MN HQ, as it seems you can't do anything about the user1000000786533333 glitch, could you at least say, limit the amount of posts until they name change?

[WannaBe]

Seriously, it's impossible to engage on a thread where there are multiple posters called "user" followed by however many numbers there are. And most of them refuse to name change

Surely given that you can't or won't do something about whatever it is that's generating these random nicknames the alternative is to put something in place which means that the poster either can't post until they have a proper username, or limit their postings to say, two or three before they have to change.

My favourite User is definitely User87659876554 although I also admire User187654433567

Hi there WannaBe. We are working on sorting this out once and for all with a better solution but sadly it is one of those things that takes time. We will pass this on to Tech as a suggestion though and see if it might be a possible interim measure - absolutely no promises but it's always worth asking. Thanks for the suggestion.

I think this is a brilliant idea.

Give them 5 posts as 'usernumber' and clear instructions how to name change.

If they're not interested in name changing, then they're not interested in being part of the 'Mumsnet community'.

Threads often get deleted for 'not being in the spirit of Mumsnet', so why not delete the posters who can't be arsed to become a proper part of it?

Good siggestion

Good idea wannabe

Some of them are lovely but some of them are hiding behind other posters confusion

Can you give any indication of how much longer it will take to sort this out? Only you've been saying "It takes time" for some months now.

In the meantime we could always just refuse to engage with them? Do not acknowledge any threads started by anyone called user45834758374 and pointedly ignore all their posts.

I won't stop them posting their opinions on other threads but it will mean they will get pretty cheesed off when no-one responds to threads they start. Or we could just have a stock response used by everybody of 'we do not wish to engage with posters who won't use a recognisable user name.'

It won't, not i won't

It is getting quite tedious now. I was on a thread the other day where there were at least 6 user123458668s.
Puppy I disagree, my personal favourite is user564386973015

Hand out a couple of MNHQ accounts to people irritated by this. They can the dot HQ posts on threads with user876389472s saying please get a name. I'm sure you can find volunteers. Me please

Please form an orderly queue.

On just about every forum I am on or have run (and it is a lot), on sign-up there is a box saying 'username*'
You can't complete sign up until you have put in a unique username.
This is pretty standard.

Though it seems that MN is so badly coded it needs re-writing from the bottom up.

Personally it's because every time I try to change my name I get an error message. Believe me I'd rather not be a user!

I think on the app it might be hard to NC...?

I'll try on the computer (only ever use on my phone) however now I can't remember my password Think it might be time to give up!

Honestly, seriously, why does this bother people so much?

It's mildly confusing at best. It's really not the horrific set of circumstances some of you make it out to be.

Thank you

Um, horrific set of circumstances is misrepresenting the reaction!

I also think it stops the users of the numeric names getting as much out of the site as they could.

I can't remember if 1233445 posted about something or if it was 1244335.

Whereas I know who Yonic is, remember the name & know I'll be interested in his/her posts & want to engage/offer advice. The numeric posters just become one amporhous poster, to me.

(Hope you don't mind me using you as an example, Yonic)

No-one has ever suggested it was horrific, so far as I know. The main problem is that it attracts trolls, plus it's really annoying.

"Honestly, seriously, why does this bother people so much?" because it's impossible to engage with a number or be able to recognise them anywhere.

So e.g. if a named poster starts a thread and I e.g. Reply to it or watch it and said poster comes back on to the thread it is impossible to know if user134511 is the OP rather than user135411 who actually started the thread. And as I am VI and use screenreaders on a computer and voiceover on my iPhone (I don't use the app,) there is no way to highlight the OP's posts so as to know who they are. So from an accessibility point of view it makes being able to know you are engaging with the same poster on a thread completely impossible.

Besides which, many of them are trolls, which means that if a genuine poster posts they are likely to be treated with suspicion and unlikely to be given advice here.

When I joined MN you had to have a username to sign up, in fact if you namechange it will still tell you if that name is taken, so what exactly has gone wrong that this is no longer the case when joining?