[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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+1
This is such a bad update, if they go through with this it's probably my last straw before I move to Guilded or something.23 -
+1 this is an awful update. I really love the username discord has had and inspired other games/devs to use the same type of system. It's really good. I don't like this Twitter style username system at all.
25 -
You meet someone IRL that you want to talk to on Discord, and they say “I’m Phibi Eight Nine Three Six!” You go home and add “phibi#8936” only to find out you added the wrong “Phibi” because your new friend’s username is actually “PhIBI#8936”.
I can not imagine this being a problem save for an infinitesimally small amount of people. Four numbers is not a difficult thing to remember, and when sharing Discord handles is already likely done over a text-based medium (Twitter, Tumblr, etc), case sensitivity is not the issue it would be through spoken word. If 40% of people as you say can't seem to understand a four-digit identifier, I have genuine and honest concerns for Discord's userbase well beyond how they utilize their messenger apps.
You want to use a common name like “Mike” or “Jane” but there are already 9,999 Mikes or Janes so you’re blocked from that name altogether.
And this is different from putting in a name without the four-digit discriminator and being told 'that name is already in use'...how, exactly? If I want to use my name as I already do on Discord, then up to now I have been allowed to do so because of said digits at the end.
You like to change your username a lot and get rate limited.
Has changing discriminators/usernames not been billed as a perk of paying for Nitro?
Setting all that aside, this will leave the platform riddled with impersonators; there is absolutely nothing stopping someone from claiming the name of any given streamer, personality, or any Discord user before they can and impersonating them. If you want to see how bad of an idea this is, kindly look to Twitter's imploded verification system and how utterly worthless that is right now.
Discord is a messenger service, not social media with the function of blogging. No one wants random people to be able to find them by plugging in whatever simplified username they might be able to think of. There is absolutely no necessity to turn this service into the worst of Twitter, least of all by 'fixing' an aspect that has been functioning without rampant identity theft issues up to now.
35 -
This idea is absolute garbage. You're creating app-wide chaos to serve a goal that can very easily be fixed using tools already at our disposal.
If people want to have a common name whose discriminators are full, there's an insanely easy solution:
SYSTEM WIDE NICKNAMES. We already have server nicknames, just have one nickname that automatically sets your server nickname to the proposed one. Nicknames aren't unique within a server, so that provides infinite bandwidth for the most common names to be used indefinitely.If you just add that, the entire change boils down to "remembering #0000 is too hard, so we'll make everyone change their usernames." There are millions of discord accounts; many will have to add far more than five characters to compensate, especially if they don't want something dumb like adding an underscore to the end of their preferred name. (Yes, I stand by that. It's dumb, the fact that many systems make people do it is dumb. A widespread dumb thing is still dumb.)
The change will be chaotic. There will be tons of username sniping for lulz, profit, or just general malice. Anyone with a vaguely old account can steal the name of anyone notable that you didn't remember to whitelist.
The change will not be beneficial. You fail to address non-Latin characters, which is one of the supposed core reasons to make this change.
Literally everything this change is supposed to do can be done more easily and better simply by adding a system-wide nickname system and explaining that a username w/ discriminator is chiefly used for identity verification and friending.
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this is such a bad idea 😭 people are going to start making "hoarding" accounts and you'll have a massive problem with inactive users just like twitter
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+1
even if the names can be the same, the discriminators add a bit of privacy to your name; removing it is… silly and makes sharing screenshots completely unsafe for your friend req list. i don’t want to have strangers trying to add me just because i share screenshots. keep it35 -
agreed. this is so insanely fucking stupid. whoever decided this would benefit anyone needs to be fired. letting us have whatever name we want made discord feel so much freer. i change mine all the time, being stuck with a single one and hoping it doesnt look awful will significantly ruin my experience
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Please do not remove the name discriminator system, it is one of the better user name systems currently available anywhere.
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Discord already has a problem with impersonation to hack accounts and gain access to personal information. The solution IS NOT to remove one of the easiest ways to tell if someone is attempting to impersonate someone. This is a completely backwards idea that's only going to make everything less safe.
29 -
Not to mention that this completely undermines the brand familiarity with username#0000 type tags
31 -
This was really never an issue for anyone, and I feel like I don't need to explain why. Even if this was really some kind of issue to discord, this is not the correct solution. The solution to "I can't get a name because 9999 people have it" isn't "I can't get a name because 1 person has it" which is what they are doing. We use discord because it was different, and didn't follow along what everyone else was doing. This is no longer the case. I can only see the solution they made work for a "social media" platform. Discord is not social media, it is a chat app.
