6 ms·

Rule number one is you don’t change usernames, like you don’t change peoples email address. Username, email, address, phone, any PII is up to the user to change

• prox 3y ago
  Absolutely. If there is even just one Discord employee reading this : dont ffing do this. This is some hallucination that things will be more in line with other social outlets. Ask yourself: does this add value to my service? I think the answer is a 100% no. Ask yourself: does this move hurt my brand? Guess what is happening right now. This is idiocy in action.
  • flangola7 3y ago
    So how do you suggest they address the recurring issues they laid out?
    • hackinthebochs 3y ago
      How often does adding a friend cold even happen on discord? All interaction is based around shared servers. If user A wants to friend user B, they either are or will be a member of the same server. Globally unique usernames just aren't relevant.
      • suzakus 3y ago
        Based on discord's post: https://discord.com/blog/usernames https://discord.com/blog/usernames it seems it happens more than you'd expect; particularly as discord has been on the uptick to being ubiquitous among teens/young adults who may wish to add each other after meeting in person
        • packetlost 3y ago
          Fine. Have a first-come-first serve lottery system. Person with the lowest discriminator wins that name. You have to open that up to everyone (not just those who pay), but that should be relatively easy to do. IMO, I think it's also ok to give preference to people who 1) were there first 2) pay for the service
          • Ekaros 3y ago
            Discriminators are random for non nitro-users. And if you stop paying you don't even get to keep one...
          • pavel_lishin 3y ago
            > Fine. Have a first-come-first serve lottery system Isn't this exactly what Discord is doing?
          • ewanm89 3y ago
            Okay, discriminators are randomly assigned unless one pays for nitro, that said they have account creation date on record, so they can do it in order no problem. The issues are the order they have chosen is not that simple. They are giving verified bots first choice (some of these are questionable), then owners of partnered servers, then discord for business, then it is going by account age. They have added a clarification to their blog post: "Current Nitro subscribers paying for the ability to customize their discriminator that registered for Nitro on or before March 1, 2023 will also be given early access." Yeah, when early access is in the list I do not know.
        • saghm 3y ago
          I think what's confusing to me is why this has to be done in a breaking way. If the goal is to be able to have some sort of identifier people can remember and share to add each other, why not just make that a separate system where the "special" identifier maps to an "old-style" identity? They're already trying to change the symbolic notation for users (i.e. "@foo" instead of "foo#1234"), so it seems like they could just make that something unique enough to not be confused with an original name (e.g. "@@foo" to differentiate from how you tag people in chat today, or even something weirder like "@foo@").
          • ysavir 3y ago
            I think that's essentially what they're doing. Currently "usernames" in the discord context are equivalent to display names. You can change your username at any time so long as 9999 other people don't already have the name your going for. With this change, you're getting a permanent identifier in the form of a username, while you retain your display name, which you can still change at any time, but now without having to worry about whether you're the 10000th person to get it.
            • saghm 3y ago
              Maybe I'm, getting confused by the messaging then; the article talks about "forcing people to make a change", which to me implies that this is some sort of transition where eventually the "old" names will no longer work, or at least that using a custom nickname per server won't work. If that's the case, then I don't consider this to be done in a "non-breaking way", although maybe I wasn't specific enough in my previous comment.
              • ysavir 3y ago
                Yeah, if I'm understanding it correctly, the word choice and communication really muddy the waters. If they chose to call it "unique identifier", and treat is a brand new value, I think there would be much less confusion and frustration. "Username" is too overloaded in this context for it to have been communicated clearly.
            • 3y ago
        • dadoum 3y ago
          Note: this page seems to have big localization issues, as the French version actually has few parts in English because they amended it at the beginning and at the end, and that makes this article feel quite messy.
        • falsenapkin 3y ago
          Meeting in person seems like the issue. In the gaming space for people who have used the platform for a while, it isn't so weird. The games I play it's even fun to see people have ign be their discord tag. I can see this providing value to "the general public" but I don't see how it provides value to gamers... and that's the thing I guess Discord is trying hard to branch out of gaming.
          • dcsan 3y ago
            For in person why don't they add a qrcode scanner or shareable URL just like they do for servers? RN what I do is share a qrcode for a small server that I admin and then friend/add ppl as they join. Totally not needed tbh. Generally discord does a great job with onboarding, hope they figure this one out.
      • merb 3y ago
        there are games where you can only trade, in game and there is no easy way to find groups (diablo 2 resurrection for example) and there are multiple discords servers to trade and most of the time you befriend/message somebody in discord first (outside of the server) and there are ways to get help with killing diablo clone where you also first get messaged globally.
