please get rid of the user1234567 system

[LurcioAgain]

It's just troll heaven.

I know it's common to a lot of sites (eg. the Guardian's Comment is free aka censorship is free) - but here, where it's only recently come into being it simply confuses things and is massively open to abuse

For instance, there's a very sane, interesting poster who has registered in good faith, let's call them user 1234567. Then there's a user with shall we say rather outre views - it's taken a while to get used to the fact that user 9876543 isn't user1234567 (and I've seen people caught out confusing the two).

And now there's a complete troll thread in relationships, started by user1235467 - i.e. almost the same number I'd got used to as being a real poster who makes sensible contributions, but not quite.

Please get rid of this glitch in the system - make people choose user names rather than issuing default numbers.

True, polkadot. I did a low tech version of assigning, opened a dictionary and blindly pointed at words.

On netmums it's your first name and first letter of your surname with a number after it depending how common your name is. Eg SarahH46

Yes this is annoying!! I only have 83 in my name because it wouldn't let me register after the site was hacked with my old username, so I picked a new username and it insisted I put a number in. Very annoying as the song isn't "London Still 83" it's just "London Still"!!

I thought it was given to pbps. There is certainly a pbp with this kind of username all over the site like a rash at the moment.

Perhaps at the very least HQ could clarify exactly why these usernames are being used?

If it's necessary for techy reasons then can you use something more readable. You could give them TemporaryNameAardvark, TemporaryNameApple, TemporaryNameBeetroot etc. Just random dictionary words would be so much easier to identify.

Bibbity they have - it's users who sign up on the app who get these names until they have verified their email address, then they can log in and change it. Most people don't seem to be doing that.

It's an awful system. I don't know why they won't comment on it.

Hi everyone,

We are really aware of this issue, and are having a chat about what we can do. So sorry for the confusion and annoyance.

What did you do before? It's a very recent thing.

Can't you just get people to verify their account before they can post? It's just a few extra clicks, that's what other sites do?

Two word user names would be brilliant!

The NHS electronic appointment system does this. but the combos can be umm interesting !

Thanks for responding, Katherine - good to know MNHQ are on the case.

Right, here goes -

Tech are hyper-aware that this is a huge annoyance to a lot of you, and we really do apologise for the irritation. They did try the two name combo system, and it kept throwing up the most appalling combinations, that it was decided the best thing to do was go with numbers.

What we've now done is add a big fat REMINDER! in the auto-responses to remind people to change their given usernames. It's not that simple to sort, but they are working very hard to improve it.

Thanks for the response - but why not either go back to whatever system was used before, or make them verify before posting?

Surely getting an appalling combination would encourage you to change it quickly

Thanks for the response - but why not either go back to whatever system was used before, or make them verify before posting?

Verify email before you can post WAS the previous system. It worked.

I don't see why an app needs a different system. Maybe I'm being dense.

yes definitely change it

it is very borg-like having a conversation with a user4824930, I always read their posts on a monotone robot voice, which is very disconcerting.

oh and all the stuff about trolls, and them being great non- names to hide behind

Go with the appalling combinations

I just picked a name out of a random name generator

VivaMcVey

This is an awesome name.

Maybe we could all remind people on threads. Something like user28497339849, could you please finish registering before we respond to you?. If that is done every time a user384759283409 posts, it might work. Most people are not joining to annoy.

Oh i wouldnt be too sure about that pax. Ive seen a few weight shaming posts by one of these usernames. And because of the numbers on the end i naturally assumed it was a troll or MRA or both.

I think this suits some people very well

Couldn't agree more.
MN is the only forum I visit where the format doesn't allow posters to quote a post they're replying to and this ridiculous 'Userxxxxxxx' thing makes it very difficult to follow a thread, reply to posts etc.
Had one in Relationships the other day where there were three different posters with Userxxxxxxx as their login - it was ridiculous trying to keep up.
It also makes it harder to remember a poster as someone that I may want to skip their posts - again no option to put certain postser on 'Ignore' .

Katherinemumsnet

Problems

The users themselves have said that changing names is difficult you need to contact them and find out why and resolve that.

You've not answered several pp's questions re why it was changed in the first place.

I do wonder about your recruitment re tech team. They seem rather slow to resolve things. (Not just this but several other issues).

I don't think people should be permitted to post if they can't be arsed to register properly, certainly not be allowed to start threads.

The number of bun fights on threads because people assume User12345 is the sesame as User54321 is getting tedious. Personally I just assume they are trolls until it is proven otherwise.

I hate this new system. Why change it from whatever it was before? And if it needs to change, why make it so difficult for people to change those stupid user 123etc names? It's an open invitation to troll heaven!

Oh no. I didn't realise this and have just questioned a dubious poster if they started a thread a few days ago. Both user something or other. I'll look like a troll hunter now