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Discord Will Force You To Update Your Username (engadget.com) 76

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Discord is making "big changes" to how identities work on the platform, a move that will force you to change your username. From a report: Up until now, the company has appended four-digit tags to identities as a way to distinguish people with the same username. However, the new system will give everyone a unique username, much like Twitter, Instagram and other services. "The whole point of these changes is that we want to make it a lot easier for you and all the new users coming to Discord to connect and hang out with friends," co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy wrote in a blog post. "We know that your username and identity are important, and we understand that some of you may not like this change and disagree with it." The original aim with the four-digit tags was to allow you to choose any username you wanted, but it has now become "technical debt," according to Discord. The company said that the usernames are "too complicated or obscure" for people to remember.
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Discord Will Force You To Update Your Username

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  • ..then how do they function in the modern world with things like PIN codes for cards etc? Or even remember their own birthday frankly? And thats before the fact that your phone/PC/whatever will probably remember the login for you anyway.

    • IIRC They demand $5 a month to be able to choose your digits or they would be reset to random ones. It shouldn't be very surprising if people put no effort into memorizing them.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by edwdig ( 47888 )

        They're picked randomly when you create your account and never change. You can't pick them. There's no fees involved

        You only need the numbers if you're trying to add a friend that's not in a server you're also in. You don't have to memorize them, as they show on your profile page.

        The issue here is 99.9% of the time you don't need to know the numbers exist, so people get confused on the rare cases you do need them.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by laxguy ( 1179231 )

      this is just a lie by Discord, you do not need to remember your numbers, they are always displayed in your client

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by stripes ( 3681 )

        this is just a lie by Discord, you do not need to remember your numbers, they are always displayed in your client

        They are displayed in my client...but I don't have my client with me at all times. Like I originally signed up on my laptop and am on some painting related servers, and then I was doing some board gaming stuff and signed up on my phone, same account name but a different four digits, so that one is signed up to some boardgame stuff. If the "four numbers" had been "hey you pick a unique user name" I would very likely have remembered it. I manage to do that for a whole bunch of services already and have a

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by laxguy ( 1179231 )

          you don't need those numbers to join a new server. still can't understand why 4 digits is hard to remember.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by edwdig ( 47888 )

          The Discord login screens asks for either the email address or phone number tied to your account. You don't need to know the numbers to log in.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mascot ( 120795 )

      Why would anyone memorize them when it's right there whenever they open the Discord client? I have no idea what mine are, I've never needed to know and I don't tend to memorize things I never use. But, if I ever do need them for some reason, I know exactly where to find them. They could change them daily for all I care.

      Having said that, I have no idea what their rational is for it being more difficult to remember Name#four digits versus NamePlusRandomJunkBecauseTheFirst75AttemptsWereAlreadyTaken.

    • I don't know about you, but I remember by debit card PIN, the PIN I use to access doors at work, and other small numbers because I actually SELECTED them myself. They were bot randomly shoved at me by Discord on creation, with a ten dollar a month option to temporarily pick a four digit set that I can remember.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Honestly the issue isn't remembering a set of four digits; it's remembering dozens of sets of four digits that are all used in the same situation but for very vaguely different actions.

      That said, though; I don't think I've ever needed to remember someone else's digits on Discord, let alone my own. If I have to link to my Discord name I can just click it right there in the client to copy the full string.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      The problem is that the #1234's were a way to ensure that you got the name you wanted and didn't have to deal with username campers.

      It would make a lot more sense to keep the number and just hide it until something needs it. Like adding someone. "Which (BORING USER) do you wish to add?" list of (BORING USER)'s, and their icons.

      Like people don't remember the numbers and don't care about the numbers, but they were fair.

    • ..then how do they function in the modern world with things like PIN codes for cards etc?

      Aside from an ATM card...what cards have PIN codes?

      Not familiar with that....

