3 ms·

They gave one reason in the post. They wanted usernames to be case insensitive, so that if there's a user named BigBird, somebody else can't sign up as bigbird.

They gave one reason in the post. They wanted usernames to be case insensitive, so that if there's a user named BigBird, somebody else can't sign up as bigbird. Case insensitive usernames are also helpful to minimize support issues when somebody forgets the exact case they used when they created their account.

drivebyacct2 13y ago
Am I insensitive in wondering "Why not just limit it to lowercase, ASCII chars"?
- EvanKelly 13y ago
  I don't think you're insensitive, but on a site which wants to foster users who care about their profile and persona on the site, freedom to display a username how they like could be a valuable feature.
- mzl 13y ago
  Yes, because lowercase ASCII does not meaningfully capture how names are written in most of the world. If you want to cater to a global audience, it is simply not sufficient.
- willvarfar 13y ago
  As they say in the article, they are trying to serve a global audience. As is easily googlable, Spotify was developed in the Baltic; the developer's own names likely contain non-ASCII characters.
  - drivebyacct2 13y ago
    Interesting, I felt foolish about an hour after having written this post, realizing that in most scenarios, it really shouldn't ever be any amount of effort minus half a second of planning and felt foolish for writing off unicode. (Normally I go the other route, unicode all the things). I suppose I feel that I was probably right to call myself arrogant then, to find out what you noted about Spotify's creators/creation. Interesting, thanks for the perspective check
    - oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
      I don't think you were all wrong - there's a difference between username and name. My name has a space in it, but they won't allow me to represent that in the username. And if my name is already used by someone else as their username, I can't use it as mine. This doesn't bother me, so long as my name is displayed properly in the UI (if at all).

drivebyacct2 13y ago

Am I insensitive in wondering "Why not just limit it to lowercase, ASCII chars"?

EvanKelly 13y ago
I don't think you're insensitive, but on a site which wants to foster users who care about their profile and persona on the site, freedom to display a username how they like could be a valuable feature.
mzl 13y ago
Yes, because lowercase ASCII does not meaningfully capture how names are written in most of the world. If you want to cater to a global audience, it is simply not sufficient.
willvarfar 13y ago
As they say in the article, they are trying to serve a global audience. As is easily googlable, Spotify was developed in the Baltic; the developer's own names likely contain non-ASCII characters.
- drivebyacct2 13y ago
  Interesting, I felt foolish about an hour after having written this post, realizing that in most scenarios, it really shouldn't ever be any amount of effort minus half a second of planning and felt foolish for writing off unicode. (Normally I go the other route, unicode all the things). I suppose I feel that I was probably right to call myself arrogant then, to find out what you noted about Spotify's creators/creation. Interesting, thanks for the perspective check
  - oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
    I don't think you were all wrong - there's a difference between username and name. My name has a space in it, but they won't allow me to represent that in the username. And if my name is already used by someone else as their username, I can't use it as mine. This doesn't bother me, so long as my name is displayed properly in the UI (if at all).