Prioritizing full name vs username in the UX

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The discussion centers on a new site setting, prioritize_username_in_ux, which allows administrators to choose whether usernames or full names are displayed prominently in the UI. sam introduced the feature, showing visual comparisons of how names appear in cards, user pages, and post streams when the setting is toggled. A suggestion to prefix usernames with ‘@’ for clarity was raised gerhard, though codinghorror cautioned against overuse. A bug where blank full names caused misaligned usernames was reported riking and later fixed sam. jerry0 noted the setting didn’t apply to email notifications, which techAPJ resolved, also unifying CSS styling for consistency techAPJ and extending fixes to the /about page techAPJ. mentalstring identified a gap in search result displays, and debryc requested support for the experimental sidebar/chat. The team acknowledges broader improvements (e.g., quote handling) are deferred for future work sam.

1

I just added a site setting that allows you to prioritize full names as opposed to usernames in the UI.

When usernames are prioritized cause the site setting prioritize_username_in_ux is enabled you will see:

In card:

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On user page:

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In post stream:

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If you change it so prioritize_username_in_ux is disabled you will see:

In card:

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On user page:

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In post stream:

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I feel an @ symbol may be worth adding per:

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This can be done safely via CSS, leaving it off for now.

Quotes inside the UX still pull in username eg:

We may look at making this switch to be fullname based when the setting is set.

22 Likes
How to show full name BEFORE username? (just like in Meta)
Force only full name
Minima Theme
2

Bug report: If full name is blankish, username is offset and not fully bold

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1 Like
3

eh?

4

corrected per

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/0e2d918b3b3807041126bc66d3e0d205d42c7820

Still abusable, but we might as well correct that server side by doing a trim on save that is unicode aware.

3 Likes
5

That is a can-of-worms to implement, same class as improving quotes. I may get to it, but not for this round.

3 Likes
6

I believe the username should be shown with @ by the default. It’s a lot less confusing.

And the username should always be visible. Don’t make me think.

5 Likes
7

At symbol too noisy repeated all over the page. In the user card should suffice.

1 Like
8

This is working in almost all places, but not in email notifications.

So, in e.g. user card it looks fine.

image
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But in email notifications full name is not prioritized:

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(also I think only one of the two names need be hyperlinked, the first I guess)

2 Likes
9

@techAPJ can you investigate a fix for emails?

3 Likes
11

Fixed via:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/f36719c1f5aac7e72e12f298cf9e23a2076ac17b

When prioritize_username_in_ux is enabled:

Screen Shot 2020-02-20 at 17.42.46
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When prioritize_username_in_ux is disabled:

Screen Shot 2020-02-20 at 17.41.23
Screen Shot 2020-02-20 at 17.41.23502×182 14.5 KB

4 Likes
Real names not showing up in email notifications
12

Further simplified the styling to use same CSS for username and user-name. (notice the bold font-weight for username vs the normal for user-name.)

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/7b92280b97ea483685040c6c5f8c23b3d8c9f0a2

4 Likes
13

Pushed another fix here for /about page:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/e58f0adfcc963305fb16d6c796f51ccfcbe58e00

4 Likes
14

I found a place where this setting doesn’t seem to be taking effect: the list of username matches on search results:

Screenshot 2021-09-13 at 16.22.24
Screenshot 2021-09-13 at 16.22.241038×328 16.2 KB

Geminiscp is the username and prioritize username in ux = true.

3 Likes
15

We just installed the experimental sidebar and chat. Can full names be prioritized in the Personal chat section as well if we disable prioritize_username_in_ux?

1 Like