Discord plans to move to unique usernames from the numeric discriminators

[Silverflame]

Summary

In a recent blog post, Discord announced that they'll be moving away from the current system of numeric discriminators, i.e. your username followed by a # and 4 digits, to a system of unique usernames. The official argument is that it will make it easier to identify your friends, and that the old system with numbers was running into issues and so needed an update. However, a lot of users are unhappy since this introduces a sudden race to get unique usernames, similar to Twitter or Instagram, where there previously was none and your desired handle was always available, just with some numbers on the end. Nitro users will be getting priority access to migrating to the new system, making some call this a "pay to win" migration. Concern has also been raised about potential impersonation (by sniping famous handles), account selling, and phishing and harassment to get people with short or famous handles to hand them over.

 

Quotes

Quote

Since 2015, every Discord username has been cAsE sEnSitIvE and had a number attached to it called a discriminator (e.g., #0001). This lets you have the same username as someone else as long as you have different discriminators or different case letters. However, this also means you have to remember a set of 4-digit numbers and account for case sensitivity to connect with your friends.
[...]

Over the coming weeks, every user will become eligible to change their username from their old username with discriminators (#0000) to a new username (@username) without discriminators. All users will eventually be required to pick a new, unique username to use Discord.

Because they will be unique to each user, new usernames will make it easier to identify and connect with your friends. Your new username will be unique to you, so share it with your friends when you want them to connect with you.

 

Thoughts

I much preferred the numeric discriminators, since they avoided the whole issue of "Sorry, this username isn't available" common on so many social media. The numbers were never an issue, since you could easily copy it by clicking on your account in Discord, and then PM it to a friend on Steam or similar. It also meant that your display name always had a nice default value, with the option to customise it per server if need be. The new system still has display names, but now your default will have to be some mangled username, à la __l33t-sp34k__ , unless you're lucky and grab the first instance of your preferred handle.
The change makes Discord's system similar to more mainstream social media like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, but I personally quite liked how Discord wasn't one of these. Of course Discord is still different, posts are not public facing, but given that these other platforms have had problems with phishing and harassment over rare and unique usernames, I absolutely believe that it'll happen on Discord as well.
The argument that this is done due to system limitations also doesn't sit right with me. Surely, hashing usernames would solve the uniqueness problem on the server side, and something like Steam's friend codes could be used to connect with people. The discriminator could also be changed to the last parts of your account hash, similar to Git short hashes (for those unfamiliar, Git allows you to refer to a specific version by the final 7 characters of the hash value, instead of the full 40), which would keep the ability to distinguish accounts by clicking on them (I would even argue it would make it easier, since you would be more likely to have a differing letter (hashes are hexadecimal) vs just having differing digits).
Unfortunately, both on Reddit and Twitter, there seems to be little discussion or acknowledgement of the concerns raised by the community, which is always promising. So I expect that they'll push through with the changes regardless...

 

Sources

• Discord's blog: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/12620128861463-New-Usernames-Display-Names
• The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/6/23711332/discord-username-changes-community-backlash-handles
• PCMag: https://www.pcmag.com/news/discords-planned-username-change-is-causing-serious-annoyance
• Reddit discussion about privacy concerns: https://old.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/13azn6c/discord_usernames_privacy_issues_a_warning_to/
• Discord feedback forum: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/14337329256983--Do-NOT-add-The-new-discord-usernames-system
• Downvoted response from Discord on Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/136urpb/discord_is_removing_tags_and_replacing_them_with/jiqdwyq/?context=3
• Darknet Diaries on harassment over unique handles:
  https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/97/
  https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/106/

Edited May 9, 2023 by Silverflame
spelling, couple more sources

[Blqckqut]

this is why i switched back to my old account, so nobody could "steal" my username, it was abandoned but since it prioritizes older users i gotta switch if i do get the name.

 

also good on u for giving good sources

[venomtail]

Will this conversion be automatic if you have an existing username like it was for youtube or is this a first come first serve as everyone's reset on the same day.

[Silverflame]

4 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Will this conversion be automatic if you have an existing username like it was for youtube or is this a first come first serve as everyone's reset on the same day.

AFAIU, it won't entirely be first come first serve: older accounts get priority. But then it's followed by Nitro subscribers, and then the rest of the "plebs". And the last part, I suspect will just be a question of who gets around to it fastest...
 

