"Unapproved" usernames are still visible to other users

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around a bug where unapproved user accounts remain visible to other users in features like message sending and username autocompletion, despite the setting requiring staff approval for new accounts. InterAction_studios reports the issue, noting it undermines the intended isolation of unapproved accounts. Stephen suggests using an Identity Provider (IdP) as a workaround, but InterAction_studios prefers a Discourse-native solution. JammyDodger confirms the issue and acknowledges it as a bug, later providing a fix via a GitHub commit 8a2995f.

As protection against certain problematic users who are creating a lot of alt accounts with inappropriate and abusive usernames, I have turned on the setting marked “Staff must approve all new user accounts before they are allowed to access the site.”

However, even though I haven’t yet approved a particular account, that account is still listed as an option when e.g. sending messages or during “@username” autocompletes, and hence is visible to other users.

Is this intended behaviour? I would expect that unapproved accounts are kept isolated from the rest of the users.

In any case, how can I prevent these usernames from prematurely appearing anywhere in the forum before they have been approved?

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The only guaranteed way would be to use an IdP for your sign-on and manage this there.

Thank you, but that would create more problems for me than it solves. I’d much rather handle this within Discourse.

The more I think about this, the more it seems like a bug. I seem to recall Invision Power Board having the same issue a few years ago, but they have since fixed it.

I’ve had a quick check and I don’t think it should be doing that. I’ve slipped it over to Contribute > Bug to see if we can get that fixed up. :+1:

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Excellent – many thanks!

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This should be fixed by: :+1:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/8a2995f7196e5383e901c7c4d35a9a41b32029ef

Let us know if you have any issues. :slight_smile:

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