Request taken username

Feature Requests Website Features
#62

Honestly, just come up with something original. I wouldn’t want roblox to deal with any headaches with people taking old usernames that “weren’t used enough”. Look at the usernames in this post; most everyone here doesn’t even have numbers in their username. You can’t stop people from claiming cool usernames.

5 Likes
#63

Not nearly enough to justify the engineering resources required to implement this feature. They have so very little to gain, there’s pretty much no chance they’re going to waste their money implementing it as opposed to more forward-thinking profitable endeavors.

2 Likes
#64

Isn’t it already on a first come first serve basis?

6 Likes
#65

I think that this is a great idea. Big players like Microsoft, Blizzard, and Disney determined that clearing old usernames has a positive value – Roblox should follow suit. Having more free usernames for new users benefits Roblox by decreasing the amount of steps needed for sign up (I hate signing up to services where it’s a chore to find a free display name!) and it benefits users by giving them the satisfaction of having the name they actually want to represent themselves by, allowing the community to be more expressive, which is what Roblox is all about!

Further, to tackle the problem of having a long list of changed usernames, I propose a concept of “reserved usernames”. When you pay 1000 R$ to switch your account name, your old username will appear in a list on the account settings page, where you can check a box to “reserve” the name, which would cost a nominal Robux fee – perhaps 10 R$ per month – which would encourage users to only reserve the names that they want to keep.

Reserved names couldn’t be used to create a new account as long as the fee is paid every month. (i.e., if the account doesn’t have enough Robux, it’s marked as unreserved automatically)

For unreserved names, after a certain waiting time, the name will drop off of the list of names the user can mark as reserved, and can be used to create a new account. However, the name would still appear on their profile name history.

In order to eliminate ambiguity, the previous usernames list should also receive an update to show the dates a username in their history was used. This way, multiple users could have the same username in their history, but you’d know who was who at a certain point in history.

You might say that this process adds too much complexity to something that should be simple, but as Roblox is growing at an extremely high rate – and plans to continue massive growth – the pool of possible names is something that demands proper care to ensure the longevity and health of the platform.

41 Likes
#68

Force the person to email support to get the username they want. First come, first serve. Can’t bot the process of taking usernames in that way, very hard to do so.

2 Likes
#70

Roblox desperately needs to do a wipe on usernames. It’s gotten to the point where like 90% of cool usernames are just alt accounts that never get touched again. Maybe roblox should roll out the usernames after they’re terminated for a certain amount of time. For example I want the username ‘8v8’ but it was terminated and the name was ‘wiped’ by roblox. They should make that name available again instead of locking the name behind a deleted account forever. I know for a while support was allowing people to steal usernames from others but that was more of a vulnerability in roblox’s support. It’d be cool to see roblox do something about this issue though, more and more ppl struggle with making unique/cool usernames.

Edit: I think it’d be neat to add username transfers for like 1k or 2k robux. For example I own the account K88L as another main account but transferring that username onto this account would be cool. I know a lot of ppl would like this feature too.

2 Likes
#71

I was working on writing another topic, but seeing as to how many have already been made on the subject matter, I would just be wasting my time for it to get unlisted.

1. Issue

As a Roblox player, I found it to be very difficult to obtain a username I could be happy with upon trying to create my account.
Even moreso when trying to change my username today, I simply cannot obtain the one I desire.
This greatly hinders my ability to express myself and create my own image in the way I want, in terms of my “Roblox identity”.
In all cases, the username has already been claimed many years ago.

1.1. Claimed username cases

a.k.a. scenarios myself & others recognize when looking at the desired username’s account.

1.1.1. Inactivity

e.g. the user’s appearance is still a default of a bygone Roblox era, hasn’t obtained a new badge for years, has no users in their friend list, no profile description, places, and has joined >3-5 years ago.
(my scenario)

1.1.2. Banned

The username you’d like to use belongs to an account that’s (permanently) banned.
(In the past, permanently banned accounts received a username change to “[ Content Deleted <user_id>]”)

1.1.3. Snipe bot

Similar to 1.1.1, but the account has no indication of ever having played a game through not owning any badges ontop of the points mentioned for 1.1.1.
These accounts are made by a bot which main reason for existing is to roll for simple, unique, catchy names, preferrably single words like “Cauliflower”, to ones deemed iconic such as “Player1”.
These accounts are usually then sold on the black market for personal benefit, or kept as inactive for possible later use. However, most commonly these accounts never end up being used (again).
I vaguely remember something like this being a big ongoing issue for Roblox half a decade ago.

1.2. Proposed solution

This proposal is largely based on RuneScape’s “inactive username” wipe system.
After the account meets a pre-determined set of criteria…
examples (all conditions are “AND”):

  1. The account hasn’t been logged into for at least 3 years (inactivity detection starts here, the rest are extra conditions).
  2. The account hasn’t played a game for at least a total of X hours since creation up till detection of inactivity.
  3. The account hasn’t had an active membership in the span of 1 year prior to 3 years of inactivity.
    (effectively granting more leniency in the form of +1 years of waiting time to those who had membership)
  4. The account hasn’t been marked as “Immutable” – a flag applied to accounts such as “Roblox”, “erik.cassel”, “Games”, “builderman”, and more which bypasses this system feature.
  5. …there could be more…

…then the system will start a process in which, if the account has an attached e-mail, the user is mailed with a heads-up regarding the potential loss of their username if they do not log in within a month from when the e-mail was sent.

