yet over months of use, I'm quite surprised tbh. Maybe I should publish the password on the relevant accounts once I decide to stop using them. Ideally there'd be a time factor before it changes hands to avoid confusion and editing old posts, but I would probably forget (hence the dummy password strategy). Related: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wireles.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wirel... "It wasn't me officer" (of course IP logs... and not that I'd do anything illegal on reddit anyway no sir)
dheera 5y ago
26^5 is 11881376, surely there aren't that many users here yet (?)
- OJFord 5y ago
  And 36^5 is even a bit bigger. (Numbers are allowed. Think that's it though - case is recorded, but I don't think you can sign up Dheera, because dheera exists.)
  - mkl 5y ago
    Underscores and hyphens are allowed too, so it's at least 38^5 ≈ 79e6.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
AussieWog93 5y ago
For what it's worth, this whole submission came about because another user was shocked that someone had registered the HN username "ford" in 2022. Turns out another user named "fordprefect" existed and had commented on a poll from 2009, which surprised the heck out of both of us.

63 5y ago

Maybe not as impressive since it's a number, but I got mine in 2021. HN names aren't terribly competitive, it seems. Maybe it's due to the more mature culture here.

bckr 5y ago
> Maybe it's due to the more mature culture here. Perhaps a bit of that, and perhaps a bit of a non-existent marketplace
kingcharles 5y ago
HN is one of the only sites on the Internet where I was able to get my name in 2021.
- ahmetkun 5y ago
  So are you Charles I or II?
  - labster 5y ago
    Actually he’s the spaniel. Works for DataDog.
    - kingcharles 5y ago
      On the Internet nobody knows I'm a King Charles Spaniel. Except you. You know Ꙭ
      - labster 5y ago
        Ah man, don’t give me those puppy dog eyes!
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    One. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kingcharles https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kingcharles

icy 5y ago

I managed to snag this one by emailing hn@ycombinator.com to transfer it to me as the nick was dormant for years.

gibolt 5y ago
Was the account frozen?
- icy 5y ago
  Not sure. There were no comments or submissions since its creation. Edit: I just realised, heh. You cheeky fella.
- petecooper 5y ago
  slow clap

shxuw 5y ago

I got a 5 letter username less than 3 minutes ago

lucb1e 5y ago
Yours does not include an English dictionary word or name though (unless sh counts, but that's shorter and less common than 'max'), but yeah 5-char words being available, I'm also not too surprised by.
- quern 5y ago
  This was the second 5 letter dictionary word I tried. :p
  - lucb1e 5y ago
    So now it's gone for all time? Thanks :p What I've done on reddit for throwaways is use 123123 as password so they can be reused. Not a one has gotten 'hacked' yet over months of use, I'm quite surprised tbh. Maybe I should publish the password on the relevant accounts once I decide to stop using them. Ideally there'd be a time factor before it changes hands to avoid confusion and editing old posts, but I would probably forget (hence the dummy password strategy). Related: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wireles.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wirel... "It wasn't me officer" (of course IP logs... and not that I'd do anything illegal on reddit anyway no sir)

dheera 5y ago

26^5 is 11881376, surely there aren't that many users here yet (?)

OJFord 5y ago
And 36^5 is even a bit bigger. (Numbers are allowed. Think that's it though - case is recorded, but I don't think you can sign up Dheera, because dheera exists.)
- mkl 5y ago
  Underscores and hyphens are allowed too, so it's at least 38^5 ≈ 79e6.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

AussieWog93 5y ago

For what it's worth, this whole submission came about because another user was shocked that someone had registered the HN username "ford" in 2022. Turns out another user named "fordprefect" existed and had commented on a poll from 2009, which surprised the heck out of both of us.