Illustration showing before and after Discord username and display names.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The problem is simply this: despite already having a name, everyone will now need to pick a new one, which might or might not be similar to the old one.<\/p>\n

If our friend MinaHarker#1897 wants to snag her name, she may find that others have already done so, and though she used to be known just by her name, she now has to change something, perhaps adding periods, underscores, or numbers (the only other permitted characters). It\u2019s definitely arguable that m1na_h4rk3r is more difficult to say or search for than MinaHarker#1897. And with hundreds of millions of users who previously had whatever name they wanted, you can be sure that kind of conflict will be fairly common.<\/p>\n

Users are understandably upset over the change. It may well be that friend searches were awkward and often unsuccessful. But that\u2019s a temporary inconvenience \u2013 you ask your friend again or check around and find the correct name. What about this couldn\u2019t have been fixed by a smarter search function to help differentiate between Jonathan#6733, Jonathan#7633, and Jonathan#3367?<\/p>\n

In solving some problems, it also introduces others \u2014 which will also be familiar to social media users. For instance, how will Discord ensure that notable online personalities aren\u2019t targeted by impersonators? Every platform is in constant battle with impersonators, and one can hardly expect the average user to know whether @ninja or @ninja_ is the one they want. (And after all, why shouldn\u2019t an actual ninja take one of those names?)<\/p>\n

Others have pointed out that Discord channels have been great for automatic functions (like Midjourney\u2019s image generation, an enormous community there) and friendly bots, which might be broken or require serious rework to operate under the new conditions. Having a single universal nickname may not be everyone\u2019s cup of tea, either. Do I want to be known by the same nick on my K-drama channel as on my racing sim channel?<\/p>\n