Quote

In terms of rollout, we’re starting with access to owners of partner and verified servers, then to all users based on the age of their account in the coming months, starting with 2015. Current Nitro subscribers paying for the ability to customize their discriminator that were registered on or before March 1, 2023 will also be given early access. This includes users that were on a Nitro or Nitro Classic plan on March 1, 2023, and remained active on either of those plans throughout the months leading to the new username rollout.

 

[Budget DIY]

Time to quit discord it seems. This is sooo toxic and a moneygrab to me. There should be zero technical issues with the current setup.

[Blqckqut]

4 minutes ago, Budget DIY said:

Time to quit discord it seems. This is sooo toxic and a moneygrab to me. There should be zero technical issues with the current setup.

indeed, thinking of convincing myself to go to teamspeak

 

altho u bascicaly need to be able to code a nuclear spaceship to enter a channel

[porina]

Maybe I'm missing something but it doesn't look like it will change much if you can still set a separate display name.

[AidanDaDoolphin]

no, please dont do this discord

[Kisai]

This is such a stupid idea, and in the same vein as twitters idiocy and youtube's idiocy for doing it.

 

The minute you treat usernames as property, a blackmarket pops up around it. Or you get cases like mine on YT where I have like 5 different accounts from different time periods going back to Google Video, so the username I want is on the wrong account, and I just can not be bothered to figure out how to fix it.

 

And most people are in my boat. They have the username they have because either that's the username they wanted, or the username they wanted was already camped/taken/not-long-enough when it was originally made.

 

So you change the rules, and now you have people camping all the popular celeb and e-celeb names so they can never have them so they could sell them back, or impersonate them. And no, this was the entire point "verification" on twitter was intended to solve.

 

What should have happened, is separate the display name from the "ID number" (remember ICQ?) But you can't make it an actual number because then low-digit numbers are seen as valuable (see ICQ and Slashdot) and used as a cudgel to intimidate other users. So the compromise "numeric discriminators", but even that doesn't go far enough because you'll have people wanting 1337, 6969 and 8008. You know what would fix that though? three unicode emoji's. So someone's display name might be or want to be "UsErNaMe " but the underlying discriminator is actually "username#" which is 0xf0 0x9f 0xa4 0xa1 0xf0 0x9f 0x8c 0xb7 0xf0 0x9f 0x8f 0x92 , which is actually 12 bytes itself. Much harder to have a collision, and people remember the emoji name. If someone decides they no longer want the unicode to appear, then their username becomes "username#f09fa4a1f09f8cb7f09f8f92" it's exactly the same, but the unicode isn't shown. If you want to become friends with someone, use your mobile device and scan the friend QR code. Or you can copy paste the clown-tulip-icehockystick and go "look for username with the clown-tulip-icehockeystick"

 

It's far more likely that three unicode emoji's are more unique than any username. Plus that easily enables an extension if more character space is necessary because you can just add a fourth character requirement and all existing discriminators are still valid because it's already variable length.✌(15 bytes)

 

That also enables a mechanism for someone to designate their bots to use the same discriminator without taking up global username space.

 

[Blqckqut]

49 minutes ago, Kisai said:

This is such a stupid idea, and in the same vein as twitters idiocy and youtube's idiocy for doing it.

 

The minute you treat usernames as property, a blackmarket pops up around it. Or you get cases like mine on YT where I have like 5 different accounts from different time periods going back to Google Video, so the username I want is on the wrong account, and I just can not be bothered to figure out how to fix it.

 

And most people are in my boat. They have the username they have because either that's the username they wanted, or the username they wanted was already camped/taken/not-long-enough when it was originally made.

 

So you change the rules, and now you have people camping all the popular celeb and e-celeb names so they can never have them so they could sell them back, or impersonate them. And no, this was the entire point "verification" on twitter was intended to solve.