34 -
this is a terrible idea that nobody asked for. the discriminators are a good thing for discord. discord scamming is already so prevalent and this is going to make decent usernames even more of a black market. actually listen to your community and the people who fund you.
31 -
+1
Discriminators fix the issue that they're claiming removing them does.
28 -
This is literally the last thing discord needs, If i have to struggle on another site to get my brand user name I'm gonna lose it. Not to mention giving anyone who vaguely knows me from twitter or tumblr the chance to look me up and come talk to me in my safe space away from work.
It doesn't make any sense for them to mention the 9,999th mike who can't use their name when they're making it so that the second one can't do anything at all. It's WORSE in every way imagineable!
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Okay, I've cooled down a little and want to address some points from the blog post specifically.
You want to use a common name like “Mike” or “Jane” but there are already 9,999 Mikes or Janes so you’re blocked from that name altogether.
This is an extreme edge case. Plenty of usernames are shared by two or three people, but I'd bet my lunch that very few are shared by ten thousand. This change makes common names less available by far.
You like to change your username a lot and get rate limited.
Another edge case. That's a user making problems for themselves, not a reason to overhaul the entire system.
Your friend says they changed their name to “vernacular” but actually it’s “𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖆𝖈𝖚𝖑𝖆𝖗” and you have trouble finding them.
Okay, that's legitimately bad. Most services don't let you use non-alphanumeric (or not part of the local language, see below about Asia) characters in usernames for a reason. However, it's an argument for removing special characters from usernames, not for removing the discriminator system entirely.
More than 40% of you either don’t remember your discriminator or don't even know what a discriminator is.
People can forget "unique" usernames just as easily as they forget discriminators, especially if forced to add a string of numbers anyway because the username they wanted was already taken. Don't insult your users' intelligence.
As for not knowing what a discriminator is, as other users have stated, people know that the name#XXXX format is a Discord username. It has brand recognizability, even if they don't know precisely what that string of numbers is called.
Unfortunately, we found that nearly one-third of our active users would be forced to change their name just to accommodate this.
I can get behind losing case-sensitivity, even though I might be part of that one-third. Changing less than half of active usernames is much less of an upheaval than changing all of them, and removing case sensitivity and certain special characters does solve the actual problem (see above.)
Meanwhile, people from regions where non-alphanumeric characters are common in names, such as Asia, would have difficulty fully representing themselves.
I guess that didn't matter so much, since you decided to remove them after all.
So then we considered making that change but also enabling a separate global Display Name that could include special characters, a bit like how server nicknames work currently. But we realized that then we would have an even more complex system with both a Display Name and a username that still included the four-digit discriminator.
So... a system with both display names and usernames was too complex but you decided to do it anyway?
tl;dr: It sounds like the problems with the current system would be solvable by removing case sensitivity and limiting the characters that could be in usernames but NOT by removing discriminators.
I admit this isn't a perfect solution as it would still require SOME name changes. The proposed system, however, has far more drawbacks in the form of account selling, impersonation, confusion, and watering down Discord's uniqueness/recognizability as a brand.
43 -
Not a fan of this change at all.
Username selling and username sniping (people stealing others handles before the legit person can get to it) will become a thing.
People being petty or doxxing and harassing other people to get them to give up their username will become a thing just like it is on other websites where "one word" and "canon" usernames are fought after.
Instead of people being able to just... go by their name, and having Jason around, we're gonna have Jason20329 and Jason49568454 and Jason309456804964906594 and it's going to look so fucking ugly and feel insulting to people honestly. If I wanted to go by my name, I don't want to be forced to have a "spambot" type Username like on Twitter where my name was taken 10 years ago and I'm forced to use a bunch of numbers.
The #0000 identifiers were cool because it was a nitro feature to be able to change them freely too. And they allowed people with dupe names to... have dupe names.
This is just so unbelievably incredibly stupid and Discord has now decided it's time to remove the solution and instead create a problem0 -
There's already a Change.org petition going around as well, so I'll just copypasta my comment from there to here as well:
"Please don't change this. This is a terrible idea, makes it harder to differentiate people who change their names (and can't change their discriminators unless they pay) to harass and stalk people, in which having the ##### after each name makes it easier to do so.
