[DO NOT ADD] Discord Username System
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
Truly, Discord has put 0 thought on this change.
14 -
+1
Absolutely the dumbest thing Discord ever did. Their "new" and "improved" system doesn't solve any of the problems they claim the discriminators have, yet it makes existing ones infinitely worse. Yes, I'm sure that "Sh_3ff-Id" will be much easier for my friends to remember than "Sheffield#numbers". Seriously, why the fuck did you think this would be a good idea? Also, your "evidence" that 40% of us don't know anything about discriminators is a reddit *post* (not even poll) which had not even 30 comments when you linked it. Yes, I'm sure that this is definitely representative of all 100m+ Discord users.
Seriously. Do not get rid of discriminators. I have already convinced several of my friends to cancel their nitro in protest, and we will keep convincing others to cancel theirs until you *publicly* announce that you will not push through with the username change.
If you really think having only 1 "Mike" instead of 10 000 "Mikes" is a good idea, you meed mental help. Why not instead add a fifth digit, to bump it up to 100 000 "Mikes"? Or why not add letters to the discriminator and bump it up to even more possible mikes? Or why not use friend codes similar to Steam?
Legitimately, there are an enormous amount of ways to better handle this. Why not spend your "like... a *lot*" thinking on actual alternatives instead of blatant lies and then trying to still push a change no one wants through?
1 -
+1
Pls... No.10 -
utterly stupid idea, and is inevitably going to lead to stuff like username squatting and people getting very frustrated by not being able to use the username they actually want to use.
13 -
It's cute how you guys keep updating the description as if it will make a bit of difference. We know what you meant. You don't have to "clarify" it for us. We get it. We're not idiots.
We are telling you, clear as day. We. Don't. Like. It.
We are asking you, clear as day. Do. Not. Do. This.
How much more clear do you want us to be?19 -
You know what irks me? For some reason, the devs are conveniently quiet when we are protesting against this change. Why are you now suddenly quiet? Can you please at least tell us 'we are now reviewing the decision internally'? Some kind of communication would be kind, but no, you just keep quiet in such situations.
If you actually decide to go through with it despite our protests, then I sincerely hope that your company will fail.
18 -
Saw on the main Reddit post that one reason they’re probably doing all of this is so they can introduce blue verification check marks. Whilst it could be true…this could have easily worked well with the current username+discriminator system.
I mean it’s “kinda the point” they’re trying to align with other social media apps, so it’d just be disappointing either way that they’ve found a shit and inconvenient way to do it all
12 -
+1
I and at least one community I'm in are actively considering abandoning Discord for Guilded over this.
Hammer and Chisel, you just posted cringe; you are gonna loose subscriber.
12 -
I see that they've removed ALMOST all of the condescending language in the announcement post, about how stupid and feeble their users must be because discriminators are sooooo hard.
Good work, somebody. You're still planning to take away a valued and unique part of the platform, but at least you aren't insulting us at the same time.
12 -
Though Stanislav's post is still spitting on us.
10 -
0.o ima try grab some celebs nickname and see if i can sell it ;>
6 -
I have been on Discord since early 2016. When I joined, there were no discriminators: you could only log in by username, and back then, it was pretty awful (ignoring the fact that pinging users was more challenging). Not long after I joined, discriminators were born and people could register with any name they wanted, but crucially, they couldn't even change their discriminator. A year later, Nitro came along and then people could change their tag all they wanted (it was born from the fact people were farming their discord tag using selfbots to get the one they wanted).
There has been some pretty bad updates over the years, but this one has to be worst one in existence. There is no reason to be changing usernames other than investors demanding Discord to change the format to "fit in with everyone else". Back in 2015, Discord was the trailblazer for resolving the one problem every other website had: how to deal with usernames running out and ensuring everyone could have the name they wanted.
Discriminators are the way forward for ensuring usernames are infinitely available, not @ handles and indeed, several platforms have more digits than Discord, to ensure there is never an issue with getting a username for the lifetime of the product.
Those same investors that clearly forced Discord into making this change (contrary to the blog post, discriminators are one of the lightest features possible and hardly has any technical debt) fail to realise that Discord is not Twitter, Instagram or YouTube. It is not a public social network like all of those platforms, where anyone can just see anything you write. By default, Discord servers are closed communities and you can only join them through invite codes or the Public Server Discovery within the app (for those few communities lucky to be on there). People join Discord for a private, anonymous chat client, they don't go there to be identified.
