[Enshittification][DO NOT ADD] Discord Username System

This new naming system will also make it much harder to stay recognizable and anonymous at the same time. Discord's discriminator system allowed something special with the ability to have your account recognizable by friends (Via. Simple user name) while also not easy to just hunt down their account based on their name thanks to the security of the discriminator.

Example is that anyone can look up someone's name on instagram, look up that same username to find their twitter, and other accounts. But to be added on discord, they need those four numbers. It allowed users the freedom and security to choose who they wanted to add.

This is the whole reason a lot of people under 18 like and use this platform. It is generally much safer for them, seeing as they can be so selective. Not just anyone with their username can add them. Artists, streamers, and anyone with a mild following online can relate- their names are recognizable, but not just anyone could add them on discord because they need their discriminator. Now, so many people will be drawn to just using the same username across the board (If it isn't already taken, that is) and while sure! That'll make it easier for their friends to find them!

It'll also be far easier for them to be targeted for their age, harassed and stalked, added without prompting, or targeted by someone who might want their username should they be able to obtain a simple one.

This is a bad idea all around, but the security concerns and worries I'm seeing from my friends who use discord specifically because of the unique security having #0000 offers is reason enough to be against it.

This change makes discord feel LESS like the gaming app it started as and more like any other social media site. I really don't like the possibility of anyone being able to find my discord simply because they know the common handle I use across other social media. I also ONLY pay for nitro so I can have a very specific set of numbers that fits the rest of the aesthetic of my account...and yall just tryna take that from me and everyone else...cringe.

edit: Also the argument towards this being that people cant remember their discriminators? Sorry not a good argument. If people are using discord, chances are they have that downloaded on their phone as well, where they will have 24/7 access to see what it is. On top of that, you can just copy it from the app...

+1
The user name change is a horrible idea. The change will fix NOTHING but cause more problems as many others already stated.
Please listen to the user base and leave the username as it be. 

EDIT: Will cancel my Nitros if Discord still pushes the change. I am not comfortable supporting a company that comes up with this brain-dead idea and is not willing to listen to its customers. 

Can't wait to see how many nitro cancelations it'll take for the discord team to listen.

+1.
Impersonation, scamming and account selling will be rampant and even easier to do.
Also to those who say "just put the numbers in your username" it misses the point of why Discord users like the current system. We LIKE having the freedom to choose whatever username you want, and the discriminator makes you unique. It's a you problem if you can't remember four digits.

This change needs to be reversed, to preserve Discord's unique qualities as a platform.

+1

1. It's going to be a race to pick our preferred usernames. People are going to be hacked because others will want their usernames; this will lead to an entirely new wave of new scams. This has long been a problem in tech; the random discriminators were put in place as a solution.

2. A very big chunk of people buy nitro specifically so they can have their custom discriminators. This removes their reason to still support Discord.

3. A lot of handles will consist of random underscores and numbers, which makes them even harder to memorize than the current discriminators and therefore negate the positives.

4. Discord is not Instagram/Twitter/Youtube. Discord is a platform to hold conversations. More accounts want the same name, so discriminators are a good way to distinguish between them while satisfying everyone with the name they want.

5. The update breaks a lot of community-made bots, which are an essential part of Discord nowadays, and encourages users to instead use expensive bots like Mee6 (which will not suit the required purpose for every community).

6. Handles will make stalking easier, since they are reused on a lot of social media sites. This provides a real danger to people. Privacy was also a stated feature of the current discriminators system.

The update is ugly, inconvenient, and will make things a lot more difficult than they need to be for the actual users. Change is NOT always better. Don't fix what isn't broken.

pitoumugis - When this thread had about 448 resplies, I checked through all replies and realized only around 4 people out of all were for the update. That translates to around 0.89%, if we're generous 0.9% in favour of this update. That would mean 99% of the people find it this update unfavourable. That's a baffling amount of people being against the update and I've never seen a ratio this bad - this doesn't factor in the people who only upvotes, posts elsewhere or lurks in agreement, or only posts on Reddit/Twitter because they don't know they can post here, too. Or the people who didn't get these news because they didn't post it on any social media; just sent an e-mail (which you can unsubscribe from) or have a language barrier. And I'm sure the people who have their name in their native language that's non-latin alphabett based would love to know why their name is going to have to change to a latin alphabet personally, instead of an e-mail they probaby didn't subscribe to due to a language barrier. (Example: I know a few people who have their name in Hindi and speaks mostly Hindi.) 

