The two last people who signed up on my discourse platform (self-hosted) have usernames like PoutyTurtle58 — is this a new feature or something that has always been possible and by coincidence it never happened before? Is there a setting for this?

Yes, this is actually a new feature: [תמונה] Easier account signup using email codes megaphoneAnnouncements Discourse communities can now let users log in using a short emailed code instead of a magic link, offering a passwordless login flow which feels familiar to many other SaaS platforms and works alongside your existing second-factor setup. In this topic, we’ll review the major changes and share how you can start using this today. microscope What’s changed When this feature is enabled, members see a simpler flow: [Screenshot 2026-07-08 at 17.56.16]: They enter an email address and click C… Seems like a random thing to add but not necessarily bad.

Right — can usernames be changed later on? A bit weird for a bunch of francophones to end up looking like a random zoo…

Yes, they can be changed at sign up and in their user page like normal later. All this has done is given the user an option to not select a name at signup, nothing else has changed, including the ability to select your name at signup.

Trying to find if I can disable the signup via code. People are not filling in the signup questions and I’m going to have a lot of confused people who have no clue what their username is… :anxious_face_with_sweat: [IMG_1963] Clicked on the link but it leads to « not found » [IMG_1964]

[תמונה] stephtara: can usernames be changed later on Depends on how you define “later.” By default, usernames can only be changed for 3 days after registration (username_change_period site setting). You might also be interested in changing Random username nouns and Random username adjectives to change the zoo into something that matches your community.

[תמונה] Moin: usernames can only be changed for 3 days after registration Ok, that means I definitely need to « force » members to pick their username…

The settings that enable upcoming changes are hidden as long as the change isn’t permanent. You should be able to find Enable local logins via code in the list of upcoming changes [Screenshot_20260921_192743_Firefox] [תמונה] stephtara: Ok, that means I definitely need to « force » members to pick their username… You can also allow them to edit them for a longer time span. Also admins can still change them

[תמונה] stephtara: Clicked on the link but it leads to « not found » [IMG_1964] It’s probably trying to bring you to the upcoming change instead of site setting and the link is just broken. Try disabling the upcoming change and it should go away but some feedback in the thread I linked might also help.

Ah hadn’t realised it was an upcoming change, thanks! Have been off the Discourse grid for a while.

We’re about to switch the random usernames feature to default off in the next few hours, @keegan has a PR up that he will merge soon. Note that the words used in username generation are configurable, so for a French community, you could use French words there if you would like to keep the feature.

Random usernames?

תמיכה

Moin 21 בספטמבר,‏ 2026,‏ 5:42pm 13

Feels like those settings should have defaults based on the locale of the forum. Locale-specific defaults for site settings (`locale_default`)

נושא		תגובות	צפיות
Easier account signup using email codes Announcements login , signup	50	2754	21 באוקטובר,‏ 2026
Ability to Change Username on Discourse ID Forums? Product Support discourse-id	5	459	26 באפריל,‏ 2026
User has no option to change username? Product Support	14	17990	10 במאי,‏ 2021
Generic “userN” usernames Product Support	12	2731	27 באוקטובר,‏ 2021
Anonymise all users by default during sign up Product Support	4	464	18 בנובמבר,‏ 2024

Random usernames?

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