All these bloody 'user443268643' names, I have a Cunning Plan.

[Stratter5]

They're SO annoying. And it's difficult to differentiate between them. Could we possibly make some sort of auto random word generating thing instead? Like the bot Captcha thingy that generates two random words to confirm you're not a bot. NerveLeaf or CatMacaron would be so much easier than all the user names.

Right

Tech do understand that this is massively irritating for many of you, and we really are sorry for any annoyance. The two name combo system was trialed ( as some of you recall) but it kept generating such awful combinations, that it was decided we should go with numbers.
We did, however, add a huge REMINDER! in auto-responses to remind people to change their usernames... preferably to something with rather more personality?!

We are ultimately going to be rid of these user names in favour of a different approach but it's going to take us time
Please be patient with us while we work on this.

:(

Copy the list of top 500 girls names and top 500 boys names. Add top 1000 UK surnames. Combine at random.

This should keep you going for another 10 years. AmeliePatel, MillymaePearson, MohammedNewman and JakeSmith might not be fabulous, but more memorable than user23176543.

Tell us that it wasn't Number 18 or some such on the consultants' list, Fliss?

I'm still completely puzzled at what could have been so awful about the 2 word combinations. Awful in what sense, given that the programme would exclude sex acts and swearing ?

SmellyFeet?
LavatoryFace?
PeaBrain?

Still better than user1234567.

If given an awful two word combo, couldn't you just hit "reset" and get another one? Or wouldn't it force you to figure out the change fast?!

Or how about: day 1, all newbies are Aardvar12345, Aardvark12346 etc and the next day Apple12345, Apple12346 etc, then Aspidistra12345 etc.

Then you'd have to be much more unlucky to get two "Apple24632" on a thread.

If you have masses of new registrants a day, change the leading word every 12 hours or whatever.

Would that work?

You can name change using the app and it's quick and easy to do

See

And back to normal again

But you are right all these user1357875346666 bollox names do your frigging head in and then people who don't look at the number combination accuse someone of being nasty when it was someone else with a few numbers different

I'm really struggling to see what exactly the issue is with random 2 word user names. If you exclude anything dodgy, how can it NOT be the solution?

The user1234567890 thing is dreadful. I can't for the life of me see how the randomly generated names using words could be worse. If a new user found themselves assigned a name like StinkyPants, surely that would be a powerful incentive to change it immediately? Whereas user1234567890 might not look too bad until you realise that user1235467890 is a racist, misogynist antisemite and you are getting confused with them.

Please, please do something about it, sooner rather than later. At present I think most new people with the awful useretc names are just being ignored for the most part. That can't be a good thing for Mumsnet, can it?

Bump.

FGS this has been going on since August, why on earth are we still plagued with 'user123456789'?

Why isn't the two random word option viable? It's a hell of a lot better than what we've got right now.

Hear hear

MNHQ I don't care if the two word combos were awful - can't be worse than the numbers!

Gosh those films sound so good, I'm so tempted to click on the links.

Yeah, so the two words were bad, but the user3937653839 is worse.
Couldn't you do Colour/Randomword or something?

Or even Aardvark001-999, Abacus001-999 etc. Three digits would be easier to distinguish than the current string!

Has the user1234567 really only been going since August? It seems longer than that. When I joined, I think I had to create a user name at the same time. I don't think I was given an automated one. It's really hard to follow the user1245678 and distinguish between them. I've been keeping an eye on site stuff and thought this was being sorted out?

Part of the problem is that it always seems to be user147xxxxxx - the 147 is universal? It would be marginally better to have user2xxxx and user3xxx even.

Two unobtrusive words stuck together should be no problem. PlateBlanket. TreeAirplane. DepressionKick. StinkBottom.

I did this on an app of mine. Basically had a massive dictionary of adjectives and another of nouns, then randomly picked one from each.

Got user names like sad-beachball and fragrant-nostrils.

There are loads of random name generator programmes. The argument that a 2 word combination produced terrible results is really feeble.

I came across a " an elf name generator" - given elves tend to be glamorous ( in the traditional and modern sense of that word) it was pretty much impossible to generate an awful name.

How do the "User147s" get generated anyway?

I've just created a new Gmail account in a name that isn't mine, registered on MN as a new member using that name and Gmail account and the registration process asked me to create a username- hence

ALassByAnyOtherName

How MUCH time is this going to take, HQ? It's well over three months since this thread started, and people were raising the issue before then.

I'm prompted by being on a thread with two User987765654 type people - one is being a bit of an arsehole, one isn't, and it's all very confusing.

I've never known a forum in the last decade where you are not forced to pick a username for yourself during the sign up process. The technology must exist, so how do others forums handle it?