      • I remember reading that credit cards in some countries (EU member states?) have a chip and PIN instead of a chip and signature. Even in the United States, where chip and signature is common for most credit cards (in contrast to ATM/debit cards that have chip and PIN as you mentioned), Target department store credit cards ("RedCard") have a chip and PIN.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pjt33 ( 739471 )

        SIM cards do, or at least all of the ones I've ever had.

  • There can only be one John Smith. Uhoh.

    • It did happen in the real world!

      Previously, there was only one John in the village, so people could just refer to you as John. Then a second John moved in and people had to start calling you John The Smith, to differentiate you from the new guy, John The Baker.

      Now everyone has to remember a damn surname! So annoying!

  • This move seems very stupid. No user needs to care about their unique global user ID in discord, because it is hidden. The only time it would ever, ever matter is if two of you were inside the same server - a rare event.

    So now, Instead of being "Bob" in our 20-something person server (with the hidden username of Bob#2421"), I now need to adopt a longer name unique in the world - annoying.

    • It does seem like an odd move, but at least they are adding display names, so really, not much will change.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      I agree. Why not only make the ID suffix visible only if there's a conflict? Or is it too difficult to determine conflicts for some reason? I'm not much of a Discord user so maybe I'm missing some context.

      And/or give the user a chance to just use the ID suffix version if they are okay with it, and make it the default if user doesn't respond. Why trouble millions of users? Somewhere somebody either made a very stupid design decision, and/or a very stupid management decision. Heads should roll.

      • Re:The 4 digits are hidden... (Score:5, Informative)

        by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @11:44AM (#63497182) Homepage Journal

        Why trouble millions of users?

        Because the current username system is really stupid and has led to all sorts of dumb issues.

        I'm not referring to the ID suffix. I'm referring to the fact that current usernames allow pretty much any valid Unicode string. I really hope I don't have to explain why that's stupid on Slashdot.

        Because you username is also your display name (when it comes to direct messages, at least) this means that they get changed somewhat frequently. This can get confusing. (Discord accounts already have per-server display names.)

        The full change is less "we're changing your username" and more "we're making you pick a new ID that serves solely as ID and that is human readable and limited to a simple set of alphanumeric characters and a subset of punctuation."

        Think of it as them changing the discriminator from a set of four random digits to a unique string you get to choose. Everyone will still see you as your display name, and the only time they need to see your new username are in the same situations when the discriminator would matter. Except less confusing, because you don't have to worry about making sure two names are in fact equal and not composed of similar looking Unicode characters. It's theoretically possible to create two Discord accounts that look the same and have the same "discriminator" but are in fact different due to the current use of full Unicode.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          I'm referring to the fact that current usernames allow pretty much any valid Unicode string

          Okay, but don't require existing ASCII-only names be changed, only those with Unicode. What percent are Unicode-polluted?

        • ...The full change is less "we're changing your username" and more "we're making you pick a new ID that serves solely as ID and that is human readable...

          Ah, it's quite refreshing to find that we humans still matter, as Greed N. Corruption works faster than ever to replace our employed existence with AI...to make the buck that ironically won't matter to every robot working 24/7 to make humans expendable.

          Ignorance isn't just a human trait. It's our destined epitaph.

  • That's how Joshua Wars II started.
  • If discord allowed for privacy and for you to self-host I would use it seriously. For now I only use it when people force you to join discord to receive support.

    • If discord allowed for privacy and for you to self-host I would use it seriously. For now I only use it when people force you to join discord to receive support.

      I've never dealt with a discord server...I'm only vaguely aware what it is, some kind of chat server?

      Anyway...what support are you talking about that requires one to access a discord server?

    • For a federated alternative to Discord chat, you probably want to try the Matrix network.

  • Its bizarre to me that Discord is switching to uniqueness when other gaming services, namely Xbox, Playstation and Steam all did the opposite and switched from unique names after recognising that there are too many users

    • Looks like it is mainly due to the fact that they have always allowed case-sensitive user names, so it is difficult to find/add friends even when you know their user name and discriminator (4 digit appended number).

