Why don't discourse use email name to create username?

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The discussion revolves around why Discourse does not use the email name as the default username, instead opting for a transliterated version of the user’s full name. trandatnh argues that most users prefer their nickname or email name over their full name, citing examples like @trandatnh, @thangngoc89, and @codinghorror. They express confusion over Discourse’s use of Facebook-style names and suggest that using the email name would be more intuitive. codinghorror proposes a heuristic where if the auto-created username contains more than three underscores, it should use the email name instead. Nguyen_Hieu asks if the mechanism can be changed, particularly for Vietnamese users whose names often contain diacritics, making the current system less effective.

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Continuing the discussion from Vietnamese slug support for better SEO:

I find it’s strange to use “people name” from Facebook to create username in Discourse. Why wouldn’t we use “email name” as a default user name for Discourse forum?

The facts are

  • almost everyone use their “nick name” or “email name” on forum. for example

    • @trandatnh is not my fullname
    • @thangngoc89 is not his name too
    • @riking I think your name is Kane York?
    • @codinghorror It’s your nick name too right?
    • @sam is exceptional :smiley:
    • @… a lot of people use their nick name instead of their real name on the Internet.

  • We got problem with unicode “real name”, my full legal name is: “Lê Trần Đạt”. Facebook presents it as “Đạt Lê Trần”. I don’t like the way Facebook call me, but it’s still ok, acceptable. But hey, what does Discourse call my name? There it is D_t_Le_Tr_n

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I would prefer trandatnh as my username rather than D_t_Le_Tr_n

Don’t tell me to use vi as default language. There are 2 reasons

  • I encourage my members, friends to use English.
  • The vietnamese translation is not completed yet (around 40%)
「いいね！」 9
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One heuristic that comes to mind is this:

if the auto-created full name contains more than 3 _ characters
use the email address name instead

「いいね！」 2
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Can you change the operating mechanism of it? Because some of them, and the name of the Vietnam 4 words. Example: Đình Nguyễn Anh Cương and his full legal name is: Nguyễn Đình Anh Cương.