Removal of discriminator concerns
In light of the proposed removal of discriminators to usernames and the addition of only usernames, I hope to raise some concerns about the topic.
Firstly, I still have my mid-tier nitro subscription. I really enjoy this subscription and its perks, one of which being the customized discriminator. If discriminators are removed, I will cancel my nitro subscription entirely because all of its perks are gradually being removed.
To me, discriminators are part of the identity of Discord. Users in game chats and online forums can easily post their Discord tags without saying "this is for Discord" -- it's recognizable. That is part of the appeal for me. I HATE how on social media nowadays, everyone has 10 different social media usernames and has to explicitly say "@loverboy123 is my instagram and @lover_boy is my twitter and @loverboyy is my snapchat". It's a burden, and I'd be really peeved to add Discord to my menagerie of ever-growing usernames list.
Secondly, the discriminators are... on-point with the appeal of gaming chats. Battle.net and other gaming apps use discriminators, and it's kind of an identity point for gaming apps. You know, which Discord is. Or USED to be.
I also quite enjoy how having a discriminator, at least for me, has become a huge identity point for myself and my discord account. I change my username occasionally. Even if I change my username and icon, my friends and people who are familiar with me can recognize me by my consistent discriminator, which doesn't change because I am PAYING for this feature by SUBSCRIBING TO NITRO.
Similarly, the news post on evolving usernames mentions that this change will be optimal for users who frequently change their usernames. I cannot help but disagree. If I change my display name, I will ALSO want to change my base username. I am an indecisive person, and having me choose one "base username" will be really upsetting for me because I will constantly be changing both my username and display name. I argue that this does NOT benefit users who change their names frequently -- instead, it only now gives users TWO names that they will be compelled to change.
I propose that Discord keep discriminators, but makes usernames no longer case sensitive. This was mentioned in the news post, but was quickly argued that it wouldn't be feasible because it would force a third of its userbase to change their usernames. How then, is forcing EVERYONE to change their usernames, a better option? In my opinion, if I had the username ilovecats#0001 first, ILoveCats#0001 should be asked to change their username if non- case-sensitive usernames are implemented, no? This is essentially what Discord is proposing to do now, given that older users are being asked to pick their usernames before newer users. With my proposed suggestion, however, there will be much less upset.
I understand that each user having one unique username as opposed to a username with a discriminator is supposed to be a "fair" change. However, as a user, I would be much more upset to learn that the username @/king is taken, as opposed to king#0000 through king#9999.
And, frankly, the discriminator usernames look much more appealing in the server profiles than the mock-upped versions of the new usernames do. You have so quickly been adding more and more additions to the user profiles pop-ups, and adding more elements to them in the form of a display name AND a subtitled username is only making the profiles much more clustered with information. Take this up with your UI/UX graphic design team.
You also mention in your blog post that sharing discord names verbally is a huge point of concern. How, exactly, will having a unique username solve this problem? saying "I'm I Love Cats on Discord" could mean "ilovecats", or "I_love_cats", or "Ilove_cats", or "i_love_cat_s". This does not solve the problem you mentioned. No matter what the system is for usernames on Discord, bad verbal communication will ALWAYS happen. This point is moot.
I also raise the problem of username-selling and the history of VIOLENCE committed against users online who have "valuable" usernames. Users have and WILL sell accounts for hundreds of dollars because they simply have a "nice" username -- inevitably, this will also open to real life manipulation and scam opportunities. I can assure you that this WILL happen with Discord too - it happens on tumblr, reddit, instagram, twitter, twitch... Discord will not be immune to this. This may also create "hierarchies" of implied importance between users in servers, where some users are treated a certain way because of their usernames, as does on other social media platforms.
At the end of the day, I am PAYING for a custom discriminator. That is a PERK of my nitro subscription. I PAY for it because I ENJOY it. Please consider this.
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+1
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All of this. Since I received this email, it has been a constant talking point in every single one of my servers how this change is going to be a bad one and catastrophic for anyone who has a common name. The whole appeal of the discriminator is that it takes away the issue other platforms have of multiple people having the same username.
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I completely agree. People like Discord because it's different from other platforms, and I feel like this will take away some of that appeal. I know several people that enjoy being able to change their usernames frequently, which I can imagine will be difficult if they all have to be unique. Not to mention, I've had my username for years, and I'm quite attached to it. If I have to change it because someone else beat me to it, I'd be heartbroken.
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Agreed. It's taking away the uniqueness. And the hacking concerns are big too. I don't see HOW making usernames more rare would solve the problem here, and all of the username sharing concerns just..... aren't an issue? The app HAS features for solving that. You can just get the person you're friending to write it down or type it in. That's how I've ALWAYS seen it done.
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Please post concerns on the master post, too. Literally clog this site with posts about how garbage this change is with dozens of comments and upvotes on all of them and maybe they won't make this god awful change.
https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/14337329256983--Do-NOT-add-The-new-discord-usernames-system3 -
Absolutely agree. This is outrageous
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i wish i could upvote this a thousand times over!
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This is honestly one of the stupidest changes they could possibly make. They should have run it by the community first because one of the best things about Discord is that you could have whatever username you wanted. Tired of social media websites making me add a one or whatever extra stuff just so I can use the same handle I use everywhere else.
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My one point to you, OP, is that you shouldn't WAIT to cancel nitro. Do it now. You can always just resub later if they walk it back! But prove NOW that you're willing to cut your monetary support, because they don't care about threats. They only care about actions we actually take.
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Welp, I ended up losing my username to a non-nitro sub because of a bug in their rollout where I was marked as non-nitro despite subscribing since 2020 and having an account with discord since 2017. Supposedly this is an internally known bug, they have no intention of correcting their mistake and now I have to change name or "embellish" my username despite paying for 3 years for something not blemished by the appearance of horrid nomenclature... embellish my username with lots of numbers so instead of DrunkenMonk(#0001) I can be 666DrunkenMonk69420 ty discord, you have added more ambiguity to spoken versions of usernames.
Even if I decided it was okay to have my username be "DrunkenMonk1" (that is a blemish, not an embellishment, let's be honest discord). In a voice chat I then have to clarify that's an actual number 1 and not "one" and now means if I was happy with that username, I also have to create a new account with the username DrunkenMonkOne to avoid anybody impersonating me. Discord, you have done the complete opposite of making it easier to add friends.
Whoever is running management at discord has zero clue. If they wanted to allow everybody to be able to add each other easier, they'd just allow all users to customize their discriminator without the requirement of nitro. Even that's likely to make discord lose subscribers just like this username change already has.
despite having the warning in my settings to change my username I have no intention of ever setting a username now. I will remain DrunkenMonk(#0001) now until discord forces a change, at which point I will simply migrate my community and business to rocketchat. Cancel my nitro subscription then promptly invoking article 17 of GDPR and having discord scrub my data. Let's hope discord is paying staff to comply with the law at a bare minimum at that point.
I'd also advise anybody in the EEA that is protected under GDPR to do the same and force discord into doing a lot of manual admin work. Your communities CAN migrate, discord seems to forget the users make the platform what it is, not them.
Teamspeak 5 beta looks interesting. GL on your trajectory Discord 🫡0 -
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