[Enshittification][DO NOT ADD] Discord Username System
Did you know? Discord is reworking/removing their partnership program (as it currently stands)
Hey there @everyone! Been about 2 months since I changed this post. And it's been a hot minute, but the username update has now been worked into Discord. No matter if we liked it or not. And people will now (forcefully) get used to it.
As a suprise, this idea has the MOST ever comments and votes recieved on a single post on the feedback platform EVER. The story around this event is the most interesting I have ever seen. And the gerne around it still hasn't ended either. We'll see where all of this goes.
On that note, I have been working on a little project regarding that, since Twitter, Discord, Reddit and Tiktok are heading all into the same route. Our own little enshittification.social! A mastodon instance for the enshittification of companies and they services they used to offfer. (Twitter, Unity, Discord, and so on)
Would you like to participate in an UNOFFCIAL poll? Click here!
(NOT affiliated with Discord in any way, shape or form)
We thank everyone for their votes, comments and joining our DIscord server and enshittification instance. The story of enshittification will never end and we can see that with the recent Unity Pricing changes.
I've recieved a press request through Discord, however I'm moving that to email, if any press wants to reach out about the update from someone willing to represent the entire discord community against this change, send an email here:
- press@stefanocoding.me
Need more information? Check NTTS's Video:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3LUtBVe3Jk
Want to talk with people about the update? Check this server:
- https://discord.gg/jpFhkeqGHS
An anonymous Discord Partner has spoken out about the reservations, check it out.
- Original post was deleted by reddit admins, link is now for archive.org
Hey, even game devs are struggeling getting their official name as verified servers:
- https://www.gamesradar.com/indie-studio-has-their-discord-username-stolen-out-from-under-them/
- https://twitter.com/rustylakecom/status/1659556388526338048
So what is it with this update?
So generally, this update has recieved a TON of backlash. And this feedback post has already recieved just about 13k upvotes at the time of writing AND a change.org petition with 13k people having signed it,
Fundementally this change to discord is going to cause more issue's for it's users then it could be worth. Among the comments, there are a few I'll display/mention.
One of the major issues that can be confirmed is the resale of Discord accounts. That is something that is unable to be denied and is going to be a major issue. Example here:
What discord has done absolutly wrong during this update:
Discord staff has been claiming double the names, one for their private account. Another for their staff account. Some of these usernames that are being claimed are so rare that people are speculating they are planning to sell it one day or another. The communication is absolute crap, they have not communicated how they where planning to do the roll-out and the way people are now claiming names left and right, from piewdiepie, markiplier and other names that should have been reserved. Then the way access get's rolled out? Verified bots where supposed to get access first, then supposedly brands, moving on to the staff and then the partnered and verified servers. Then the general population. But this has so far changed even more, starting with people from the moderator program, and suddenly the Hypesquad event team. And we still do not have enough information to know what the next bracket will be. There is no proper communication apart from Discord telling us to append our tag/discriminator to our usernames if we can't use it. Or you know just don't make usernames unique. The reddit has been stormed with people hating this update. And when people go to the support page, they're told to respond to feedback, or create it. We've all done this, but Discord still hasn't made an official statement. The entire update wasn't even properly announced like they do with everything else. Hidden behind their Birthday suprises. With the nitro trails providing people with 2 weeks of nitro to forget they signed up and pay an additional month. Normally, this would be tweeted and announced everywhere properly. People are moving away from Discord in an attempt to revolt, they're disbanding Nitro to put a dent somewhere in Discord's earnings. But that'll probably be recouped by investors. Discord claims to listen to feedback. But we've seen nothing of this yet. As a ton of people are saying, Discord is turning into Twitter, we don't want to see it happen. But with the 300 million active users on Discord, we're barely making a dent with this feedback post.
What are some good ways to fix this update?
The previous system worked perfectly, nothing to change about it. However using the display name system is a good idea. Maybe even supporting for official known people to get a username, or a checkmark to define "hey they are official" without the Twitter "pay for a blue tick" bs.
> BELOW ARE COMMENTS MADE BY THE COMMUNITY, NOT BY ME DIRECTLY <
Mikey's, Gen, Rain
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I hope this backfires.
9 -
Incredibly unwise.
The reasoning given is insufficient. The reasons you say the discriminator doesn't work and that usernames work just fine are a mirror of what you said years ago when you had FAQs for the discriminator. What happened?
I have a sneaking suspicion that this extremely heavy-handed and disruptive systemic disruption is the result of a couple of focus groups of technologically-inept luddites complaining that they can't remember four numbers. I bet their bank PINs are all 0000. 🤦
Discriminators solve a huge amount of problems, including the "xXxSephiRoth69420xXx" problem that _you yourself_ used as an example of why discriminators are good.
