4 ms·

Maybe limit the name length (client and server side) to 20 chars or so.

• citrin_ru 4y ago
  A shortened URL would fit into 20 chars (while some names don't) and I see this being widely abuse. One also would need a regexp to not allow things like URLs and phone numbers (but allow names in any language).
• 8organicbits 4y ago
  But be careful, this is one of of falsehoods programmers believe about names [1]. My name needs 16 characters, so 20 as a limit bothers me personally. For this example I'd suggest allowing long names. No one wants to have a computer say "your name is not valid". However, if the goal of personalized email is to be friendly, or some other non-functional reason, consider only including the name in the email if its "short" enough. That seems like a graceful degradation that would limit spam. Edit: or to address the URL/phone number concern, allow the user to pick that as their name, but not include it in the email. [1] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...
  • Dylan16807 4y ago
    It's only a falsehood if you expect it to hold everyone's full name. No need to call any names invalid just to ask for something shorter.
• kstenerud 4y ago
  20 characters is not nearly enough for Hubert Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvonangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolftausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvanderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchenachdiesternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneurassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvonandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum's name.
  • arbuge 4y ago
    A good chunk of the internet runs on varchar(255) name fields... Hubert's life is going to be rough out there.
    • DougMerritt 4y ago
      It's surprising so many families (well, family names) survived the punch card days, when name fields were necessarily limited to something like 20 to 40 characters.
• axus 4y ago
  About 6 months ago, I got a very short invoice for $500 from "Patricia Snook". I can't even remember if there was a message. Actually was reminded about this a week ago, when Paypal sent me a message that "Ms. Snook" had cancelled the invoice.