![]() ![]() The sheer generic aspect of user accounts also helped relieve anxiety over phishing and compromise to some degree. So, for a while, #Steve0001 will live on. The default for this display name when the changes kick in will be whatever your original Discord username happened to be. For example, your Twitter URL (here the equivalent of a Discord username) may be twitter(dot)com/Steve, but your display name might say Steven LotsOfNumbers. Users of social media will already be familiar with this approach. Users will be able to have a “non-unique display name” which is how your name will appear to other users. There are some additional wrinkles added to the new scheme. This isn't a far-flung theory you can read folks already raising this issue and thinking about the potential ramifications of Discord's intended plan. From there, those accounts could be used for phishing or other scams. It would theoretically be straightforward to use an army of dormant accounts to "squat" usernames of famous people or business entities. This not only gives them a distinct advantage in the "name yourself first" stakes, it also provides an opportunity for trolling or security threats. Lots of early adopters of the platform will no doubt have amassed many alternate accounts down the years. Worse still, the way this is going to happen is that name availability will be done on a first come, first served basis with people who’ve been on the platform longer getting first choice. Yo this sucks actually? people not being able to add me on discord without me telling them the discriminator was a feature not a bug so now i either get to allow impersonators, or pick a random unguessable name and have to override it constantly truly incredible work □ Secure a username that unambiguously ties to your online presence for as long as you use the service, or run the risk of impersonators grabbing your desired identifier. The new system means people have to make a choice. Even so, someone usually has to tie a profile to something external and identifiable to run into trouble. This is not to say using Discord keeps you 100% anonymous. Nobody is going to do this, and so users are afforded some degree of privacy as a result. Where would you start? The answer, of course, is likely “From Steve#0001 all the way up to #9999". With the numbers system in place, it’s as good as impossible for someone to track you down specifically inside of Discord. It’s a bit like having a giant online user directory, but one where the user is in full control of how that information leads back to them in the majority of situations. Users of Discord quite enjoy the level of anonymity afforded by the numbers system. ![]() However, a lot of privacy related issues are bubbling up to the surface. If you miss out on landing the Steve handle, sorry: you’re probably going to be St3ve from now on. All of our Steves will fight to the death in order to become the one true Steve, shorn of numbers forever. Very soon, Discord will ask you to amend your username to something more specific. It remained like this for about 8 years, and now we’re at the point where everything is changing. A drawback of this system is that if 9,999 Steves already exist, then we're all out of Steves because this is the maximum number you can have of one particular username. If another Steve signed up, they’d be Steve#3858. If you wanted to be Steve, into the chat you’d go as Steve#3857. This is just another way of saying “We put a four digit number at the end of your username”. When people started wanting to talk to their friends located in other servers (essentially, another chat room) Discord introduced a friend system and a number system called “discriminators”. They wanted you to jump straight into the chatroom-based action. ![]() When Discord launched back in 2017, the developers didn’t want you to try and sign up only to be told “Username taken”. What is going on over there, and why are so many people concerned about the upcoming alterations? ![]() Discord, the Voice over IP (VoIP) and instant message communications tool, is changing how usernames function in a major way soon. Many users are not keen on this change at all. ![]()
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