 

What should have happened, is separate the display name from the "ID number" (remember ICQ?) But you can't make it an actual number because then low-digit numbers are seen as valuable (see ICQ and Slashdot) and used as a cudgel to intimidate other users. So the compromise "numeric discriminators", but even that doesn't go far enough because you'll have people wanting 1337, 6969 and 8008. You know what would fix that though? three unicode emoji's. So someone's display name might be or want to be "UsErNaMe " but the underlying discriminator is actually "username#" which is 0xf0 0x9f 0xa4 0xa1 0xf0 0x9f 0x8c 0xb7 0xf0 0x9f 0x8f 0x92 , which is actually 12 bytes itself. Much harder to have a collision, and people remember the emoji name. If someone decides they no longer want the unicode to appear, then their username becomes "username#f09fa4a1f09f8cb7f09f8f92" it's exactly the same, but the unicode isn't shown. If you want to become friends with someone, use your mobile device and scan the friend QR code. Or you can copy paste the clown-tulip-icehockystick and go "look for username with the clown-tulip-icehockeystick"

 

It's far more likely that three unicode emoji's are more unique than any username. Plus that easily enables an extension if more character space is necessary because you can just add a fourth character requirement and all existing discriminators are still valid because it's already variable length.✌(15 bytes)

 

That also enables a mechanism for someone to designate their bots to use the same discriminator without taking up global username space.

 

whats 1337

also emojis arent alowed, only . and _ will be alowed sadly

 

altho i already thought fonts and emojis were stupid for usernames

[Mihle]

They are basically trying to remove the limit by it being 9999 people with the same username, by making it so it can only be 1.

 

And changing it so instead of 4 random numbers, people are going to add numbers manually and have to find ones not in use themselves.

 

Yeah, the change is so good /s.

 

And the claim about numbers being harder to add friends with, I don't think people so that, that often, as Discord is focused on servers and not one big one or individual messages.

The times I have added people IRL to discord, or someone add me, it has always been via a link to a server via other means, not finding them in discord via username, and that probably won't change.

[Mark Kaine]

This change is completely unnecessary, stupid and apparent money grab.

 

So they simply take away your name/account, because you "didn't meet the timeline"...

 stuff should actually be better regulated,  yes its a private company or whatever, but its offering a public service so it shouldn't be allowed to do whatever it wants lol.

 

 

[Arika]

Discord: please take us seriously as a mainstream social media platform!!!!!!!

[Kisai]

7 minutes ago, Blqckqut said:

whats 1337

also emojis arent alowed, only . and _ will be alowed sadly

 

altho i already thought fonts and emojis were stupid for usernames

They are, but people have been using them because the username they want isn't available. You see this on twitter and youtube as well.

 

And the point wasn't to "add an emoji" to the username, but to add X many bits that are easy to remember, which coincidently emoji's are. 

 

People can't remember their 4-digit PIN numbers, but can remember a passphrase typically. So if your username is "username # clown tulip icehockeystick" that's a bit easier to remember and has more entropy than 10,000. 3 emojis gives you 3,664 possibilities PER character. 3,664^4=180,227,832,610,816. Hell you could get away with a single emoji, but you'd be right back to the same problem where everyone wants or . Three gets you past the anatomy analogies.

 

I mean, you could just have a username that is just three emoji, but people won't remember if they are alone. 

 

At any rate the problem comes back to using how do you ensure fairness without turning usernames into property.

 

Do y'all remember geocities? do you remember how they were originally organized? That's right, "an area" plus a 4 digit "block" number, the same as discord up to now. That ensured fairness because you could pick it, but it was difficult to remember, and before search engines became useful, you had to remember this stuff.

 

Now, would I push the above "use three emoji's as the discriminator" instead? probably not, but trust me, this is how various idol/e-celebs already identify themselves on youtube and twitter, so if you make that part of the discriminator, that makes it easier to identify which username is actually the celeb and not one who just has it in their display name. It doesn't completely eliminate the problem, but it's much easier to communicate.

 

 

 

[MageTank]

Not entirely sure I understand the necessity to make this change. I've never heard people complain about the current name + numbers configuration and they already made it easy to invite people to groups with links as well as sending friend invites via links and emails. If anything, I see this causing a lot more harm than good as people end up having to change their name and you have a Discord group full of names you no longer recognize.

 

Also @Silverflame, this was a very good news read. No cringe pun for a title, great format and several sources to read through. 10/10, would read again.

[Blqckqut]

Just now, MageTank said:

Not entirely sure I understand the necessity to make this change. I've never heard people complain about the current name + numbers configuration and they already made it easy to invite people to groups with links as well as sending friend invites via links and emails. If anything, I see this causing a lot more harm than good as people end up having to change their name and you have a Discord group full of names you no longer recognize.

