Feature proposal for account alias system
I've been thinking about this a good deal, as it is something that would be immensely helpful to myself and likely others.
What it is
A feature that allows accounts to create aliases, masking their account info with a new username, discriminator, and avatar. Aliases would be used on a per-server basis to effectively manage different "accounts" in different places with great ease. They would still all be linked to the main account, but make a pretty good mask. Being sub-accounts in a sense, it would be much easier to manage on the user's side than a full account-switching feature such as what sites like Twitter have.
Why it's important
There are many reasons why someone would want to have an alias in certain servers. The main draw is that people want to maintain different social circles without having to worry about other people (like close family members) seeing their involvement in those other circles. While there are unsavory connotations to this, there are also a lot of entirely innocent connotations (which I will not list out of courtesy) that a lot of groups simply don't understand. It is also just a good way for people to organize their separate identities or businesses in social contexts - a user having an alias to use as the face of a company, for example, in which case a separate avatar in particular would be immensely valuable.
The nitty gritty
This alias system would be, as stated before, a mask over a user's account that allows them to pretty much change their identity on a per-server basis. A user would register aliases to their account, which would allow them to choose a username for that alias (and have a discriminator assigned), and upload an avatar and other details. Their user ID would likely stay the same as their main account's.
When a user joins a new server, they can choose which alias to join under, or choose to join without an alias. They can change their alias within the server if they wish, and the server will act as if the alias joined as a new member. There are some options to this - maybe there can be a cooldown on switching aliases per server to prevent spamming, and maybe you would be required to rejoin using an active invite link instead of switching freely (the latter could even be a server setting).
Friend lists and DM chats would likely be separated by alias. I believe the most organized implementation for this would be to have a toggle between the user's aliases (and main account) that allows them to switch which friend list is open at a given time (and maybe an option to show all of it at once, for those who prefer that). A sequence of avatars could show at the top of the friends page, and have a notification icon showing how many DMs each alias has, so that nothing is missed.
There would probably be a maximum of aliases users could create, both to minimize any server load that could result from this system, and stop any griefing from users. I doubt many people would need more than two aliases, in addition to their main account. There should also probably be a limit on username-switching within a given timeframe, though I believe that is in place for accounts anyway.
Risks
The obvious concern is that people will use this system to spam or otherwise irritate other users under a false name, or even participate in illegal business. While this is a definite risk, I believe that this is mitigated entirely by aliases retaining the original account ID. The username and discriminator should also link back to the original account. If an alias is reported, it would be very easy for staff to retarget to the original account, and reprimand them. In addition, server bans placed on aliases could automatically ban the original account and any aliases owned or created in the future by them. This effectively nullifies the risk of users getting away with bad things by using an alias.
I hope this proposal is taken into consideration, and I would love to hear feedback and thoughts about this idea.
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