      • olah_1 3y ago
        > Globally unique usernames just aren't relevant. And if some users think they are relevant, let it be an optional additional name for premium users.
    • fafzv 3y ago
      If you have a username full of weird casing and unicode characters you kinda deserve people not being able to add you Regarding discriminators: have 5-digit discriminators for usernames used by more than 10000 accounts
    • foota 3y ago
      Add a globally unique generated name to add someone with?
    • Choco31415 3y ago
      If a person or a group needs a unique username, then give them the #'less version of it. Outside of that, the issue isn't a problem. For a community based platform like Discord it's valuable to let people have the name they want and if that means people make typos from time to time, then that's necessary.
      • rocqua 3y ago
        The problem is that discord users think they know their username, but they don't. Most people know their phone number, those who don't, know that they don't. I don't think this is a big enough problem, but I do see how this can be a problem.
        • Aeolun 3y ago
          It can’t be that hard to add a ‘find your user name here’ link to every place where one would potentially use it. Do you really want people braindead enough to not figure that out on your platform? I don’t, and certainly not if their incompetence inconveniences the existing users that make the platform what it is.
          • rocqua 3y ago
            Discord took VC money. Slow and steady growth is as unacceptable to their investors as going bankrupt. So they have to chase the lowest common denominator of user.
    • croes 3y ago
      Automatically replace the discriminator by something like Word3Words to make them less confusable.
  • egometry 3y ago
    Almost certainly a play on the Twitter space. Driven by some exec or PM. The numeric distinguisher was good, actually.
• charcircuit 3y ago
  This is up to the user to change. Your old username becomes a display name and then you get to pick what your unique username will be. Discord doesn't have unique usernames right now.
  • reactordev 3y ago
    and what recourse do I have if my unique name is taken? This is the crux of the problem. You can't create a limited supply market when there wasn't one, after the fact.
    • charcircuit 3y ago
      >and what recourse do I have if my unique name is taken? Add a number. Before your unique username was your name + a 4 digit number. You could do the same thing here with your name plus a number.
      • eropple 3y ago
        The difference in affordances between "everyone has a number attached" and "somebody who isn't you doesn't" should be obvious. My username on Discord is "Ed#1234". My username will not be "@Ed". That sucks, the change isn't my choice, and I've canceled my subscription because they're removing the one feature, as much of a vanity thing as it is, that I liked enough to give them money. (This isn't an invitation to well-actually-that's-illogical about it. I could not care in the slightest if you think it is sufficiently lesswrongish to be valid. They're changing my username out from under me. That sucks. They have lost me as a customer.)
      • gabereiser 3y ago
        if I have a unique username in the form of a name + a 4 digit number, why do I need to create a unique username? The logic behind this doesn't make any sense other than the fact that they want to charge for a blue checkmark and/or they aren't satisfied with their current username setup. Both of which are not my concern as a user of their product. I shouldn't have to win the lottery to get my username back. I shouldn't be outbid by some kid with a python script who wants my name. Your name is your only true property on 3rd party sites/services. My username, is me. I am my username. To change it would be to change me. I kinda like me.
• KomoD 3y ago
  I do want to add: you can still add people by their old name#9999 username
• ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  Right up there I'd put: Don't force people to use E-mail addresses as user IDs. It's a terrible idea for security and it's just straight-up dumb. Talk about amateur hour.
  • lelanthran 3y ago
    What's the alternative that doesn't require more effort for the user?
    • ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
      Any string that isn't taken.
      • lelanthran 3y ago
        That sounds like more effort for the user: now they have to remember some random string in addition to their email address. If every website did this, no one will ever sign up.
        • ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
          Why would it be "in addition to" their E-mail address? And do you have a problem remembering your E-mail address? I don't understand your objection here at all. Not to mention, I said ANY string; that could be your E-mail address if you want it to be. Finally, your assertion about "any Web site that did this" is absurd, since a huge number of (probably even most) forums are powered by software that requires you to specify a user ID that doesn't have to be an E-mail address.
          • gabereiser 3y ago
            Implying that one would remember their email address but would forget the 2nd item for identity. Combining email address with another string to create a unique ID isn't the answer either. Any combination of string+salt can be broken. What we are getting at is that it shouldn't be on the user to have to remember yet another identifier for XYZ website or service. We already have the concept of usernames, email address are somewhat unique, and you can suffix numbers like they do. If you really want unique ID's, decouple login from your identifier. On Steam, people login with their username or email address, not their Steam ID. For some, their Steam ID is 9999999999999999 long. For others it's 99999999 long. It all depends on when you joined Steam.