After years of technical debt, Discord has announced a big change is coming to their username system to make it easier to find the people you want to connect with.
Currently, you have your username followed by a bunch of numbers. It's not an ideal system, as they said themselves, "our current usernames can often be too complicated or obscure for people to remember and share easily". So they're changing it to be a bit more like Twitter and other platforms where you have @username instead. You'll still be able to change your display name to whatever you want though.
This is a good time to tell you to join the GamingOnLinux Discord right?
When the change comes in, your username will need to be unique and they said it will roll-out over the coming weeks. You'll get an in-app notification when your time comes to do the change-over. It will take several months for them to get through everyone, so you might be in for a bit of a wait on it.
It will be interesting to see how this system is received. It can easily end up with the same problems other places have, with people impersonating others by nabbing their tag used on another platform. Discord will need to be careful on this, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see them eventually roll out their own verification system too due to this.
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
fenglengshun May 7, 2023
I could understand if they expanded the Nitro benefit to being able to have the "@name" handle without needing to use #1234, but still enabling the "@name#1234" system for new users and plebs. It makes economic sense. But changing the whole system? What's the point? The current system works.
I'd rather see a less casual spin of Discord. Make it paid, or whatever, I like Discord's backend, I just want something that is actually more oriented towards work and non-casual interaction, like Skype or whatever.
Turkeysteaks May 7, 2023
Quoting: TurkeysteaksI much prefer the current system, having the numeric ID is so much nicer than just sticking numbers into your name. I'm not looking forward to this change at all, and it's not something they're likely to back out of now. Discord had been good for so long... how much longer before it is worth looking for an alternative instead?Hmmm . . . wonder if they're big enough to reach the stage Cory Doctorow calls "enshittification"?
fnordianslip May 8, 2023
Quoting: PhiladelphusQuoting: Purple Library GuyThe results of this could be . . . discordant.If a certain Cupertino company got involved we could have quite an Apple of Discord on our hands!
Pure gold. Hail Eris.
Quoting: SoulprayerWell, i don't use ICQ anymore (I deleted my account years ago) but i still know my number as it would be my telephone...I haven't heard anyone mention ICQ in ages. I had a few good friends from my UT99 days on there that I lost contact with because I forgot my login details and couldn't retrieve them.
I'm only in Discord for some games, which i like.
InhaleOblivion May 8, 2023
Quoting: lejimsterQuoting: SoulprayerWell, i don't use ICQ anymore (I deleted my account years ago) but i still know my number as it would be my telephone...I haven't heard anyone mention ICQ in ages. I had a few good friends from my UT99 days on there that I lost contact with because I forgot my login details and couldn't retrieve them.
I'm only in Discord for some games, which i like.
Amazingly, it's still going, being bought by mail.ru in 2010 after AOL's buyout a few years prior. Sadly, mail.ru (now known as VK) is Russian owned and made headlines by cooperating with Russian authorities to grant access to conversations - something not possible with end-to-end encrypted services like Signal, or Whatsapp. Even Telegram, which isn't end-to-end encrypted, refuses (mostly) to grant access to authorities. So I wouldn't be chasing those credentials any time soon!
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