Let’s talk about usernames

Re:Let’s talk about usernames by aluhut on Monday February 12, 2018 @04:45AM (#16357608)

I come from the ICQ time (...hell I still have it). The fact that you had a number, did not make it good in any way. At the same time we already had IRC where everybody had usernames and it was much better if you had to tell someone who you are. It is by far easier to remember. If I'd tell someone (in Germany) that my nick is Aluhut, they'll have a picture in their head instantly. If I'd tell them that I'm 13475456, they'll ask me to write it down for them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Let’s talk about usernames by laumars on Monday February 12, 2018 @09:05AM (#16358589)

You could argue your preconception point as a negative as well. To quote the GP:

> The reality is that a relatively small handful of privileged early adopters get good usernames that match their identities, and everyone else gets screwed. These identifiers then act like tatoos that you got a long time ago and are stuck with for the rest of your life: people end up reminded every day of a sport they can no longer play due to an injury ("hockeystar") or loves lost ("iheartjessie"), attached to a joke that is no longer funny or to a thought that they found adorable as a 13 year old (when you are legally asked to "choose a username": a modern era coming of age scenario) but which adults find inane, or to a nickname that means something different than you realized to some people and now can't change.

The best happy medium is a user name that can change. But so many places make them static (sometimes for reasons no better than they just made "username" the foreign key in their users table)

> I come from the ICQ time

Likewise; that's why I used it as an example ;) I think comparing ICQ to IRC is a bit disingenuous as they occupied slightly different use cases.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Let’s talk about usernames by aluhut on Monday February 12, 2018 @09:25AM (#16358722)

I never seen it as something negative. There are many letters/signs. There is creativity and Peter23 will always be only Peter at best. Changing a nick in IRC is as easy as joining a chan.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Let’s talk about usernames by laumars on Monday February 12, 2018 @10:03AM (#16358989)

We are talking about more than just IRC though.

Plus at risk of repeating myself, I'm not arguing against users names on the whole; just systems which have user names that cannot be changed

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Let’s talk about usernames by Sylos on Monday February 12, 2018 @05:14AM (#16357744)

For reference: "Aluhut" translates to "tinfoil hat".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Let’s talk about usernames by aluhut on Monday February 12, 2018 @09:26AM (#16358725)

Exactly. You can see it the moment you read it.

[ Parent | on HN ]