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I've been thinking about this for my site and I've decided to set a minimum number of characters for a username so that it stands out as being a username rather
by iamds 14y ago
I've been thinking about this for my site and I've decided to set a minimum number of characters for a username so that it stands out as being a username rather than a random set of characters.
I think if you allow 3 character username people are more likely to use things like 'asd' and 'qaz'. Then on a site such as HN where you have comments labeled by username it can become confusing if all comments are labeled with garbage. Whereas if you set a minimum of 5 characters then people are more likely to user human readable words rather than garbage.
- iamjonlee 14y agoThat's true, but at the same time it would make a world of difference depending on your service. I asked the question because our app Persona is like an about me Page, in pictures. Most of the requests I'm getting is because people like Paul or Bob, Tim etc want to have their personalized URL linked with our app. Imagine if you were a Paul and you were sending your friends a link: http://www.prsna.me/paul http://www.prsna.me/paul . The appeal there for a less than 5 character username would then be justified as I see it.
- iamds 14y agoBut that only helps the first person called John or Paul who signs up with you. I guess you have to weigh up helping the odd few first people who join your site, or disallowing names that don't look like usernames.