I recently went to change username to realise it was impossible to get a free username that was anything close to what I wanted, all because some user decided to use that name years ago to play Roblox once. While this is kind of inconvenient for me, I imagine it must be incredibly frustrating for new users (especially the younger ones!) to create an account. You are known on this platform almost entirely by your username, yet it is very hard to choose one resembling a name you want.
While this discussion has come up before in 2013, 2014, and 2017; I felt it would be good to state this problem again. This is clearly a problem affecting many current users and will not go away on its own. The longer this problem exists without intervention, the more difficult it gets for users to make new accounts and the worse the user experience is as users are restricted on their account customisation. I see this as a problem Roblox has to fix eventually if they wish to continue growth.
Now I’m not a web engineer and have no idea what Roblox’s platform architecture is like so I wont be making any suggestions on how this should be done, I feel that is for Roblox engineers to decide as they know best. I will however show that other games/websites have done this process successfully: Runescape, World of Warcraft, Xbox Live, Twitch, Twitter. I’m sure there are many many more too.
A final note to put this into perspective. There are likely a fair few accounts which are now older than the user was when it was created, which may also have been used for less than a day.
Can’t deny how useful it is to have a username unique as Reinitialized, others should have a chance for those sweet nicks just like I did in 08. Otherwise, my identity wouldn’t be anywhere as established as it is. As a matter of perspective, which is more rememberable and legit looking?
I do think there’s especially a problem with past usernames being locked forever. There’s a lot of people with quite a few namechanges because a lot of players treat the name change ability like it’s their twitter feed or profile status. There’s people with lists of names so long you can’t even see the bottom (cough @zaiisao cough)
(image is so tall the forums shortened it, click the image to see my whole screenshot)
Honestly I think at the very least people should be limited to one name change, so they have opportunity to change the awful name they came up with when they were 9 years old, but prevent people from using it as a status update
I sgree with this, i enjoy having a few name snipes for halloween in my feed but im at a max of 4, I only got the chance to change from EpikZombe to len_ny the day _'s were added, this is really messed up and has caused a whole blackmarket of 2008 accounts being sold as special all because of a nsme, its a name they shouldnt be collectors items
I really disagree with this, limiting the name change feature is not how you help open up new usernames.
Personally, I have around 20 name changes, all for various reasons, maybe I changed my brand and I wanted to update the consistency, or i stopped going by a certain name, whatever the reason limiting it to one would be really annoying.
As for the OP, I do wish accounts that at the very least haven’t been verified with an email in the last 90+ Days or so should be removed (or at least the name wiped). Would greatly open up username options to users.
One of my family members tried to make an account a few days ago but they had a hard time getting a username because everything was taken, though they had to use the underscore just so they can get a decent name…
So far, the argument is (and has always been) that there are a bunch of inactive accounts with apparently really rad names just sitting there unused and that’s a bad thing because there are people out there who really really need a particular username for some yet-to-be specified reason.
As someone who has never changed their username, never intends to change their username, doesn’t understand why changing one’s username like one’s hairstyle is a thing, and would be really irritated to have their username snatched for some inconsequential reason like inactivity, could you elaborate on your perspective?
For example, why do you want to change your username? What is wrong with your current username that you feel it’s worth fragmenting your identity by changing it? Substantial arguments will help Roblox make a decision on the matter.
Username changes should be capped or limited. There’s no reason a user has to change their name more than a handful of times every month/year. This would cut down on the amount of names each account occupies. Additionally, if a user changes names and their previous name(s) have not be reused for a certain period of time, let’s say 6 months, then that username becomes free for anyone to use. Also, any account that hasn’t had any activity in a longer period of time, let’s say 2-3 years, their username should be marked as deleted and if that user were to ever log in again they would be prompted to come up with a new username. This would prevent people from sniping usernames only to never use the account or to change to a new username and stop anyone else from taking that name, and from people attempting to compromise accounts with desirable names. This would also drastically increase the number of names available. I’m sure somebody like ColdSmoke wouldn’t mind giving up a few of his past usernames considering just how many he used to have and probably will never use again.
I can invent a unique, numberless name that has no hits on google every 5 seconds. There is no shortage of unique, identifiable, actually good usernames.
But you’re probably referring to things like common words and dank memes. Until I’m convinced otherwise, I’m going to believe that such names are valuable only to people who like the glory of having a “snipable” name, wearing the name as a status symbol. They’re useless as actual identities, are interesting only for being a novelty, will eventually be discarded, and will always and inevitably end up on dead accounts for these reasons.
This used to be my perspective and I have never changed my name before. In fact because I can’t have the name I do really want, I don’t think I will be changing my name. However just because some of us are happy with our names this is not reflective of the community.
I made this name when I was 10. I am now 20 and considering taking Roblox development much more seriously. This name is also slightly different as I forgot the credentials to the account with the actual name I wanted. Even though I owned that name and it hasn’t been used in 10 years it is gone forever. This is not a change I want to make just because I’m bored, this is a change to create an identity I am more happy to be known as for the foreseeable future.