Sure, it's true that only when something impacts the end-user experience people come and protest against what they find to be a bad change - but I've not seen this big of a backlash on any other thing. Maybe back in the day when Sony released the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog movie and people clowned on it - but they listened to the users and changed the entire apperance of Sonic. The point being, you can listen to your userbase. I actually think the devs here will have a hard time going from discrims to pomelo, as I can imagine migrating and translating the databases are horrible.  

Do not implement the pomelo system! I may go through the forums to link to all posts that are against this change in this thread soon, as this is considered the main thread. 

Threads AGAINST the removal of Discrims - Discord Feedback Forums (minus this thread)

• Comments in total: 260 
• Percentage against the discrim change: 99.997%
• Percentage in favour of the discrim change: 0.003%

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Under Community features 

• Comments: 66
• Percentage against: 100%

1. +6/-0 | Celeron -  Do not move forward with the username change
2. +4/-0 | Bass44 - YOU CANNOT CHANGE OUR USERNAMES
3. +19/-0 | smaller - Name change = Community Disservice
4. +2/-0 | Dont change the usernames - The new username change is dumb
5. +5/-0 | loverboy - Removal of discriminator concerns
6. +1/-0 | ABadHaiku - Use QR Codes and/or a search system for adding friends in person instead of removing discriminators
7. +1/-0 | ArrowHead - New name system is a cringe and why is this so
8. +3/-0 | Hall Way - are you kidding with the new usernames
9. +4/-0 | warms - Username system changes are a flawed idea and here's why
10. +5/-0 | TV - If Discord thinks I’m going to keep paying for Nitro if they make me change my username they’ve got another thing coming
11. +3/-0 | Danlight - The username change is the worst decision Discord has ever made
12. +9/-0 | cbartski - Please don't remove the username number discriminators
13. +2/-0 | Moriy - During Covid my Discord Username used to be my second identity
14. +0/-0 | Bea - On Username Rollouts: Just Ask!
15. +2/-0 | defiantdeadeye - New Username Rollout, and How it Really Affects the Community

-----

Under Nitro 

• Comments: 3
• Percentage against: 100%

1. +3/-0 | smaller - Username change announcement: goodbye Nitro
2. +0/-0 | Cloudsy - Discord Usernames | Bad Feature
3. +0/-0 | purridri - Please don't remove the discriminators!!!

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Under Other 

• Comments: 16
• Percentage against: 93.75% 

1. +5/-1 | Bass44 - DO NOT CHANGE USERNAME SYSTEM
2. +1/-0 | smaller - I'm sure you're wondering what all the ruckus is about.
3. +4/-0 | Tyeluxe - Do Not Implement Username Update
4. +1/-0 | Kin - do Not change the username system
5. +1/-0 | Ares Lothbrok - Listen for ONCE! DON'T change the current username system.
6. +1/-0 | Miso - Please do not implement the unique Discord username at system
7. +2/-0 | Moon_Truth - Do not change usernames!!!! 
8. +0/-0 | ascendantAnomalia - Username Change: Disappointed
9. +0/-0 | subconniving - leave suernames as is 
10. +0/-0 | Patchy Dragon - Do not implement the username change. Revert to the old ways.
11. +0/-0 | ambient_complexity - Why the username change is a bad idea 
12. +0/-0 | Juni - Seriously Stop The Username Change Update.

