In a Support thread titled “Can Username Change be limited to number of times?”, Edward_D_Avignon asks if Discourse can restrict username changes to a set number of times (e.g., 2) rather than by days since registration. This is needed because their large imported user base often logs in after the default 3-day window, and support can’t handle manual requests. david confirms this isn’t currently possible, though a plugin might help. codinghorror asks if they’ve modified the default 3-day rule and why; Edward_D_Avignon explains their SSO-based import created full-name usernames, which some users want to change for privacy. sam suggests temporarily extending the change window, but Edward_D_Avignon notes users may not log in within that window since Discourse is secondary to their system. Stephen asks about SSO; Edward_D_Avignon confirms it’s in use. Stephen suggests letting the Identity Management system control usernames via SSO payload. codinghorror notes he’s open to the feature but it’s non-trivial engineering compared to the current date-based limit. Edward_D_Avignon clarifies he wasn’t requesting the feature, just checking if it already existed.
Hi,
We recently started using Discourse with thousands of users imported. Is there a way to enable Username Change so that the user can only make a change a specified number of times instead of nuber of days past registration?
I would like to give users the ability to change their username say 2 times before they must contact an admin to make the change.
No, this is not possible at the moment. It could possibly be achieved using a plugin.
In Discourse by default, username changes are only allowed for accounts of 3 days old or less. Have you modified this default setting? If so, why?
We have a very large user base that was imported into Discourse. Most will not log on within 3 days of their Discourse IDs being created (it was more than 3 days before Discourse went into production). Their user names were created from this import. Our support staff does not have the time to field legitimate change requests that come in after the 3 day window so the decision was made to allow users to change their own IDs after more than 3 days.
Easy workaround, raise the username change period site setting, finally when all dust settles turn it back down
That workaround only works if we can guarantee the majority users will log in to the Discourse forums within a specified period of time. Discourse is not the primary function of the system but a way to get help.
Are you using any kind of SSO?
Yes SSO is in use. The username that is created for Discourse is based on the user’s full name. Some people do not want that exposed in Discourse so they want to change it.
Discourse can be configured to override the username with one provided in the SSO payload.
Why not make your IdM authoritative in this case and control renaming from there?
I’m not opposed to adding this feature, because I do think communities should minimize username changes .. but it’s a fair amount of engineering work to add a change count limit, versus the simple date-of-join protection we have now.
I wouldn’t add the feature since it would not be easy. I was just wondering if it was there and I missed a setting.