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Ask HN: Unique usernames in educational software
I'm working on a web based educational tool (university level, non-IT students) and I'm wondering how others have handled this.
Students belong to a group, which roughly equates to a class, and I'd like to keep usernames unique in each group, but allow duplicates with other users in other groups. ie group+user is unique.
Questions:
1. Is this a stupid idea? Should I just stick to the standard 'you have to think of a username no one else has thought of'?
2. How would you implement the logon screen - Three boxes (username, group and password) or combine group and username (eg group.username)?
- duskwuff 18y agoThis is the sort of idea that tends to end badly. Given that this is an educational tool, just make the user's graduation year a mandatory part of their username. jsmith is probably not unique, but jsmith2012 is more likely to be.
- cubicle67 18y agoThanks. I tend to agree. The more I think about it, the more problems I can see. Having to have a username unique can be a pain, but it's something we've become accustomed to.
- trevelyan 18y agoIf people are automatically going to organize themselves into small groups, you don't have a disambiguation problem. Make the email address unique, not the username.