# About the idea: IDENTITY = EMAIL

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/about-the-idea-identity-email/34642>\
**Category:** Site feedback\
**Tags:** email\
**Created:** [18 Ottobre 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/about-the-idea-identity-email/34642 "2015-10-18T00:41:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 8

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mittineague](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mittineague/32/114259_2.png) [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)\
**Post date:** [18 Ottobre 2015, 9:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/about-the-idea-identity-email/34642/8 "2015-10-18T21:32:43Z")

</div>

> [@jd2066](#):
>
> Discourse could map users based on the username instead of email.

Problem being that when an account is Deleted, the IP and email address can be added to the “Screened” lists.  
Member names of deleted accounts can be re-used.

It might help if you consider context when thinking of the definition of “Identity”

To me  
Email Address - identifies the person in the “real world” i.e. verification that the person using that email address is that person  
Member Name - Identifies the person to other forum members  
Member Id - Used in the code to identify the member’s account

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/about-the-idea-identity-email/34642)._