Imagine if Anaminus was taken when you were making an account but you are extremely happy with it. You then find out that Anam1nus, An4minus, Anaminus0 etc are taken and you have to settle with something like Ann4m1nus just to get close to what you want. Sure you could go make a new name, but do you really want to? Would you ever be truly happy with that new name? Users making a new account in this situation would already be somewhat dissatisfied before they’ve even played a game.
This is great for you. Personally, I am unable to do this. If you can do this would you mind creating a few accounts with names you would be happy to have?
I feel an important point to make is that while this may just be an inconvenience now, it’s only going to get worse. How long does Roblox intend to remain relevant for? Can Roblox expect to be able not to do a username sweep in this time? Will there still be usernames available in 10 years? I suspect it will get genuinely extremely hard to make a username that is anything close to what you want and while this scenario may still be years away it has to be dealt with at some point.
I’m not asking for this to be fixed immediately or even anytime soon. All that I ask is Roblox starts planning for this eventuality.
Roblox should have limited name changes from the very beginning honestly. With a warning each time you change it with how many you have left, like say each account only gets 10. Also, to prevent people from using up all 10 so fast, the price would double every time. First change is free but only for BC to prevent new alts sniping twice, otherwise it would be 1k. Second is 1k. 3rd is 2k, 4th is 4k, and so on. And once the name is changed, the previous name is now open to the public after 1 month grace period. I would like to think such a thing is possible but perhaps its not due to how the website works. I mean imagine any conflicts and site errors based on the fact that its trying to get someone who once used the name but no longer is, or perhaps even a human error getting people mixed up because they once used the name. But then again that’s what UserId’s are for, so eh.
I would rather not have my name taken if I went on vacation for a couple years. I like the idea, but I would like it to have some conditions like if the person has had a BC membership, especially if its still active, or the user has used DevEx before. For a dev with millions of place visits, going on vacation and coming back to your name missing, the name that millions of people know you by, would be very annoying.
And now that you found them, others cant (and thats one of the points of this thread.) Not everyone is going to be clever enough to find really good names, especially kids. I mean besides the special cases where they are clever lol but thats not the point. At best, even myself sometimes I can take up to an hour or so to decide on a username for websites that have too many names taken just because I don’t want to be known by some ridiculous name with a lot of numbers in it because that’s not professional looking at all.
I agree that there should have been a limit. I certainly don’t need all of the names that I’ve taken. At the same time, a lot of these names can never be allowed to anyone else. While many of the names I took have been used only for a moment, some of them were used for a lot longer. For example, my original name “Emporerj” hasn’t been used in years now, but it could still be used to impersonate me. This goes for several of my other usernames, and I really wouldn’t feel comfortable with people running around with usernames that I have actually used for years at a time in the past.
With that being said I would have no problem at all with some of them being used. For example, “John_Locke” was obviously a name snipe that I never intended to use. If Roblox has records for our usage of these names, it’d show that I used that name for less than five minutes. So, at the end of the day, I think I’d be okay with names that were only briefly used being released to other users.
Briefly being the keyword. Nobody could impersonate me with a name I used for a few minutes. I don’t think anybody would ever be comfortable with people using names that they used for more than, say, three days, though.
3 days seems too short. a couple weeks is better but even then that feels like only a tiny bit of time compared to how fast time flies in a given year lol. So perhaps any name that hasn’t been used for a total of a months worth of time. Surely people can get over that you have a new name now if you were only known to have the old name for less than a month.
Disagree, or else I would have been stuck with xXObliterationXx. Maybe a set number of name changes per year, 5 or so, but the more important focus is roblox re-releasing usernames for people to use them again.
I love runescapes idea, a letter a day. It sounds extremely fun and fulfilling to get a username that you really want, but at the same time, if the cap on username changes is active, then that’ll be even better in stopping people from grabbing all the usernames.
So many people suggest freeing up usernames from old/deleted/inactive accounts, but what’s preventing the same people taking good usernames now to also take those? It’s just going to give more usernames to the exact same people you’re trying to prevent from taking them. Even with restrictions on who the usernames will be available to, there are plenty of people with too much undevexable robux on Roblox.
Imo, if usernames are going to be handed out, it should be on a case by case basis, and for a reason other than “i want it”
Also, on the topic of limiting name changes, I can very easily see people hitting this cap if some new username feature comes out (like when underscores did) that would allow your username to be displayed in new ways, and you wanting to prevent impersonation.
(and thats one of the points of this thread.) Not everyone is going to be clever enough to find really good names, especially kids. I mean besides the special cases where they are clever lol but thats not the point. At best, even myself sometimes I can take up to an hour or so to decide on a username for websites that have too many names taken just because I don’t want to be known by some ridiculous name with a lot of numbers in it because that’s not professional looking at all.