 

Also @Silverflame, this was a very good news read. No cringe pun for a title, great format and several sources to read through. 10/10, would read again.

same here, the system is good enough how it is, just dont use emojis or fonts

 

if its really such a hassle to type #6842 then ur not ready for anything lol

[Brooksie359]

Ah yes this will make it much more clear who I'm talking to in discord because now they will be unnecessarily long usernames with a bunch of crap added to them to ensure they are unique rather than simply having people go by their name or nickname. 

[MageTank]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

Ah yes this will make it much more clear who I'm talking to in discord because now they will be unnecessarily long usernames with a bunch of crap added to them to ensure they are unique rather than simply having people go by their name or nickname. 

You bring up an interesting point. You can pick nicknames for each server you are on. Why does it matter making the username unique? I still don't see who this is benefiting, lol. Seems like a lot of wasted effort on Discords behalf for a change nobody is asking for.

[StDragon]

2 minutes ago, MageTank said:

You can pick nicknames for each server you are on. Why does it matter making the username unique? I still don't see who this is benefiting, lol. Seems like a lot of wasted effort on Discords behalf for a change nobody is asking for.

Because Discord needs/wants a global identifier.

IMHO, they should use GUIDs and then everyone can create a unique username per server tied back to it. Don't remember the GUID? Send a username request that's registered with your email account.

This is such an issue that doesn't need to be. OTOH, I like my  with extra  

[Beerzerker]

One of the reasons I'm not "That" worried about changing anything is I don't have or want "Nitro" to start with, it's not like I hang out in Discord all the time.
I also agree that this change will cause more problems than it solves, so what if your username has some numbers that follow?

Last time I checked numbers can go on to infinity if they have to so it's not an issue about running out of names, they are saying it will make folks more identifyable... Think about that for a sec.

A weird jumble of (Crap) characters AFTER a username is a clearer way to resolve things, right?

It isn't unless you happen to be a computer and I doubt any of us are - And I seriously doubt any of us have a powercord shoved up our ass, plugged into the wall to be one but hey - You do you if you want to try it, personally I'm not going there.

No, I'm not resetting that breaker for you either, some things you just gotta do for yourself.

Discord needs to understand one thing - Like so many other things it's not an actual neccessity to anyone.
Although it's true I can't speak for everyone, I can say for myself if I were to close my account I woudn't miss it too much and I suspect many of you woudn't either.

[IkeaGnome]

Hot take, but I don't see how this is a money grab. New Nitro users don't get preferred usernames. 

Only users who were nitro before 1 Mar 2023. Which is before the announcement. 

I'm not for the change either, but I do not agree with the money grab part. 

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, Beerzerker said:

Last time I checked numbers can go on to infinity if they have to so it's not an issue about running out of names, they are saying it will make folks more identifyable... Think about that for a sec.

A weird jumble of (Crap) characters AFTER a username is a clearer way to resolve things, right?
 

Cause it's likely they can't. We have no insight as to how it's stored, but you could not pick the discriminator last I checked unless you had Nitro or something, and if you add another byte of entrophy so it's 5 digits, how do you solve that? Is your 1234 now 12340 or 01234? If you were telling everyone your username was USERNAME#1234 and now it's suddenly username#12340 now everything attached to that username is broken.

 

Which changing it to @ usernames creates the same problem. Now it will be broken and people who couldn't get the same username everywhere will be extremely upset when they have to be username1234 now.

 

 

[Doobeedoo]

So just to ruff up some dust.

[StDragon]

1 hour ago, Kisai said:

We have no insight as to how it's stored, but you could not pick the discriminator last I checked unless you had Nitro or something, and if you add another byte of entrophy so it's 5 digits, how do you solve that? Is your 1234 now 12340 or 01234? If you were telling everyone your username was USERNAME#1234 and now it's suddenly username#12340 now everything attached to that username is broken.

It's a database, it's not difficult to migrate; either within the same DB or a new one that's referenced on the back-end. Their DB Architects and Admins would have to be rather incompetent to not pull off something so trivial.

[Kisai]

15 minutes ago, StDragon said:

It's a database, it's not difficult to migrate; either within the same DB or a new one that's referenced on the back-end. Their DB Architects and Admins would have to be rather incompetent to not pull off something so trivial.

Have you seen website rot before? Because that's pretty much what we keep seeing. Changing where things are on the web, breaking the old links. Then the old migration redirects disappear, and now stuff that was setup years ago is dead. Have we not learned from Tinypic and Photobucket?