  • If they log into their account within that same month, another e-mail is dispatched to let the user know their username is safe from being “free’d”.
  • If they have yet to log into their account one day prior to the end of that same month, a reminder about the scheduled action is dispatched to the user in the form of an e-mail.

Then, if they still haven’t logged into their account a month after the initial e-mail was sent, the system will change the account’s username to that of a uniquely generated 20-character hash, which will be recorded as a regular username change.

If the user logs back into their account after their username has been “free’d”, they will be shown a prompt that details what happened to their username and why. In the case that their old username is still available, they will have the option to click a button “Keep my old username”. Otherwise, they will be required to fill in a new username in order to get rid of the hash.
This is all free of charge.

1.3. Supportive arguments

Reasons as to why this feature should be implemented

  1. Implementing the proposed reminder e-mails before automatically hashing an account’s username can result in inactive users returning to play roblox games again, making for an increase in turnover.
  2. Freeing up inactive usernames would give active users a much better chance at feeling satisfied with the identity they make for themselves in their image, increasing their likelihood of playing Roblox more frequently and/or for longer periods of time, making for an increase in turnover.
    • Dissatisfaction with their Roblox identity can, on the contrary, result in them playing Roblox less, which could play a role in currently missed potential turnover.
  3. Increasing the difficulty of “Username snipe bots” abstaining themselves from being pointless.
    Depending on the predetermined conditions set in the could-be feature’s implementation, these bots would have to go through extraordinary amounts of effort in order to retain their username, because in the end, they’re a bot. More effort = more costs on the bot owner’s end, decreasing their potential profit & want to invest in these bots, decreasing the amount of username bots on the platform.

1.4. (Observed) Counter arguments

Statements made against this feature request and my response to them.

  • “Having the system automatically free up inactive usernames will make those accounts vulnerable to impersonation.”

    • Impersonation is no joke and that’s why I believe it’s a serious obstacle that needs to be considered with the could-be implementation of the requested feature. However, I do not think this has to be the sole counter argument that marks the reason it can’t be implemented.
      Instead, I think we should come up with more ways to inform users of the state of an account’s username, possibly with things like marking a username as “Inherited from <(user_id) link to user>”, or implementing the account flags mentioned in 1.2.
      Adjust the feature implementation specifications to match the intended target audience!

  • “Users that changed their username by normal means are most susceptible to impersonation”

    • This would assume that this feature would also unlock the ability to make use of other users’ past usernames, which I think is worth a separate discussion as it’s a condition shared by both the already-existing “Username change” functionality as well as possibly the implementation of this feature request.
      Still, there are solutions for this should we go this route. We can choose to disallow the use of any user’s past usernames completely, or put a limit on how many past usernames will be marked as “preserved” (e.g. 2). You shouldn’t get to keep past usernames to yourself while you haven’t used them for years!
      Introducing a grace period of – let’s say – 1 year where the past username cannot be used by another user, would also allow for a generous amount of time for the changed account’s potential community to get used to the updated username for them to know that anyone with the old one is an impersonator should it be acquired by a new user with malicious intentions. It would also help if the suggestions against the previous counter-argument were to be applied here on top of that.

  • “I have paid for my past usernames, so I have a right to keep all of them to myself.”

    • Incorrect. You paid for the change, not for the username itself. Otherwise the prompt would have explicitly mentioned this and wouldn’t charge you for changing to previous usernames.
      If it were like purchasing a goods from the marketplace then I’d agree and this would be an entirely different matter.
      Fact of the matter is, the use-case of the username change functionality aimed to provide a solution for players who are unhappy with their current username, contrary to those who look to “snipe” usernames they’re potentially interested in. To meet this opinion half-way, if they were to add the “grace period” I mentioned in the previous counter-argument’s response, then it could mean your only way of keeping your past username(s) claimed would be to put in another 1k for the switch, starting the grace-period for your other username. You would have to actually keep making use of your usernames should you want to retain the right to use them.

  • “It’s a waste of Roblox’s resources to focus on things like these. They have better things to worry about.”

    • Probably the most uncaring and disrespectful argument I’ve seen in these topics so far, but it’s a widely supported one so I’ll have to respond to it:
      Priority management.
      Yes, it’s a thing engineering/development teams either estimate themselves, or is taken care of by product owners to forward to the teams afterward.
      It’s not “first in, first out”.
      With this being a very popular and widely-discussed feature request that keeps resurfacing for nearly a decade, it clearly has a need within the community and thus a right to be treated like any other feature request to receive a priority estimation for future implementation – even if that means it would only be implemented years from now.

  • “Display names exist, why not just keep it at that?”

