Reserved Usernames

Hey!

Is there an option for reserving usernames? I cant find it. There should be a textarea where we can just have a list of reserved usernames where users cant sign up with those.

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This already exists somewhere in the code, but it’s just a fixed list with entries like admin and staff.

Changing it to a SiteSetting could make sense.

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Is there a way to add to that list through the UI?

That would be what “changing it to a site setting” means.

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Ok… Is there a temporary work-around for this? Where in the code is this?

The workaround is to suspend anyone who signs up with that name.

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Then when it comes time to make an account with that username, what would I do?

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You could just register an account for every username you want to reserve, and then just hand over the details to whoever you were reserving that username for.

I guess thats the only way. :frowning:

I was looking into this not too long ago.
It would be helpful to have a tool which allows Discourse admins to reserve usernames.

Suspending a user right after they join could be traumatic, or simply leave a bad taste in their mouth. In my honest opinion, users should not be punished due to selecting a username they were originally allowed to choose.

Sure, there are some who do not view this as punishment. However, it’s hard enough to simply get people to join a website. Adding more work into the mix could push the user away, recreating an account. Going further into this, the user who was suspended upon joining might have a loud enough voice which could push away others.

The next course of action would be for an administrator to create user accounts for every username they wish to reserve. This seems inefficient, as not only does creating an account take more time than adding a string to a list, but the result leads to data based off the account. The account’s data would no longer be genuine, and would more than likely have to be reset to preserve authenticity.

I’m sure that the Discourse project has many priorities, and a feature like this would be rather low on the totem pole. However, I am crossing my fingers to one day see this available.

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I thought @riking added a reserved username feature? Am I mis-remembering?

No, it already existed, and I was looking at expanding it, but never got around to it.

I actually forgot which source file it’s in…

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I agree with omni. This is something other forums have (SMF forum).

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I added this to the 1.4 release plan.

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Yes. It should be a setting.

Did anything like this ever get implemented?

Edit: Aha, yes it did. I should’ve searched the site settings before trying to search here. It’s a site setting called, appropriately enough, reserved usernames!

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