# Revitalizing the Discourse Hub

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/revitalizing-the-discourse-hub/15029>\
**Category:** Site feedback\
**Tags:** discourse-hub\
**Created:** [24 באפריל,‏ 2014,‏ 7:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/revitalizing-the-discourse-hub/15029 "2014-04-24T07:49:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 29

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**Author:** ![thwright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19b73/32.png) [@thwright](https://meta.discourse.org/u/thwright)\
**Post date:** [14 באפריל,‏ 2018,‏ 2:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/revitalizing-the-discourse-hub/15029/29 "2018-04-14T14:17:52Z")

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I thought I’d share some thoughts (for which I am without the time or ability to back it up with the coding know-how, just some sysadmin experience).

Would some sort of username involving a hidden or shown ID number say (@user#IDnumber) be a way to implement this?

The obvious problem would be if you have 100,000 davids, how do you know which one you need besides memorizing their ID #, too?

You could have some kind of info loaded with the Name and ID (e.g. domain name) but who wants to scroll through that list to find who they want?

The ID number could be employed only at the hub then, so multiple users can be David, but have a hidden ID (revealed on hovering), and local containers would have their local david.

Or, you allow a local instance user to sync with a hub user, thus the hub has you hooked in as davidthemechanic and functions as a login option (login locally or login via the hub, via oauth or so), but your own site has you setup as david.

Possibly in the same vein: A user could have some sort of friend list at the hub, almost like a forum contact/address book, which could be referenced from their account on their local container or whichever site they are visiting. So when that user references david, they get the david they want, or at least a condensed list of davids.

A user could have some ability to add tags or notes and when making a mention would then be able to find the one david they want quicker. Thus if you have 15 davids in your contact list and you want your mechanic, you begin typing @ followed by David and see quick info tags, thus being able to determine if david is a mechanic, from here at meta, that guy who PM’d you the other day, or some guy you enjoyed talking with and getting to know.

So, to summarize:  
Allow the same username, but assign a short but unique ID number that can be hidden in some context

A friend list at the hub with some sort of tagging/noting ability that can be referenced in a local discourse container

Allow a local username that attaches to a hub account from the user account or at sign up, thus enabling one discourse hub login but being able to display your discourse name on different forums.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/revitalizing-the-discourse-hub/15029)._