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Under Account & Server Management 

• Comments: 175
• Percentage against: 100%

1. +8/-0 | [WUT] Adam - Are Twitter handle-like usernames really a good idea?
2. +5/-0 | Kakss - Dear devs, let's discuss the new username system first
3. +1/-0 | Xiutecuhtli - no name chagne 
4. +1/-0 | Dan - Do not go through with username change
5. +4/-0 | Galvin - Do not change username system 
6. +4/-0 | smaller - Our accounts, our preferred names, even when other people prefer them too.
7. +1/-0 | . Snow . - Discord what the hell is wrong with you??? DO NOT go through with the username change, its awful.
8. +4/-0 | Pedro Gomez - Whatever you do, don't ruin the username system 
9. +3/-0 | McAwesome - Do not change usernames
10. +2/-0 | Nano - DO NOT CHANGE USERNAMES 
11. +6/-0 | nefola - The Negative Effects Of New Usernames
12. +5/-0 | Untwinxer - DO NOT change the naming System. Here are some solutions.
13. +4/-0 | Altair2 - Do NOT change the current username system
14. +5/-0 | The Meme Lord - What on earth are you dinguses doing; do NOT change the usernames 
15. +3/-0 | hazel - Do not change the username system.
16. +3/-0 | Vinny - Do not remove numerical discriminators
17. +4/-0 | June - Discords Username Policy and the problems it brings.
18. +3/-0 | GhostG4ming - Don't change how usernames work
19. +2/-0 | ArrowHead - New naming system is a cringe and why is this so
20. +3/-0 | Anbaraen - Do not remove numerical discriminators
21. +4/-0 | Goldenhedgehog9 - Username system doesn't need to be touched
22. +3/-0 | pitoumugis - Do NOT change usernames
23. +6/-0 | SecondUNIT - Please, do not change the Username system.
24. +4/-0 | Chai - Do Not Roll Out the Username Change 
25. +6/-0 | Shrekian - Discord, don't change the Username system
26. +2/-0 | Rickfernello - Please don't change username convention
27. +3/-0 | EKLIPSEI - The New Username Change Is Beyond Stupid.
28. +3/-0 | link - Please Do Not Roll Out New Usernames
29. +2/-0 | Falcolmreynolds - Potential Username System Change 
30. +5/-0 | Domine - The username changes are utterly meritless.
31. +5/-0 | AceTheBot - The new username system is actively harmful. 
32. +4/-0 | frostali - Do not roll out the new username change please 
33. +0/-0 | Coolstriker64 - Account identifier
34. +4/-0 | Kazo - Discord please listen to your community this time and DO NOT change the username system
35. +4/-0 | rhys - removing the number discriminator is bad call
36. +6/-0 | BaronVonTibbles - New Username change is BAD and INEFFECTUAL
37. +2/-0 | jif - the bed and why not to shit it
38. +5/-0 | Dare Souls - PLEASE do NOT go through with the username changes!
39. +5/-0 | aegagrusScholarship - [username change] cringe is dead but this just revived it
40. +4/-0 | CptDumplin - DO NOT change the username system.
41. +4/-0 | waffle - Why the new username system is terrible
42. +5/-0 | ghost - Username changes fix nothing
43. +5/-0 | Hopscotch - An alternative to new username system announcment
44. +3/-0 | Hallows Eve Carnival - Don't change the Username System
45. +3/-0 | megane - The removal of discriminators will be terrible
46. +4/-0 | Noᴠɪʀᴜꜱ ♡ - Don't change the username system
47. +4/-0 | Eusi - Removing discriminators is a bad idea and no one wants it
48. +4/-0 | crow - keep 4 digit tags- without them discord loses its best feature
49. +14/-0 | Rain - Removing Discrimnators is TERRIBLE - A cybersecurity/long-term user perspective
50. +4/-0 | Luci - DON'T REMOVE DISCRIMINATORS
51. +3/-0 | Azorien - The "new" unique username system is not a great idea
52. +6/-0 |Sharkie The Dork - Keep Discriminators, Discard the Announced Username System
53. +3/-0 | Summerlight - Discord, know your place [username change]
54. +6/-0 | The Wise Wolf - Username update, possible alternate solution to confusion when adding friends
55. +0/-0 | Captain - fastest way to shoot yourself in the foot
56. +6/-0 | Stardust - Username Change Sucks (A Compilation of Feedback and Critisism)
57. +0/-0 | Austin - Dislike the username change
58. +0/-0 | decrepitParadox - An advisory to listen to your Community regarding the Username Change
59. +4/-0 | doodlemancy - the username change will solve 0 problems and create way more
60. +1/-0 | fluximWavelength - Don't Remove Discriminators
61. +0/-0 | pidge - Removing discriminators is a mistake
62. +0/-0 | Nezuko Kamado - Don’t remove discriminators
63. +3/-0 | wafflesticc - The semi-proven reasons why the Username Change Update won't help.
64. +0/-0 | Michele - Please, refrain from interfering with the current discriminator system. Cancel Nitro as well
65. +0/-0 | Blaise - Don't remove discriminators.
66. +0/-0 | bartleby is baby call 911 - Do not remove numerical discriminators!!!
67. +0/-0 | rat - username discriminators
68. +0/-0 | Kaius - The removal of disciminators will enable cyberstalking, harassment and more
69. +0/-0 | axelotl - don't change to at usernames
70. +2/-0 | Kristina - I am against discord removing discriminators.
71. +0/-0 | IndyTechwisp - A lesser brought up issue with the removal of account discriminators.
72. +1/-0 | Kizzycocoa - I am being hounded by people trying to impersonate me. How will you protect users like me with unique usernames from impersonation?
73. +0/-0 | Rheine - Another Vote to Not Remove Discriminators
74. +1/-0 | Deaths Head - Stop the Name Change 
75. +0/-0 | lumiKAABi - New Username System is Harmful
76. +2/-0 | Rei - How will removing number discriminators affect older versions of the apps?
77. +1/-0 | jemont445 - Please don't remove discriminators
78. +3/-0 | Nightmare Eyes - Another vote to keep username discriminators - It's what makes discord good