    • Unfortunately, display names are merely display names. Usernames are those with which we’re identified on Roblox through searches, and commonly in games that opted to use usernames for leaderboard displays instead. They’re unique, and we usually share them across many different platforms.
      Display names can’t replace usernames for the request at hand due to these stark differences.

Thank you for your attention.
Normally people would apologize for posting a reply this humongous, but I won’t, because I strongly believe this feature request to be long overdue.
I’d be happy to respond to any questions or suggestions you may have, provided you’re being respectful in doing so!

8 Likes
#72

i feel a lot of name snipers would likely still have the money to buy these usernames, i’ve seen many name snipers with actual hundreds of dollars worth of robux spent on usernames alone.

#73

They added checkmarks to roblox

#74

Same here lol I know some rlly cool namesnipers.

#75

I think that this feature as such is something that Roblox should take into account for the future, when the next few generations of children discover and sign up for Roblox.

We are bound to run out of usernames at some point in time and clearing out old, unused usernames that haven’t been active for years can help circumvent this (or by legalising more characters for usernames, such as when underscores were released, or maybe re-legalising periods and spaces if possible).

Your username holds an invaluable meaning; it represents you, your brand and your identity. Having to choose a username that you don’t want to solely because some inactive account from 2009 has the username that you wanted is not ideal for most, especially when, as I stated above, your username is how people on Roblox recognise you among other things like your display name and avatar. The username you signed up with all those years ago as a child may not reflect who you want to be as an adolescent or adult. People change all the time, and being able to identify themselves as who or what they want is crucial to their development as a person.

I have experience with this myself. I have been on this platform for a really long time (since 2012) with past accounts, and I have found myself signing up with usernames that I simply fell back on due to some inactive account from years ago that had it. There is a specific username that I have been wanting since I came to this platform, that I simply couldn’t use because of this. This is crucial to me as a developer as this is how people will recognise me.

Solution
The aim of this solution is to make it fair for everyone. While I am aware of the existence of username snipers or bots, there should be some effort you would need to put in to be able to get the username you want.

So, in order to have a username become ‘freed’, the account of that username should meet this criteria:

  • The account has been inactive for at least 4 years since it was last logged into
  • The account has under a certain amount of playtime in games since creation
  • The account has not bought any premium subscription since creation

A username should become freed immediately if any one of these criteria is met:

  • The account has been deleted through a Right to be Forgotten (RTBF) request. (Therefore the username has been reset to [Account Forgotten (UserId)])
  • The account has been terminated and is unrecoverable or has been terminated for over a year.
  • The account with the username has had their username reset.
  • The username has previously owned to an account that changed its username and that username hasn’t been used for a certain period of time.

A username cannot be freed if the username itself meets any of these criteria:

  • The username is a well-known username, such as erik.cassel, Roblox, Stickmasterluke, builderman or 1x1x1x1 (1x1x1x1 had its username reset). The username cannot be taken regardless of if it is in use or not.
  • Someone is currently using that username and the account does not meet the criteria to have its username stripped of them.

Once a username has been freed, one of two outcomes can occur:

  • The username is available for an account to sign up with or change its username to via the current username change functionality.
  • The account that had its username stripped of them can log back in and reclaim the username if it has not been claimed by another account through above circumstances.

I am aware that these requirements may not be perfect, and may not suit all scenarios but making a universal solution is near impossible that will best suit everyone.

3 Likes
#76

I agree with this post. I wanted a username but it was taken by a 10 year old account with 0 friends. What a waste of a username.

1 Like
#77

I personally think this is a bad idea
Let’s say it’s 2010 and I get Roblox, I make an account with an og username and buy builders club

10 years later I want to play again and my username is “wuququuwoqqjzbb821172727” I would be a bit upset

#78

something like this could easily be resolved by adding certain criteria that will make accounts “unresettable”
for example, getting builders club/premium.

1 Like
#79

My main account has been falsely terminated for nearly five years and I still send appeals about it regularly in attempts to recover it, so I think Roblox introducing something like this would be at best incredibly frustrating. I don’t think there should be any system that erases the data of terminated accounts as long as the moderation system remains without improvements.

1 Like
#80

I believe Roblox already does delete some data for terminated accounts after a certain period of time has passed which renders it unrecoverable, though doing this with usernames right now isn’t viable as we all know the state of Roblox moderation.

The criteria I came up with is solely for when Roblox makes improvements to their moderation (apologies, I should have mentioned that in my original post.)

Hope you get your main account back though.

1 Like
#81

Well, I hope that’s not true :sweat_smile: I can still view my profile description and what groups I’m in through the Roblox APIs so I’ve always assumed they don’t delete data. Thank you, though.

#82

I think you should read this resource: Appeal Your Content or Account Moderation – Roblox Support

It states that “An appeal must be submitted within 30 days of the moderation action affecting the account.”

It is unlikely that you will get the account back after years of it being terminated. This might be outdated, I don’t know though.

Sorry.

#83

It’s true, but it’s mostly a rule to get people to give up. I have met multiple people who got their falsely terminated accounts back months, even years after the fact. I did appeal within 30 days but they didn’t do anything about my account. Can’t hurt to keep trying, I guess.