Also, FYI, the carrot of the "display name can be anything!" doesn't outshine the "you must friend people via the username" stick. It juts out like a sore thumb.
Please reconsider this change.
19 -
Pasting this from my own post:
Pretty easy on why I don't want this change. Dead accounts. Someone might want the name of a dead account. What will they do? They might adore the name they want to use, only to find out that it's already taken. Heck, I know people who have had to make entirely new accounts and just kept the same name as their old account for simplicity, what'll happen then?
13 -
Do not remove the identity of the discord
I don't like the way @ looks like Twitter
Keep a numeric tag
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One of the best features of Discord has been the fact that I can pick as common a username as I want. The discriminators provided an easy, straightforward way to have the username I want, not the one variation of my username that only exists because nobody else wanted it. This is a terrible change, scrapping one of Discord's best features. I've never been the type to complain about changes that "nobody asked for" - I created an account on the forums just for this - but I truly don't understand which constituency drove the decision to make this change. It seems extremely difficult to believe that the number of Discord users in favor of the change is greater than the number opposed.
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+1
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Honestly, if I didn't have friends on discord, I would of left discord the moment they announced this.
This is by far, the worst update discord has ever announced. PLEASE discord, Just leave the four numbers alone and either come up with a better solution, or just don't do anything at all. just leave it. This update fixes nothing.13 -
+1
9 -
1. Unique names is a first-come first-serve problem, and we're competing with the entire world... whereas having a discriminator puts us all in the same boat, or in the same class if you like.
This change introduces an identity hierarchy into discord.
2. Forced lowercase does NOT make usernames easier to read. CamelCase is a standardised concept that's been around in computing for 40 years and discord has no excuse to deny its utility in RecognisingMultipleWordsWithoutRequiringSpaces.
3. This change makes harassment an order of magnitude easier, and will force anyone with a) a common name, b) media influence, or c) a stalker or abusive relation, to have to choose obscurity over personal identity.
I've cancelled my nitro because this change goes against my principles.
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+1 for the whole thing but especially impersonation. Was thinking of getting Nitro again for the first time since the crypto thing was announced, but this has shown me there are way better ways I could be spending my money.
capital i and lower case L - I and l - are going to be one of many ways people find it much easier to impersonate. have a friend whose account is currently named lily#1111? well now you're receiving messages from lily, liIy, Iily, and IiIy.
How is that easier to tell who the correct person is than receiving messages from lily#1111, lily#1279, #lily6493, lily#9942? There is no easy, clear way to tell in usernames whether something is a capital i or a lower case L. And even if there was something in place where it was bold for example, it would not make it easier for visually impaired people for example.
You can just copy-paste usernames. If somebody has a username that has characters from another language in it and you're trying to do it verbally, the person can just change their username to latin characters, then change it back again after adding that person - or they can just be the one who sends the friend request to the person with only latin characters in their username!
But sure, let's make it easier to impersonate and otherwise much more difficult for most of the site's users, just because a small percentage of people find it difficult currently.
A QR code to scan for adding friends in-person is not THE solution, but it can be added as ONE way of adding them. Like how Snapchat has the code you can scan or you can add them by username, just let people do it this way as it currently is. I'd never use the QR code feature and I don't like the move to everything being QR codes in modern society, but it would be there for the people who struggle to add each other in-person.
Or, you know, they could just check when they're adding each other in-person that they've actually added each other before parting ways.
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The most infuriating part of this is that Discord KNOWS this was going to be unpopular. Check their twitter accounts. Not a single word or reply about this at all.
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I've been a subscriber for a long time, a member since 2015. My Nitro is canceled now, and if this change goes through there are no amount of features that will get me to come back. A platform that doesn't listen to its users can't be trusted.
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a platform with discrims means there is no "one true" John or Jane or whatever. this is the basic reason why discrims solve all the problems of name squatting, harassment, stalking, and other abuse so elegantly.
it's a genius solution to a whole host of complicated social problems. i can't fathom why discord is embracing the naive approach and all the problems it causes.
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The entire reason my friends and I first joined this platform was the discriminators. With their pending removal all my friends and I have been discussing other platform options.
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There is no benefit to the new username feature whatsoever.
Adding these username would just cause more problems. Although I do however think that global nicknames should be implemented - this would allow accounts to share the same name infinitely and would solve the problems of there being a limit of only 9,999 accounts of the same name.
Discord isn't a social media, it's supposed to be different and better than social medias, not become it.