Having to rush for the nickname I want is a step back in social media in general, and is more reminiscent of the early 00s where you have to go into 1337 to get what you want because someone got "CoolName69" first.
Don't implement this."Short but sweet and plenty have already given much longer thoughts on this that I agree with, but this change is not the way.
32 -
This is ASKING for problems. Just stop.
Only "big names" will get protection, and there are probably a billion people who use either generic names to protect themselves or REAL names or derivatives that would end up taken EXTREMELY quickly.
one of the best things about discord names is not having half of all usernames you encounter being "word1234" because someone wanted a word username but its already been taken 100s of times over by that point
34 -
Why? Why take away one of Discord's best features? 'unique' Usernames are a pain in the ass and so much easier to clone.
This is a great way to have another company jump in and do what Discord does, only the way discord used to be. And the people will flock there.36 -
I'm already harassed constantly by bots and people wanting to buy my account. Please don't do this and make it easier for them.
Edit: You know what would be an actually good change? Hiding badges such as "early discord nitro adopter" from non-friends. Because that's what I get harassed over. Constantly. I either wear it proudly and get harassed or I message Discord support and beg on hands and knees that they purge the icon from my account all together, never to be seen again.
On top of that this will not make things easier. Some people are fortunate that they use a consistent and fairly unique name. But others will have to add odd numbers or underscores to their names because of how many people share the same name.
Additionally, I don't know where you got the statistic that people don't remember their numbers. Everyone I know who uses discord regularly has memorized their number.
As for new users not realizing there's even a number... Just... Make the number a part of their display name when they sign up by default. Make them take the extra step to go into their settings to change that. This draws attention to the number and lets them know it exists and that its important. Have a little reminder box that explains the importance of the number and walks them through changing their username. Just make it part of the tutorial.
Edit: Spelling and related stuff
Edit2: Clarification on why I'm specifically harassed36 -
I am Paws#1068. There are a lot of people named Paws, but I am able to happily exist. This one is me. After the change, this will not be the case. There can only be one Paws, and that is whoever gets to it first… That is sad, because I kind of like being me.
This is a stupid decision made to solve an imaginary problem, causing real actual problems in the process. Your citation is a single reddit post, and your claims are overblown. Please listen 🙏 I love using discord but changes like this make it less fun ):
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I'm gonna try to be polite.
This is a terrible idea. And because I'm going to do my best to be polite and constructive I'm going to go through each point in this mess of a blog post and address them.
Your first two points are literally the same one, difficulty conveying your discord name in real life. Okay, so where's the difficulty? In verbal communication? You need to explain what's upper and lowercase? How about SPELLING?
There's always going to be this issue because of how language works and homophones. I'm sorry, Phibi#8936, how is that spelled? Is that phoebe like the actual name? Phibi? Fibi? Feebee? Fibby? So you're going to have to go in depth telling them how to spell it anyway. And as for remembering your discriminator, if you're the type to forget, we're in the modern era, you can just look at your dang phone and double check what your discriminator is.
Third point, there only being able to be 9999 Daves. Okay. How does switching to twitter @s fix this? It makes it WORSE, because now instead of having 9999 Daves separated by their unique number, you're going to have a bunch of daves with random numbers or variations that people have to come up with themselves and clutter up their username with like it's an MMO. Entirely counterproductive to your supposed goals. You could add another digit and have ten times the space if it's that big a deal. Also remember how some people paid for nitro to change that number? Mm.
Fourth point, you change your username a lot and get rate limited. That's... on them? That's literally a person's own fault if they change usernames so much it comes back to bite them, they can use nicknames like everyone else.
Fifth point, people using janked up fonts for their username causing problems adding them. I mean... you can just limit what characters people can use in their username. It's not hard. You're even planning to do this with your future @ scheme. Come on. And also, if someone uses a username that makes it hard to add them, that's again, their own fault.
Sixth point, a lot of people don't remember their number or 'Even what a discriminator is'. Okay. So they can check. They can look it up. It's not difficult. If they have access to their own discord it's right there. As for 'not even knowing what a discriminator is', I'm going to very pointedly remain polite here and note that EVEN YOUR OWN LINK THERE is a person asking 'what this number is called'. Not that they don't know what it DOES, or what it's FOR, they're asking what it's CALLED. Not knowing the technical terminology for a thing does not mean that they don't appreciate its function. Until today I just called it my discord number. Because that's what it was. That's what everyone called it.
