I'd personally for for the method used by Blizzard and Discord where a randomly generated ID is the actual unique value, while the username is just a display setting.
my username is based on Daedalus. I wanted to make something not used by anyone so I changed the 2nd D to a G and monopolized the username. I have yet to never have it work for me, and if it's taken, it usually means I already have an account.
I've suggested making usernames invisible unless you mouse-over a field. That way you can still see a name if you mean to, but you're mainly judging by content.
Making some kind of temporary "masks" is too much PIA IMHO.
This was my first thought as well. I thought it was bad when it just verified that you had used a correct username after attempting to log in, then I kept reading and saw the auto-complete combobox of usernames...
Doesn't seem like much work at all to me, compared to creating random users.
Then again, maybe it's just me that isn't creative enough to be able to come up with names other than "Test User", "Another User", "Somebody Else", etc. :-p
> We couldn't figure out how to change our names from "Player 1". Tapping the name did nothing.
To be fair, entering the player names on these systems has long been an exercise in frustration. Here's a pic I took in 2012, where the first of six steps was "Press the qubica key" and it went downhill from there: https://evan.tumblr.com/post/30872104470/
The idea for creating a username is definitely spot on. I just have to find a very non-intrusive way on the UI to _suggest_ that people create a username or enter an email address.
Beyond "pollution", the magic string is subject to race conditions. If someone puts it in the profile, and then waits a while to register, anyone could claim that username.
Sure, it's a somewhat unlikely scenario...but pretty easy to exploit if someone forgets they have the magic string in their profile but haven't yet registered. A unique magic string per-user would be the solution to that.
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