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another comment about discord vs users:
discord support are given the line "some players may strongly believe that this is a bad change" to recite over and over to anybody who brings up objections to the removal of discrims.
the use of "some" is a gross underexaggeration, of course. discord are either totally out of touch or they're pretending to be out of touch. look through this entire thread and compare how many people actually support this decision against how many people don't. you'd be hard pressed to find anybody who supports it, even after knowing the objections. nearly nobody actively supports the removal of discrims, and discord are delusional for even implying otherwise.
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I am strongly against this update. In my opinion it would be better to leave the numbers, and the ability to make a nickname without numbers to add as an option in the subscription nitro.
10 -
+1
9 -
+1
I havent actually seen anyone tell us how the new system will actually work when rolled out, for example how the system is gonna work with 2 people having the same display name in the same server. Are we pining the Username? Personally I don't wanna have to type @xXx_U.s.e.r.n.a.m.e.w.a.s.t.a.k.e.n79453_xXx everytime I wanna ping Matt
The other huge issue I see is bots, both bots stealing user names to sell for real money but also how discord bots will work after the change9 -
Just here to echo what others said.
Cancelling my Discord Nitro if this goes through.12 -
+1, this needs to be prevented. Discord has thrived on being unlike other platforms, don't give that away now for literally no benefit.
11 -
I for one am so excited for the new wave of impersonation and black market username selling of Discord usernames. The 2007-era Xbox Liveification of usernames too.
22 -
+1
There's a lot of issues with this username change, but my biggest concern is scammers trying to nick usernames to sell it back to you, or impersonate other accounts.
Discord could just implement the global display name setting (to make it easier for your friends to find you via display name), and leave out the username change, and it would be a substantially better update. But Discord is looking to go the way of other major social media platforms.
Instead of changing the username system, make your search system more robust and easier to use and implement the global display name change only.
26 -
+1
Please upvote the post so they don't add it.17 -
+1
I see so, SO many things wrong with this update:
- People will start getting their accounts targeted because they have a "rare" username, can't wait for hundreds of new users to start getting IRL threats because of their username. This used to only be an issue for people with rare "Badges" but now all cards are off the table. Not to mention, people after getting their accounts stolen will have said accounts sold on the "Black Market", or held for ransom if you want to get it back.
- The update is P2W now, by being a Nitro Subscriber, you get the update pushed out to you "before everyone else", meaning you have to PAY to POTENTALLY get your Username back, or some iteration of it. This would mean that if you cancel your Nitro subscription in protest (probably should tbh) then you lose that added perk, so you lose badly if you cancel. Was this intentional by Discord? Who knows, wouldn't put it past them.
- The original system wasn't even that bad..? The ONLY issue I (and I assume many others) had was having to check for capitalization, that's it. Now, instead of "john#1234" you'll have to friend "j_o_h_n?" which is far worse and so much harder for people to figure out.
Among other things which many people have already stated. I'm hoping that someone, somewhere at Discord Corporate realizes that not everything has to be "streamlined and futuristic".
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The fact that they haven't talked about this on Twitter or anywhere else after the blog post really makes me feel like they're doing their best to suppress this. They said as much as is required and want to quietly force it through, that's why we're being ignored. If they really wanted everyone to know, would they really just post a blog post and reply to a few comments on Reddit in the first couple of hours, and then just peace out?
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This is absurd, people are just gonna run rampant trying to take popular names.
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+1
12 -
This is going to make it incredibly easy for stalkers, abusers, and other bad actors to keep up with their victims, nevermind the username black market that will absolutely certainly spring up AND the harrassment toward people who happen to have sought-after usernames. Pomelo-style usernames are not better or simpler, they are just more rigid and more easily exploitable.
The ONLY reason I could possibly see someone wanting this change is they want to give corporate sponsors 'verified' usernames, which is almost too stupid an idea to entertain because of the nature and structure of Discord as a service. So that can't be it. Who suggested this? Who greenlit it?
17 -
The "new" system will feature having a username and your display name. Both of these will be on profiles.
The system that we have right now only uses a single username. It's literally a display name and your username, being an all-in-one thing.
It's going to make it much more confusing for the alleged 40% or more users who don't know what a discriminator is or forget theirs to go adding people or getting people to add them with the "new" system.
I don't think people realize how many people are going to try adding people by their display names rather than their @handles, and this actually being a legitimate issue now. It's going to be that much worse.
Imagine all the confusion there will be when people are adding people by their display names that are different from their actual usernames.
You now will have a boat load of people that will be getting unwarranted friend requests. Especially those with usernames that are more common, rare, or sought after.
Like, people need to realize just how incredibly stupid that it is and literally how blasphemous this change actually is.
The discriminator literally acts as a safety net to prevent this issue entirely. So people who are a primitive as an ape can't go, causing the platform such a major problem like this.
A platform like Discord does not need this completely ass backwards change.
Anyone with a functional brain can understand and comprehend this.
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