I have talked to many people, and apart from the sycophants that go around defending Discord at every possible opportunity (in the hope that doing so will improve their favour with them), no one has any issue with the current system and none of them can see why the system needs to be changed.
This change is 1000% going to increase scams, spam, impersonation, and the black market for rare usernames. It also doesn't even solve the problems that Discord is claiming to exist. In fact, the one feature which would have resolved all of these problems was quietly shelved, that being friend invite codes.
These are all problems that persistently afflict other platforms and Discord has effectively joined them. Rather than protecting users, its just encouraging malicious actors to get involved with scamming users.
Oh, and a fun fact: people rarely see the word "discriminator" unless they're working with the API in some form. To the vast majority of users, they will be familiar with "discord tags" as the client uses "Discord Tag" to refer to the dscriminator, but the blog post decided only to use an internal naming convention as if it was public knowledge. How Discord has fallen really...
17 -
+1
this is certainly one of the ideas ever.
"our userbase is certainly smart enough to remember the 3 digits on the back of their credit card so they can give us more MONEY! but 4 DIGITS? that's far too much for them OHHH the horrors"
yeah. the 4-digit discriminator is also extremely iconic in my opinion, so it's just like Discord is throwing away part of its brand. might as well just form a bunch of group chats on twitter and use that instead i guess. i'll probably cancel my Nitro subscription. if the aim is to be like other apps, then there's no point in being subscribed since i don't pay for anything on those other apps lol
14 -
wild that they said they "put a lot of thought into this (like… alot)" but couldn't even put some thought into spell-checking "a lot"
nobody wants this and there doesn't seem to actually be a good reason for the change in the announcement. "ohhh people uhhh they say the wrong username to people..." In This Day And Age Of 5G Internet WHOMST is waiting until they get home to add someone on discord. take out ur phone, open discord, open ur profile, BOOM username in 1080p. why not just add the "add friend with QR code" feature that so many things like snapchat have? it's total bs
14 -
Discord blog post "reasons" are bs. Leave the usernames alone.
10 -
+1
6 -
is there ANY user that wants this change ?
seems odd to go through with something that everyone is opposed to10 -
discord wants to fix the issue of people allegedly not being able to connect with their friends, but exactly how large was this control group? there was so much thought put into this decision with claims that the userbase was in mind, and yet the userbase was not given an opportunity to voice their opinions until just over a week ago.
do not do this to us; we do not want nor need this.
10 -
I like how they claim this is to reduce user onboarding friction but ignore the fact that with the discriminator system, you can quickly sign up with what name you want as long as 9999 others don't have it, but with this new one you will be forced to sit there for 10 minutes trying to make some broken name nobody else as used.
They've tried to claim that less tech-savvy users are confused by this system, which I'm sure is partially true, but a little confusion is better than names like John_Smith5. Plus, these people will most likely make unreadable names and have to be copied and pasted, something much worse than communicating a simple name + numbers.
It's sad to see Discord become so corporate. Whoever is pushing for these changes should remember that Skype fell, and at this rate, Discord will join them in the grave. Maybe not with this change, but certainly with this direction.
13 -
It really just clicked big time for me.
The black market now is already getting really bad as it is, and obviously, it's going to get a lot worse once this change starts rolling out. We all know this.
However, I just don't think many people actually realize just how horrendous things are going to get once Discord actually does end up selling the platform off and going public with such a change like this being rolled out on top of that. They've already been trying to do for a good long while now (sell the platform and go public). Once Discord is sold off and the market is open for it, it's going to be horrific. I can't even imagine the disgusting amounts of money some accounts will actually be sold for especially given Discord would be valued higher at any given point. Just how much worse everything will actually be on Discord at that point.
We just got to keep pushing and not shut up at all about this, keep making as much noise as we possibly can.
We got to keep putting in our best efforts to put a stop to this before it can even begin to happen.
We can't let this platform go to absolute shit.
10 -
This is Absolutely Horrible, it’s becoming Reddit With Extra Steps.
7 -
Said it before and I'll say it again, this is an absolutely boneheaded decision.