-----

Data disclaimer (which you should always do when throwing out percentages): 

Data gathered by linking the thread and looking through the posts where a human (with other words, I) determined if the post was in favour or against this change. I also took into consideration how many upvotes/downvotes a post had if it was in favour or not. 

Duplicate posters are likely as I did not check the usernames - only how many comments were done, what tone the comment had and if it agreed or disagreed with the new change. 

Percentages were calculated by adding all comments together (did not include main post) and dividing the number of people against the people for. Then substracting that number from 100%. 

I am also extremely bad at math so I may have done some mistakes somewhere. These are all the threads that are currently active and against the username change on the forum. They may recieve more comments after I post, so as of 05/05 around 12pm CET the statistics are like this. 

Fuck Mike#0001-9999, am I right? (Hint: there are 10 000 Mikes, not 9 999, they can't even calculate how many numbers you can have with 4 digits)

Instead of having Mike#10001, that is surely too hard.

And even without it, that's still 10 000 more than any other platform.

If you know about special characters and use them for your handle and don't tell to your friends, you are dumb or an asshole and it's a "you" problem.

+1

I hate it, really. I'll just go ahead and revert to twitter rather than be stuck with this system. The current one is unique, it's what makes discord special, I prefer this one.

              @/kamukuras has been my username on Discord

No it hasn't. That has been your display name. Your username was kamukuras#0000 (whatever the numbers were). With this change, you can keep everything the same, keep your display name as kamukuras and just keep your username as kamukuras[4 digit number]

no, kamukuras *is* their username. the #0000 is the discriminator, and the entire thing is their tag. you'd think if you're going to argue this point in a sea of overwhelmingly opposing comments, you'd at least know what you're talking about. https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/user 

+1

This is a horrible change. Discord appealed to me mainly because of the unique username system. I will be cancelling my Nitro if this goes through.

+1

I wrote a very long post detailing the false arguments brought up in the blog post but Zendesk didn't want to post it. Tldr: It's not a system problem. It's a ux + onboarding problem.

+1

i posted this in another thread:

I wonder what the most upvoted thread on these support forums is. This has to be near the top.

I wonder what the most upvoted thread on these support forums is. This has to be near the top.