      • To be fair, it's more than that even. As stated in another comment, it allows full unicode presently, so if you try to manually add someone using a unicode username, it's a Hail Mary to get it right. In some cases, if it isn't provided in text via other means, you aren't getting it.

  • I've tried to grab that name and several variations on many online games.

    But it's already been taken.

    Discord, if you're reading this, back out, don't do this, it is STUPID. You are not making your user experience better.

    Whatever new Product person who you just hired that made this horrible decision needs to be sidelined or fired. They know *nothing* about online community experiences.

  • Flat out, if my name I use isn't available and I have to change it to keep using discord, I'll flat out drop using it. I have many words I'd use to describe a change like that which are inappropriate.

    I always preferred teamspeak but on a community level Discord had advantages for connecting people, the channel system was nice for images and chat, and streaming features, but we have other ways. I'm not going to succumb to being Boboforty because someone has acquired or paid to get the same name I use or what

  • Instead of being called "Bob5533" you're now "Bobramadamading dongforfuckssakewhatels edoIhavetoaddtothatnamethat itfinallygets niquescrewthisshit"

    (sorry, the crapfilter forced me to add the blanks, imagine this without them)

  • FBI, CIA, NSA all have a system in place already, and that system is designed to track and connect simple unique usernames like every other service uses. It's largely automated at this point, and the db guy who built it shot himself 6 months ago.

    Aaaaanyway, now that the cool-guy shit is leaking out of discord it's time to get with the program. Simple unique easily trackable usernames or else.

    Why don't you go ahead and update your accounts phone number while your at it- you know, for "security" purposes.

  • The one thing that was better about Discord than all the other account-based and chat apps was that you could get "your username" no matter what. The 4 digits are largely arbitrary and for truly unique usernames were never needed to find someone. They were also easy to remember.

    Discord staff must have seen an article praising this feature lately and decided "Hey, fuck those guys, we just want to make our service suck like the rest!" If this breaks any of my usernames or I have to change to something stup

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by suutar ( 1860506 )

      *shrug* As long as I can still set my displayed name per server I don't really care what my username is.

  • As others have chimed in, being difficult to find is actually a feature. people sometimes don't want to be easily found by other people on the internet esp in cases of cyber bullying.

    not only that, discord requires people to use mobile numbers from carriers, no voip. for users that only use voip, they are effectively locked out of features. when discord suffers a data breach, personally identifiable information will be disseminated easily.

    Discord product management and executive leadership is essentially

  • Discord is already annoying with a lot of things. They've officially jumped the shark.

  • Who can't manage to remember four digits?

    Discord users

    ...oh. Yeah, carry on.

  • That Discord? (Score:3)

    by kackle ( 910159 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @02:24PM (#63497568)
    Is this the same Discord whose website is so bloated that my old machine, which can run a dated 3D FPS on it, can't keep up with rendering their web pages to post about playing that same game?

    • My wife plays a crappy little mahjong solitaire type web game. It makes all the fans on her computer go Brrrr. Running an old mahjong game for Windows 3.x in a browser-based emulator (pcjs.org) doesn't manage to do this. (sadly I couldn't get Win95 to run very well on it)

  • I just look at my friends list or address book. Who has time to remember a bunch of names. I feel like Steam and ICQ got things right because you're not even stuck with your username. Once you have someone friended you can contact them with a click of a button.

  • Discord is one of the most fucking useless things I've ever come across. During the pandemic a couple online groups met on discord instead of Zoom, so I dusted off an account I'd registered from Discord's first year.

    The whole thing is basically social media hell. I fucked and chucked three large groups that were riddled with spam and beyond retarded mods. I joined a Midjourney group, which was semi entertaining until they ended their free subscription model. And I would periodically log in to keep tab

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