force users to use real name instead of username

ron_jeremy

I there a way to change the new user sign up form to show 'first name' and 'last name' fields instead of 'username'?

Dominion

ron_jeremy You might also want to keep an eye on this issue, which may result in something you could use.

Franz

Well, the username is somewhat vital for many features on the forums. How would you ensure the system always has a proper, unique value there?

ron_jeremy

Franz I'd like to see an option where the user's first and last name are their username. So, if a user's real name was Franz Liedke their username would be Franz Liedke or Franz-Liedke or Franz_Liedke etc.

A while ago I joined a forum where everyone had to use their real names. After talking with the site admin he said using people's real names as their usernames made a huge difference in the amount of trolling/abuse/etc that was on the forum.

Franz

ron_jeremy Hmm, okay, but how do you enforce that? Just like with usernames, what stops users from filling in some made-up names for these fields?

Facebook has real names, too, and they put their users in context of all their friends. And just take a look at the amount of trolling you get there. 😉

ron_jeremy

Franz You make a valid point. I feel if people are asked to enter their real first and last name most people are going to do so, especially if they are notified that their username (real name) will be also be the name used to register for events, for buying stuff from the site's Paypal store, etc.

Franz

ron_jeremy Yeah, there's probably some truth to that.

That said, we will probably not make this possible in core. However, I don't see why this couldn't be added as an extension. 🙂

jordanjay29

I can see this working well as an additional field on registration. Honestly, that's even how companies like eBay do it, you have a username to login and then your real name for legal purposes. But the username is your identity to others on the website, and the real name is only revealed to those you actually do business with.

VIRUXE

Maybe we could fork @Davis social buttons extension and do this?

ron_jeremy

@VIRUXE @Davis that would be awesome!

DavidChen

We could get users to add their emails instead to ensure unique value - just like Quora.

Would really like this extension to made!

Kulga

meetdilip I guess that would boost security in conditions like Brute force attack when the user name is available to public.

I wouldn't think by very much. Pretty trivial to grab a list of usernames with a single line of bash using the api.

~ > curl -s https://devflarum.xyzz.work/api/users | tr ',' \\n | grep username | cut -d\" -f6
admin
moduser5
testuser5
...

DavidChen add their emails instead to ensure unique value

What happens if a user changes their email? Wouldn't they be stuck with it if it was part of their username?

meetdilip

Some boards used to offer different display name from user name. I guess that would boost security in conditions like Brute force attack when the user name is available to public.