5th page of top posts rn

It's also currently 5th overall when it comes to number of comments.

It's only been a day or so and it's already this active.. that's insane. That's when you know it's a bad call. I've deactivated my Nitro because of this

Importantly, the change to unique names will create an unsafe environment for users, as it will do what it does everywhere, create a black market and lust for a name that is frankly dangerous- there have been deaths over usernames, because humans are sometimes awful. An old man was swatted for the Twitter Handel @Tennessee that he wouldn't sell, and died of a heart attack. How long before a change like this results in a death or a swatting? Will discord staff be able and willing to take that responsibility for their hand in that? Discriminators are far from a perfect solution, obviously, but, they also allow for a lot more people to be content and safe. They have worked well for other places that have used them, and are, with some effort but not a ton, scalable... If you anticipate a need for more than 10,000 users with one name, go ahead and make them 6 charachters instead of 4, then you can get John#000000 through John#999999 which is 1 million users. If more than a million people want the name John, maybe consider going to 8, but each digit you add to the issue gives you 9 more blocks of the same size as what you have before, so it's a pretty scalable system.

If you are concerned about the accessibility to new users, then please, consider this, which is harder, copy pasting John#1477 or copy pasting John#665544 or Copy pasting John_1_XxXx_PLEASEGODIWANTMYNAME? They all seem about the same to me.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tennessee-man-targeted-his-twitter-handle-dies-after-swatting-call-n1274747

+1, this is such a stupid idea its unreal

Absolutely agree. Removing discriminators is a horrible idea that would force a lot of people into having usernames they don't want. Hopefully they listen to their users and stop it

While it's a good idea to add a Display Name that wouldn't mean changing our Discord handle, getting rid of the four digits discriminator isn't a good idea for many reasons:

1. Security and privacy: they're there for one reason. If we want to use 'jack' as a username, it doesn't matter if it's already taken because of the discriminator, which gives us a lot more of security in case there's someone looking for someone naming 'jack' with malicious intent (stalking, doxxing, sending malware on purpose, etc.). This new system opens the door to cyberstalking and other kinds of behavior that shouldn't happen in what's supposed to be a safe space.

2. Scams, fraud and impersonation: with this new change, everyone is going to snip their wanted username as soon as they can, including celebrities names, handles that a lot of content creators already have in other social networks, which will lead a lot of impersonation. Getting rid of a discriminator that was made in the first place to make your handle unique isn't the way to go.

3. Sharing usernames: besides the reasons I listed above, it doesn't make sense wanting to change the system just because you can't share those IRL as easily when most of users, if not all, don't have any problem with copying and pasting it in social media or other messaging systems so other people can send a follow request. In fact, there's an easy way to do that in both desktop and the app and there's no need to remember the discriminator, why change something that isn't broken? If anything, it'll be much harder to remember new usernames when people start adding numbers and special characters to it!

4. Financial effects: this won't affect to everyone because not everyone has a Nitro subscription (I don't), but a lot of people have it so they can have the discriminator they want. With this change, that won't make any sense and the reason why some people have subscribed to Nitro will disappear, so what's to say there won't be a drop in revenue after this change?

For the reasons I listed above and more (feel free to add in comments), please, we ask you to listen to your community and don't go through this change. Adding a Display Name is fine, but getting rid of the discriminator isn't the great idea you think it is. If it's necessary step, please find a solution that will actually works and won't take away what makes Discord unique.

^^^ extremely well said

+1

what they’re saying about it being hard to find someone’s username is bs too…you can literally copy and paste it? I’ve never had an issue finding anyone in discord

+1

^^^ if you don't know how to copy and paste on any device, that's a serious you problem.

the number system not only allows anyone to express themselves with any username they want, it allows more people to join your platform with no issues. pushing this update will cause a black market for discord usernames, it'll be just as bad as neopets. do you guys want to be just as bad as neopets??? i don't think so.

Don't pander to people who don't know their way around a computer. looking at your update post, that's exactly what you're doing.

this change is gonna annoy so many people, myself and my friends included
+1