Rewording it does not make it better. Your justifications do not make it better. We do not want to lose the discriminators and switch to fixed usernames. We do not want username scarcity. We do not want to lose the names we've been using for years. We do not want people to be able to impersonate others because their account is older or because they're using nitro and get earlier access to the name change. We understand what you're doing, and the community is voicing their active vitriol for it -- and has for over a week now. You should take it back, come up with a better option, and scrap this one, if you actually care at all about your users' experience -- but since it's been well over a week and you've only doubled down as of today, that seems unlikely.
Guess it's time for Discord to go the way of Skype, MSN, and AIM before it -- straight to the recycling bin, if this goes through. There are plenty of other options, after all, and one of the few remaining things that made discord more appealing than the competition to many of us (and wasn't scooped away and placed behind a paywall later on) was the username system -- the thing you're now scrapping.11 -
Sharing my thoughts in this thread so it's all in one place.
Discord Staff, I know that you all are getting a ton of emails and posts about usernames right now, but I still want my concerns about the upcoming change to usernames to be heard as well, if that is alright.
One of my main gripes is for how easily people can blatantly impersonate a user, especially in regards to content creators. This has always been an issue on social media, my favorite example being how during the early state of buying an 8 dollar check-mark on Twitter, someone made a fake Eli Lilly Twitter account. They then proceeded to tweet "Insulin is free", and then the company's stock dropped by almost 5%. Yes, it's a different social media platform, but I hope you get my point. If you give a social media nowadays the ability to have an official enough username, there will be chaos.
A lot of content creators, yes, want to have their brand usernames. It will suck when they have to deal with older Discord accounts sniping their username before the creator can get their handle. Then, having to wait in discord support to get their username back all the while the fake account will be absolutely be either selling the account to highest bidder, or starting drama in any shape and way possible! The pedophilia, grooming, racist, etc accusations will be maddening. To add to this, there is a more increased risk of hackers and doxxers targeting their accounts.
Alongside this, the loss of anonymity is going to suck. Yes, there's always the option of creating more discord accounts to have one for your content creation stuff, and then another for personal stuff. But let's be honest. Folks nowadays do not want to navigate between accounts, or to go through the process of configuring their new account to their preferences. EVEN THEN there will be users or even bots mass creating accounts.
Thinking about the clean-up/deletion of accounts on your side is making me stressed FOR you all. Because then, you'll have to deal with possible accidental deletion of accounts and their angered users, or even potential legal issues.It does not even stop there. This update will put users who have been stalked, harassed, and groomed at risk of being more easily found. It might not be much, but there is a comfort with the security provided by discriminators. The discriminator helped users to quickly change their entire account details in a safe and non-convoluted way.
Plus, you have used discriminators as a perk for nitro users since forever. Users genuinely love customizing their username with the silly numbers. It also adds a wonderful charm to discord, setting it apart from the social media-fication of everything else. Discord is not a social media. Discord is a messaging platform. It is a messaging platform for gamers. People crave unique customization... even if it is getting a little chuckle out of the 0420 and 6969 discriminators.
I can only hope you hear us out. Thank you for reading my rambles.
8 -
+1
I also want to add in my two cents on this feature. I'm not sure if this has been discussed, but what about a potential filter on our usernames? Surely to appeal to investors, they don't want any explicit content in someone's username. I guarantee one of the first people to get this change is going to change their name to something funny yet inappropriate. But the issue is... How much do we trust Discord's filter? Will they be too lax and allow people with inappropriate usernames to go unchecked? Will we be allowed to cuss in our usernames? What about usernames with slurs or derogatory terms-- Will they be checked? Or will they be too strict with their censoring? Will the trigger end up banning usernames like @amethyst because it has an illicit substance in it? Will any "funny numbers" count as inappropriate?
I'm assuming if it's anything like they're doing now, the usernames are going to be entirely unchecked. And if that's the case, then I'm concerned about how many slurs in usernames I'm going to have to moderate and ban. If I had to guess, they're going to not put a filter on usernames, but then as soon as something offensive pops up in them and gets them flagged as 18+ on the App Store, they're going to scramble to make a poorly-made filter that ends up banning a ton of people or causing a lot of frustration that they won't address. Especially when a lot of their community relies on teenagers and young adults-- Inappropriate things are funny. That's merely how it works.
I paid Nitro because I wanted to keep the same discriminator regardless of what I changed my nickname to. I paid for year long not even half a year ago, but honestly this might be a hundred bucks down the drain over this stupid decision. I don't think anyone is happy about this, really.
