Re: Email address vs Nickname?

Bill Guindon
Sun, 13 Mar 2005 20:54:55 -0000

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 15:45:37 -0500, Todd Grimason
<todd-cwT7Wi5Y1r1eoWH0uzbU5w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> * Michael Koziarski [2005-03-13 13:17]:
>
> > Sure,  good URLs don''t change:
> >
> > http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html
> >
> > If you''re using the email address I can''t bookmark
your ''homepage'' as
> > it''ll stop working when you change your email.
>
> Collision between ''user-friendly'' and permanence (also
user-friendly
> ideally) isn''t it?
>
> /user/3456  is kind of ugly, but if you use a username rather than id#
> it has to be unchangeable (unless you want to handle multiple aliases or
> something that''s probably more trouble than it''s
worth...)

Yeah, you should probably keep id''s, but use them internally only (ie:
for related tables).  You could use them for URLs, but Todd''s right,
they''re ugly.

> I think it would be site-dependent and a judgement call, based on
> expectation of permanence given the site''s content, the expected
public
> reaction to ''permanent'' usernames (would people just keep
signing up?),
> etc.

There''s little you can do to avoid multiple signups, and email
certainly isn''t the solution to that -- it''s not like I
can''t get
another email address.

Personally, I like the ''friendly'' side username links. If I
know how
to view my own page, I can view any other username just by changing
the url.

It''s also a pretty common approach:
http://rubyforge.org/users/agorilla/



--
Bill Guindon (aka aGorilla)