Request taken username

Feature Requests Website Features
#1

There’s been a request for being able to take already taken usernames in the past, but I don’t want to necrobump it.

It’s pretty obvious why this feature would be appreciated - old accounts that have very little playtime serve basically no purpose and people have very likely forgotten about those accounts from nearly 10 years ago and the good, shorter and nicer names can’t be used.

A good example of that is myself - I use the name Lightlim on pretty much everything. My Roblox username would be Lightlim, if it wasn’t taken a year ago and not used since (https://www.roblox.com/users/152827596/profile). This led to a few complications, like how searching Lightlim into google gets you a lot of my accounts on other websites except Roblox, but searching Lightlimn only shows my Roblox one since it’s ever so slightly different and changing my name to other combinations but looking the same won’t help. Other issues too, like just making things slightly more complicated than they need to be for linking accounts together, just because someone took the name once.

There could be a few solutions to this problem:

One solution could be wiping the usernames of old accounts or accounts with little to no playtime that haven’t logged in for a long time, and that don’t have 2-step authentication (would probably send an email to the owner telling them to log in or something to prevent it). I don’t really know what’d happen if it did wipe or how, usernames would probably just get sniped again. Maybe not the best solution.

Another solution which is similar to the first one - when someone requests to change username to a username which is already taken, some automatic checks could happen to find the last login, check 2-step, playtime etc. and if it’s good to take, then maybe it’d cost more robux or the same amount.

I don’t really know how it’d be done, but it would be something myself and a lot of other people would really like. Especially for having the same username on a lot of games and platforms this would be handy considering this is the main website I use, I’d like it to be in the same search results as all of my other accounts.
Also sorry if this sounded somewhat bitter, it’s just one little thing that I find really annoying.

Edit: How about a poll?

  • The username I want is taken by an inactive user
  • The username I want is taken by an active user
  • I’m happy with my current username

0 voters

91 Likes
Allow a username to be used if the owner doesn't use it anymore
Every username is taken
#2

If we allow reuse of usernames from accounts that were never used, users would just start sniping them as past usernames – we’d get out of the frying pan but into the fire. Do any other sites do something like this? It would be nice to have an working example to learn from.

18 Likes
#3

Not a website but World of Warcraft supposedly does name releases on inactive accounts around the launch of new expansions. As per their policy accounts have to be inactive for at least 2 expansions (4 years) for this to occur.

8 Likes
#4

Runescape has done inactive username sweeps, clearing a lot of names so new players can use them.
Perhaps the fee to take these names could be high, like 10k ROBUX or something like that to prevent people stealing them all when they won’t be using them. This feature would probably not be allowed upon account creation, and only when changing usernames.

11 Likes
#5

I believe Maplestory has done some wipes in the past, but not literal account wipes, just wiping the usernames and keeping the accounts available. That way people wouldn’t lose their progress and fresh players can have them cool names!

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10 Likes
#6

I’m in support of this, but only if it’s done in a way that prevents “name sniping”
Maybe for the first month, only existing accounts can request taken usernames, and they can only request one (unlike when underscores came out… where people did a lot of username changes, and created hundreds of alts to snipe a good name)

7 Likes
#8

How Twitch does it is that you need to 1. contact customer service and 2. the account cannot have any activity on it

8 Likes
#9

This request is only for accounts that were never active to begin with from what I understand.

Yep – username changes are a huge problem. It’s becoming less uncommon for me to find someone’s past username history to be a huge list. Even if we ignore freeing currently taken usernames, users are continually using username changes to deplete the remaining pool for funsies. This is really toxic and I think we need to address username changes regardless of whether we free up unused usernames.

If there was a minimum time you had to use a username before changing it again (e.g. a year), we would probably see a drastic drop in sniping usernames for fun and an increase in intended usage (improving a regrettable username that was made when you were a different person). With that cleared up, we would still have to worry about continued alt sniping though. For instance, if Mario was opened up, I guarantee someone would snipe it on an alt instantly and it wouldn’t be available for the next few years before it was sniped yet again.

4 Likes
#10

Github

2 Likes
#11

Out of curiosity, how will they log in if their account name is changed to random characters and numbers without their knowledge?

3 Likes
#12

I think you sign in via email + password, not with your display name

6 Likes
#13

Thought so.

3 Likes
#14

I’m in support of this :eyes:

My main username on 90% of sites I use other than twitter is “Cindeer”, I use Cinder where ever possible.

both twitter n roblox i’m known as “Cinderdeer” mainly since Cindeer(and Cinder) was taken :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
#15

I think XBOX Live…

3 Likes
#16

Fully in support of this. I originally wanted my username to be “Reshiram”, but found out a terminated account already had that username taken.

6 Likes
#17

This is a bad idea. It would introduce impersonation and scamming.

It may be fine and good on harmless games like Club Penguin or WoW, but in ROBLOX it won’t work.

Please use ‘search’ before proposing ideas. This has been proposed and slammed countless times now and it is getting silly.

1 Like
#18

From what you’re saying, it sounds like you only read the title.

The names you’d take would just be ones from old, inactive and barely used accounts. There’d be no impersonation or scamming there. I’m not talking about taking names like ROBLOX or Builderman or famous peoples’ names, just inactive accounts’ names.

10 Likes
#19

I think the idea of having to request it is a lot better than them opening old names out for the taking. It would stop namesniping.

3 Likes
#20

I read the whole thing, but every instance of this has issues:

  • What if a friend logs in after a long time and wants to meet the old user?
  • What if that user had a good reputation / lots of hats / trader etc? They could scam?
  • What happens to all of that users’ items and groups
  • What happens to prevent impersonation?
  • What happens to the old account?

If you read any of the previous posts, these questions never get adequate answers. Sure, this would be nice, but it’s not happening.

2 Likes
#21

He is referring to accounts that haven’t logged in for years, i.e. the old 2006-07 namesnipes. Really, really, inactive ones. I doubt they would have any friends still, but there could be a mark on the profile, saying “this username has been reclaimed, view the original profile here” or something similar. Trading wasn’t a feature before 2013 :wink:

The old account would be renamed, the same way a lot of inappropriate usernames are; to something like [R 133717] (I know this isn’t commonplace but I have seen it happen on the roblox subreddit a few months ago).

Good point, but the deleted accounts would be the ones who aren’t in groups and don’t have items. Accounts like this one: https://www.roblox.com/users/740051/profile#!/about

7 Likes