Suggestions

[quote name="Corviknight" date="2021-03-08 08:47:17" ] Nah, in my mind, it would work like Discord, where your user ID would be below your display name. I understand your rant, because change is never easy. It just doesn't sit well with me that people just register on sites they might potentially play just to "save" their usernames. :) [/quote] the difference here is that on Discord, you might be the only "Angel" on a server. or there might be "Angel#1111" and "Angel#2222" and people can remember the difference. but discord servers hold a limited number of people-- so there might be 4,000 Angels on Discord's platform, but it's unlikely to cause confusion. however, unlike Discord, usernames on FR are shown sitewide. so that's why I think your particular comparison doesn't work, if you get what I'm saying

Could nicknames work? Like the -username- stays the same and is still displayed (Perhaps below the "nickname", and the "nickname" is where the username currently is), but a "nickname" could be chosen that can be used by multiple people? Like Twitter does (I think)?

I'd really hate for this to happen. I took a year and a half hiatus, and will probably take another long one once I've completed my next set of goals. This username is a massive part of my identity online (I've found literally one website where it's been taken) and to see it taken just because I didn't play for a bit would really, really suck.

It's a purely emotive argument, but tbh a lot of things are about how they 'feel'. I don't think I'd come back if someone else got my username, and unjustified as it is I would definitely feel like it'd be stolen.

Some people change their username all the time and that's cool! I went through a few to start with. Vendrus, however, has now been with me for like.. 15 years or more and feels nearly as much a part of me as my irl name (and honestly sometime more).

[quote name="StannyWolfie" date="2021-03-08 12:00:35" ] Could nicknames work? Like the -username- stays the same and is still displayed (Perhaps below the "nickname", and the "nickname" is where the username currently is), but a "nickname" could be chosen that can be used by multiple people? Like Twitter does (I think)? [/quote] Allowing people to choose a [i]display name[/i] would be a really good compromise for this! I'd support that for sure!

[quote name="Corviknight" date="2021-03-08 08:47:17" ] @incubuzz I understand your rant, because change is never easy. It just doesn't sit well with me that people just register on sites they might potentially play just to "save" their usernames. :) [/quote] That wasn't a rant. That was somebody disagreeing with you. But it's okay if you don't know the difference just yet! You're also convinced that if somebody truly cares about flight rising, then they'll drop all their irl responsibilities and log in consistently. :) But as for why we use usernames, not ID numbers: it's for the same reason we program in higher level languages and assembly code, not binary. It's the same reason we give people names, and don't just refer to them by their social security number. We humans tend to have a much easier time remembering words(long series of letters) than long series of numbers. I'm a mathematician, not a biologist, so I can't really explain why. But humans have a much easier time remembering how to write out "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" then the first 30-odd digits of e, for some reason, and I don't think you can deny that.

Since it came up in thread: I also don't support display names. Display names or 'tags' work for platforms like Discord because so many people use them. An instant messaging application is much different from a browser game like FR is. The way pings work now would not work with display names. I do think pings should be tied to ID# instead of username because it makes changing your username easier (in thread you ping Naeryl but in backend it's tied to account #222505 through a conversion, so if I switch my username to, say, Foxfluff, all pings with Naeryl get changed to Foxfluff). But if we had display names, how would pinging work? Would people ping me by tagging Naeryl#222505? What would appear in the post itself? When you're having a back and forth with someone, whether in Help Center or a sales thread, it seems super convoluted to have to copy the ID# every single time. I suppose there's the possibility forum profiles look like this: [img]https://i.gyazo.com/3f3a0e2ca58f789a9d876fe50f9fff8d.png[/img] But...I don't know. The cons of duplicate usernames outweigh the pros for me. The cons I'm concerned about: - Skin/Accent tooltip credits. - Private Message recipients. - User Search. - The issue of someone becoming infamous for one reason or another, especially if the username is common. - Impersonating or harassment attempts from malicious users. - Relevant Contact Us support fields (what if you can't remember your ID# when trying to recover an account?). - Potential confusion for blocking a user (for example if I blocked ChocolateKittens and then saw another one on the forums, or see they commented on my profile, or what have you, that might be incredibly jarring). I also don't support removing the usernames of banned users, especially as not all bans are permanent. These users should be able to visit their old lair(s) and not worry about their old dragons/posts/etc. being touched.

[quote name="Naeryl" date="2021-03-08 13:13:44" ] Since it came up in thread: I also don't support display names. Display names or 'tags' work for platforms like Discord because so many people use them. An instant messaging application is much different from a browser game like FR is. The way pings work now would not work with display names. I do think pings should be tied to ID# instead of username because it makes changing your username easier (in thread you ping Naeryl but in backend it's tied to account #222505 through a conversion, so if I switch my username to, say, Foxfluff, all pings with Naeryl get changed to Foxfluff). But if we had display names, how would pinging work? Would people ping me by tagging Naeryl#222505? What would appear in the post itself? When you're having a back and forth with someone, whether in Help Center or a sales thread, it seems super convoluted to have to copy the ID# every single time. I suppose there's the possibility forum profiles look like this: [img]https://i.gyazo.com/3f3a0e2ca58f789a9d876fe50f9fff8d.png[/img] But...I don't know. The cons of duplicate usernames outweigh the pros for me. The cons I'm concerned about: - Skin/Accent tooltip credits. - Private Message recipients. - User Search. - The issue of someone becoming infamous for one reason or another, especially if the username is common. - Impersonating or harassment attempts from malicious users. - Relevant Contact Us support fields (what if you can't remember your ID# when trying to recover an account?). - Potential confusion for blocking a user (for example if I blocked ChocolateKittens and then saw another one on the forums, or see they commented on my profile, or what have you, that might be incredibly jarring). I also don't support removing the usernames of banned users, especially as not all bans are permanent. These users should be able to visit their old lair(s) and not worry about their old dragons/posts/etc. being touched. [/quote] Oh no no I meant like this: [img]https://imgur.com/bW3wuSd.png[/img] Username is still the big deal. But you can throw a nickname on top that you can change any time. If you don't want to do that it will display your username front and center normally. (And yes I think people would still change their usernames, since they're still displayed. I don't think this would completely nerf that gem sink)

[quote name="StannyWolfie" date="2021-03-08 14:06:06" ] Username is still the big deal. But you can throw a nickname on top that you can change any time. If you don't want to do that it will display your username front and center normally. (And yes I think people would still change their usernames, since they're still displayed. I don't think this would completely nerf that gem sink) [/quote] The argument for what you have is simply "put the name you want to be called in your signature/profile." The thing about your mockup (which is very cute, I love the dragon) is that the information isn't presented the best, especially as display names would be optional. Making the actual username a smaller text while keeping display names big along with opted-out usernames is inconsistent and can cause confusion. Yes, you could swap them around so that the display name is smaller than the username and also positioned under the username for maximum consistency. But I still think the simple solution is using your signature and/or clan profile to solve this issue in particular. But if I missed something completely obvious, let me know, it's an off day for me.