# Question about max username length
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [February 7, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022 "2018-02-07T15:18:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Philip\_Colmer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Philip_Colmer)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/1 "2018-02-07T15:18:08Z")
In [Usernames on top, lifting username length restrictions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/usernames-on-top-lifting-username-length-restrictions/14747), there is a lengthy discussion about lifting the max username length restriction.
The first post gives an example of the length being increased to 40, but [Usernames on top, lifting username length restrictions - #25 by codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/t/usernames-on-top-lifting-username-length-restrictions/14747/25) (post 25) says that it has been officially bumped from 15 to 20.
Is it safe to make it more than 20 characters? The reason I ask is because we’ve tied our Discourse implementation to our LDAP system for SSO, and we’re using the LDAP usernames as the Discourse usernames … and some of our users have got very long names, e.g. moorthy.baskaravenkatraman-sambamoorthy.
What is the maximum length that the system has been tested with? I don’t want to break Discourse by putting in a value that is too high …
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@JonnyGamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JonnyGamer)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/2 "2018-02-07T16:18:45Z")
Great idea, I’ve been wondering about this myself!
Discourse has a maximum length so that other users can easily remember your username. It’s kind of like a shorthand to your actual name.
But I agree, 20 seems a little small
---
### Author:  [@Philip\_Colmer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Philip_Colmer)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/3 "2018-02-07T16:21:14Z")
@JonnyGamer You make a good point about why Discourse might have a maximum length, although you only need to **start** typing someone’s name and Discourse offers matches. Looking at the linked post, I think that another reason was constraints on the layout but now that full names and usernames are displayed above the post, I hope that is less of an issue than it used to be.
Hopefully one of the devs will be able to chime in 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Cool\_Cool](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Cool_Cool)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 4:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/4 "2018-02-07T16:25:54Z")
Yeah I agree, maybe closer to 30
---
### Author:  [@JonnyGamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JonnyGamer)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/5 "2018-02-07T18:47:49Z")
> [@Philip\_Colmer](#):
>
> start typing
That is very true 👌
Except trolling people can then make multiple account very easily that are really similar to the long username.
(For exceptionally long usernames, they get truncated, so after a certain amount of letters, you can see after that. Then someone could make multiple accounts, change one character, and it all gets really confusing)
* * *
On the Hopscotch Forum, we are already getting that. Trollers are created account that are the same exact as other users, except the lowercase “L” is an uppercase “i”
llllllllll - L’s
IIIIIIII - i’s
They are super similar
This is just one example
---
### Author:  [@PartTimeFemale](https://meta.discourse.org/u/PartTimeFemale)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 10:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/6 "2018-02-07T22:43:51Z")
Yeh I once had a conversation on an alt with someone and they thought it was who the alt was impersonating until I told them.
> **""**
>
> Also telling the difference between an alt and a real person can be hard
>
> 
---
### Author:  [@memorablechickenyay](https://meta.discourse.org/u/memorablechickenyay)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 10:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/7 "2018-02-07T22:46:34Z")
This would be fairly easy to fix wirh a bit of custom css, I would assume. just make the font monospace.
---
### Author:  [@JonnyGamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JonnyGamer)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/8 "2018-02-07T23:11:48Z")
Yeah, that makes sense:
```plaintext
III iii
lll LLL
```
---
### Author:  [@JonnyGamer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JonnyGamer)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/9 "2018-02-07T23:12:13Z")
> [@PartTimeFemale](#):
>
> Yeh I once had a conversation on an alt with someone and they thought it was who the alt was impersonating until I told them.
You mean me 😂
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 11:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/10 "2018-02-07T23:14:20Z")
> [@Philip\_Colmer](#):
>
> Is it safe to make it more than 20 characters?
As far as I know, it is. You may see some UI breakage with extra long usernames that Discourse does not expect, though. The site setting is
`max username length`
and defaults to 20.
I haven’t checked the database schema to see what the absolute limit on username length as stored in the database is, though.
---
### Author:  [@Cool\_Cool](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Cool_Cool)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/11 "2018-02-10T03:08:51Z")
I, and I am sure some other people, would think that it might be a tire to type out long usernames, even with shortcuts, if there are many similar long usernames, it could take awhile to type
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/12 "2020-05-15T19:14:59Z")
---
### Author:  [@Donavan\_Martin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Donavan_Martin)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/13 "2020-11-10T16:03:53Z")
Looks like username maximum length is 60 characters even if it’s set greater.
I tried with settings of 127 and 254 for username lengths…
Endpoint:
- `https://{{url}}/admin/groups`
- name: `This_is_a_long_username_for_a_new_group_title_that_take_exactly_77_characters`
Response:
```plaintext
{
"errors": [
"Name is too long"
]
}
```
After verification, this is related to:
>
---
### Author:  [@Donavan\_Martin1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Donavan_Martin1)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 4:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-about-max-username-length/80022/14 "2022-02-13T16:14:47Z")
```plaintext
cd /var/discourse/
./launcher enter app
sed -i 's/MAX_CHARS ||= 60/MAX_CHARS ||= 255/g' app/models/username_validator.rb
```