Are usernames ever auto-generated?

Product Support

AI-generated summary

szhorvat seeks confirmation that unusual usernames found on their low-activity forum are not auto-generated by Discourse, fearing the accidental deletion of legitimate accounts amidst a wave of AI spam. The user notes that while these accounts have readable “names,” their “usernames” appear suspicious and belong to unconfirmed users who have not posted. putty confirms that these accounts are indeed spam, referencing a previous discussion on the issue. Putty also suggests that the platform should consider a more robust solution to address the growing frequency of such spam and bot activity.

1

tl;dr Can someone confirm that the usernames shown below are not Discourse-generated (so they’re likely spam accounts)?

We have a low activity forum that got a wave of AI spam and bot activity that I am struggling to clean up. There are many new accounts that are unconfirmed and haven’t posted. Some of them have “unusual” usernames:

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They do, however, have readable “names”, just not “usernames”.

Can someone please confirm that Discourse will never auto-generate such usernames, so that I can ensure I don’t accidentally delete legitimate users? It’s been a long time since I signed up for any Discourse forum so I no longer remember the process.

2

They’re spam. See the discussion here.

At this rate I really think a greater solution should be considered by the platform.