# Can I please have a longer username? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 12, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738 "2002-03-12T00:55:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Magickly\_Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/1 "2002-03-12T00:55:27Z")
I’m just confused because some people have very long usernames, and I tried to register with a new name that is longer, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem to take anything above 15 spaces. Are long usernames possible? How did everybody else get one? I confused. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/2 "2002-03-12T02:12:46Z")
Hold tight. We will investigate the matter and once we have an answer on username lengths we will post in this thread. At that point you can e-mail an administrator and ask him/her to change your username for you. In the meantime I will ask you to be patient. If you don’t hear in the next few days you can “bump” the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/3 "2002-03-12T02:57:52Z")
From what I understand, the newer version doesn’t allow usernames shorter than three alphanumeric characters, or longer than 15 characters. Since very long usernames tend to foul up the appearance of the message board, I regard this as a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/4 "2002-03-13T17:24:11Z")
Does size matter? ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/5 "2002-03-15T05:46:26Z")
You weren’t trying to become **Magickly Delicious** , were you? 😉 Welcome to the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/6 "2002-03-15T16:58:55Z")
We discussed the matter amongst the staff. The lovely TubaDiva has increased the allowed size for usernames. Usernames can be between 3 and 30 characters. Anyone wanting to change their username should e-mail an administrator. However keep this to a minimum. As I mentioned in another recent ATMB thread, we moderators like to keep track of “who’s who” and it becomes much more difficult if users are constantly changing names. ---
**Author:** ![Magickly\_Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/7 "2002-03-17T05:07:49Z")
I thank the benevolent administrators for their decision! _bows_ HAHA, now to change my username! Oh, yeah. **Tamex** , you’re psychic. Or I’m really really predictable, whatever. And **jck** , in my world, size does matter. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/8 "2003-01-13T06:57:29Z")
Could we re-visit this 30-byte name thing? I know it has been discussed, but how about: char(19)/pic x(19) - whatever - a max of 19 characters? This is the (nominal) length of the date/time stamp in the “last post” column, and would eliminate the annoying ```auto Thread title is squeezed into one tiny, itty bitty column ``` phenom. How about it? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/9 "2003-01-13T10:28:14Z")
Hear hear! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/10 "2003-01-13T11:16:16Z")
**Atomic Badger Racing** (a potential user name that I have not yet managed to convince anyone to use, but I have hopes…) requirtes 20 characters to implement, apart from that, **happyheathen** ’s suggestion seems a good one. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/11 "2003-01-13T12:54:07Z")
**Mangetout** , you really want to see **Atomic Badger Racing** , don’t you? hmm… For money, or tickets to the badger races… I might be persuaded to switch… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/12 "2003-01-13T13:39:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolfstu \* > **Mangetout, you really want to see Atomic Badger Racing, don’t you?** I can’t imagine what gave you this idea. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/13 "2003-01-14T01:42:37Z")
I see that the time/date in the last post column is 19 characters. However the username is not in a monospaced font, it’s in a proportional space font. So limiting the username to 19 characters is probably too strict. happyheathen, you could try and gather a couple of screen shots of forum front pages, and once you have more data, you could show us the screen shots on a webpage so that we can try and figure out the optimal length. That’s one possibility. On the other hand, the people that have long usernames are probably very attached to them and liable to complain when we tell them to make it shorter. Heck, we’ve had Pit threads started when asking someone to shorten their signature! And I haven’t heard that many complaints about the long usernames. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/14 "2003-01-14T02:49:35Z")
Since Earthlink screwed up my original page, I haven’t bothered to put up a new one. Could I just email a couple of jpegs of what two columns of “The Vorlan Ambassador’s Aide” or “Andrew Makepeace Ladd III” do to a page? (and yes, I know about kerning and proportional fonts, which is why I used the term “nominal” 🙂 ) And, upon reflection, I remember that the userid is sometimes preceded by the string 'by ', so maybe the original 15 was not so far off? ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/15 "2003-01-14T03:03:08Z")
**happyheathen** , if it makes it easier on anyone you can email the pics to me and I’ll toss 'em up on my Geocities site. My email is in my profile (and below). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/16 "2003-01-14T03:16:51Z")
happyheathen, I’ve seen what those two names do. I’d be interested in seeing a few screen shots with long names that _don’t_ affect the display too much, to help come up with a guideline to limit the length. Also I don’t guarantee that we _will_ change the maximum length. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/17 "2003-01-15T21:56:22Z")
Why does the server renew usernames inside a thread, but not for the “Thread Starter” title on the forum page? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/18 "2003-01-15T22:08:40Z")
Uh, because that’s the way the software is written? Some of the information is dynamic and some is stored at thread creation time and not refreshed at retrieval time? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/19 "2003-01-16T00:03:03Z")
“Arnold Winkelried” Is 17 spaces… So, kind sir, how did you get around the previous 15 space limit? ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738/20 "2003-01-16T00:15:49Z")
The space limit, I’d imagine, is something that is set during registration, not a limit on usernames themselves. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-please-have-a-longer-username/97738.md?page=2)