Last weekend, I made some important changes to the allowable characters which can be used in both usernames and display names to prevent odd bugs from randomly occurring when certain characters were used. As one of the issues that cropped up recently related to a user attempting to recover their account, now is also a good time to go ahead and explain the difference between a username and a display name while providing the new character restrictions.

Usernames

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Your username is the name that you will use to log in and is initially set during registration, though you can change it later if you wish. As it is used for logging in to your account, it must be unique however other users are unable to see what you've set this name to be - whether you've used your real name, your email address, or your pet's name - this is a private name.

Your Username may contain:
• Up to 50 characters (allows using an email address for login)
• a-z, A-Z, 0-9
• The following non-consecutive, special characters - within, but not as the first or last character
   • Spaces ( )
   • Underscores (_)
   • Hyphens (-)
   • Periods (.) When using email address login
   • At-Symbols (@) When using email address login

Display Names

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Your display name is the name that others will see you as when you interact on our website - such as posting on this forum - and is also initially set during registration, though you can change it later if you wish. As two users can't be referred to by the same name, this must also be unique and can be set by you to be the same as your username (if the username you've chosen also fits the criteria for allowable display name characters below) or completely different - this is a public name.

Your Display Name may contain:
• Up to 12 characters
• a-z, A-Z, 0-9
• The following non-consecutive, special characters - within, but not as the first or last character
   • Spaces ( )
   • Underscores (_)
   • Hyphens (-)

Feedback

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If you have any questions, comments, or concerns related to these changes - please let us know! While the one hand knows that this makes your options a bit more restrictive, the other hand knows that these changes should improve user experience through reduction of the chance that an issue will arise resulting from the use of non-standard characters. (That is, to say, characters that are otherwise atypical on the average across the internet for user/display names.)

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