7 -
One of the main reasons I have loved Discord and paid for Nitro is for the ability to customize my account. I do not support this decision and would probably stop buying Nitro. Mostly, I'm just like... who asked for this? Because it seems to me that a good many users don't support the idea. You're trying to fix a problem that simply does not exist, and in the process will be making many more problems, not only for yourselves but your users as well. I want to keep loving and supporting Discord, please do not go through with this plan.
9 -
quite frankly I'm sad I don't have nitro because GOD I would have canceled it immediately. but can't cancel what you don't have.
anyway this is stupid as hell and no one wants this <3 I've never stepped foot onto this support page before but this is big enough to make me actually come over and say something. I enjoy my privacy, knowing that people cannot find me off-site unless they know my discriminator. where if I have to have a username, I'm gonna do one that I normally do. therefore, making it so that anyone who knows that username, can find me on discord. and HELL NO. the entire reason I love and use discord is because of that privacy I have!
and y'know. there's the whole issue of account selling and hacking accounts and whatnot. and the removal of the privacy I mentioned before could be SERIOUSLY dangerous for some people. not a good look!
literally no benefit to this whatsoever. I'm personally a HUGE fan of the phrase "if it's not broken, don't fix it" and it sure as hell applies here. what we have is NOT broken. it's great and I love it! usernames? not here. they don't belong here. nobody wants this.
15 -
This change is absolutely horrible. Discriminators are one of the best things about Discord, being able to have any name you want and they just add a discriminator at the end. It was a brilliant solution to an age old problem. I also love that some Blizzard games like Starcraft II have this same feature. Removing it is just sheer stupidity and demonstrates being out of touch and abandoning their roots of being for gamers. It's a betrayal. I don't know a single gamer that does want this change. I'm not going to enjoy having some moronic username I'll be embarrassed to even tell people because even though I joined in 2016 there's no way in hell I'll get Tiffany. And if I did I'd just be putting my account at risk of being hacked for such a valuable name.
17 -
although it’s a way less important reason than all of the ones listed above, what really gets me is that latin script and no special characters is being enforced after years of none?? not just including me who uses emojis to decorate their name (and thus frequently changes it to match icon colors), i have a couple friends who get the benefits of having their name in latin script and the script it’s meant to be written in (korean, japanese) because discord just let’s you. removing that especially out of no where really sucks for the part of the user base that makes use of that for their names
11 -
This will break rust modding community ability to connect our in-game avatar with discord.
I am already taking steps on setting up an element\riot server to move there, in case they remove discriminators from discord.The sad part is that because of "discriminators" its easy find someone. all you have to do is to pull your phone from your pocket, look that the "discriminator" and give it away.
Not to mention that nobody ever does that. People add friends from servers, they dont walk casually around and exchange their discord "discriminators" with other people, its more likely they will give their phone number.
More to that he talks about a 40% of people who have no idea what that is, yeah am pretty sure that they just dont care about it. Or when a IRL friends ask their discord, they can just guide them.
And to be honest, all it take to make people aware of it is a simple splash screen with a large pointer aiming that the "discriminator" and a sentence that says "This is your ID, use it to find other friends" and its done.I never understood the tendency of some developers to just throw out updates that break everything and then they throw some bad excuse for it like
"Hey I woke up today and I decided to frag everything up, love to you all, co-founder of iRuinYourDay inc."10 -
i've already upvoted this post and commented previously here and in the nitro section. i've cancelled my nitro sub in protest. i just wanted to share some further thoughts.
honestly this has probably already been said, but this shows a complete lack of understanding of the userbase and our needs and wants. it shows a lack of integrity, a lack of goodwill, a lack of intelligence. if the developers really believe this will help their userbase, they're stupid. if the developers really believe helping themselves by twisting the app into a weird version of other apps will help rake in the cash, they're stupid for that too.
this update crosses the line. the backlash is proof of that. personally, i would go as far as to say it's broken my trust in discord. the way i have decided to stop supporting the platform is evidence of *that*. i refuse to give my money to something that has shown it doesn't have my best interests at heart. who knows what else they will decide needs changing if this is what they're willing to do? i refuse to participate in that and you can bet i'll even be careful even in how i use discord as a free user going forward.
11
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