Seventh point, a lot of friend requests fail the first time because of borked input. Okay, and? Then you double check and resolve the issue within like a minute or two. And if you're trying to convey your name and number to someone on your computer you can click to copy it so there's no ambiguity. But then again, that's a thing you need to mouse over your name in your profile to even know exists, so maybe make that not a mouseover. I wonder how many don't know the function exists
So these raised points don't really come to anything.
On top of that, the unique discriminators served a more strong purpose in anti-impersonation. The longer a name is, the easier it is for something to get lost in it, for someone to miss a small difference. When you make a free discord account your number is ASSIGNED TO YOU. If you want to change it, you need to pay. Under the new system you'd be VASTLY more able to make a name that looks very close to another person's because there's no part of it out of your control. And you'd be able to change it whenever. @phibiiiscool is coming to scam you, better watch out.
And this is just comparing the two systems ground up. Like if discord was built from day one using @ tags instead of discriminators. Never mind how a lot of people got attached to their numbers, or paid for nitro to change it. Never mind how discriminators were part of what identified a discord tag as a discord tag. Never mind how atrocious the transitional process will be with name sniping and impersonation and the tens of thousands of people you're going to uproot from their names. Never mind how you're aping twitter, which is like aping a boot left on the side of the road. Speaking of twitter, you're gonna see a lot of "The person with this @ on discord is not me" in people's bios. Because it got sniped.
This is a terrible, terrible idea that will solve none of your problems and only create more, even after the nightmarish transitional process that you seem to have just thrown up your arms and gone 'Lol nothin' for it' about.
Gonna post this in that big thread ( https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/14337329256983 ) as well as on its own for visibility.
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As someone who has 2 identities online, I must now create another account to reserve the username for my other identity, which I'll probably not get it in time because the rollout has a reservation basis. Now I must reassign emails and the like... If I even can. This is a headache. I very much dislike this, and I wish it did not come to this. I do not see a viable reason, nor have I seen a scenario where this change was needed, ever, and I've used Discord for a while, too.
29 -
+1
I for one can't wait for my simple 'Rene#xxxx" to become "r3n333_._._"29 -
Awful idea
26 -
I hope they don't move forward with this one, the discriminators and ability to arbitrarily change your name for fun were some of the more unique features of discord.
28 -
I am so happy with the change. I will no longer be poochyena#1412, I will finally be just poochyena. No longer do I have to have a unique username on just discord. I'll finally be able to have the same or similar username on every site. Having random numbers attached to my username is such a stupid system that should have never been put in place to begin with.
-47 -
Question:
why can't some other special characters be added to the username like hash comma apostrophe and perhaps space # , ' ?
let people put the silly numbers in their new username like @<username#5766>
I know my discriminator and I like it (and don't like the idea that copies out in people's journals somewhere in the world will become obsolete), while my username is manageable enough without comma and apostrophe others may be hit worse without those. (btw can't wait to see @bob1596 and such despite this)
which btw makes me wonder how is this new system going to display things for when you're trying to ping someone? will typing in @<display-name> autocorrect/complete with tab to their username for the ping in chat or will that also use display name? will I see nickname, displayname, AND username on profiles?
I'm just curious here since they said displayname is supposed to be like the primary name, but if only those (server/nickname and username) are shown does friends list also show username? or displayname as I would guess? otherwise people changing all 3 could be confusing to find if you don't realize you have to open their profile using the context menu and not the popup. server profiles are already confusing enough for me, as entertaining as they can be
18 -
+1
This is literally the worst update I could possibly think of.
I work for a company that operates a live service with a comparable user base to what Discord has, and they have implemented discriminators over time because they figured out that people would much prefer to freely choose any username they want and remember 4 digits (or copy/paste like we have been doing for years) than be denied a username they've been using for 20 years.
This is a terrible idea and something I would consider cancelling my Nitro subscription over. What's the point of paying to change your numbers (one reason I know a lot of people pay for it) if you're just going to remove it and make it significantly worse? I don't want my username sniped.
Please do your research better and don't just base ideas on imaginary conversations that wouldn't actually happen because if we meet someone and want to exchange usernames in real life, we can all just open our mobile apps and add people directly, like we've been doing for years.
27 -
This update removes so much flexibility as well as the ability for people who do not use 7-bit ascii-based languages (Korean, Ukrainian, etc) to make their usernames in their native language.
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