# Has it always been possible to know what our user id is? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 20, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-always-been-possible-to-know-what-our-user-id-is/246108 "2004-05-20T03:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-always-been-possible-to-know-what-our-user-id-is/246108/1 "2004-05-20T03:12:56Z")
If you hover over your name you will see your user id (at the end of a url) in the status bar of the browser. At least one other message board uses this number as a status symbol, a bit like many here do with post count and join date. The larger your id the newer (and therefore lowlier) you are. Has it always been possible to find this number out in older versions of vbulletin? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-always-been-possible-to-know-what-our-user-id-is/246108/2 "2004-05-20T03:17:29Z")
I just answered my own question, because [User 10K](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?userid=10000) obviously knew his id. (10000) ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-always-been-possible-to-know-what-our-user-id-is/246108/3 "2004-05-20T16:49:29Z")
With vBulletin it has always been possible; not so with UBB, the software we ran prior to vB. As [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=23543) shows, _everything_ has been discussed before at the SDMB šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-always-been-possible-to-know-what-our-user-id-is/246108/4 "2004-05-20T20:44:46Z")
Is it possible to learn what your user number will be before you actually register? Iā€™m just wondering how **User 10K** did that. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-always-been-possible-to-know-what-our-user-id-is/246108/5 "2004-05-20T20:54:20Z")
He could have simply noticed that the last user number was 9999, and knew when he signed up that he would get 10k. Or, he asked to have it changed after the fact. ---
**Author:** ![TheMadHun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@TheMadHun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMadHun)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-always-been-possible-to-know-what-our-user-id-is/246108/6 "2004-05-21T02:25:10Z")
No, that was his original name. At the time he was signing up, there was a ā€œcontestā€ thread speculating what the 10,000th poster would get, a teeshirt or mugā€¦ Member 10K seems to have been aiming at the same target, but missed by 20. Probably because the # of members on the main pages doesnā€™t count deleted members, like the mysterious member #1 (presumed to be an installation test name) [#10,000](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=41265) Member 10K seems to have faded after 12 posts, but User 10K was still around a year later to note this milestone: > [@](#): > > 11-25-2001, 07:41 AM [20,000 members by Christmas?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=1854233#post1854233) > User 10K > Member Join Date: Oct 2000 > Posts: 116 > > postcards- > > For those scoring at home, I signed up on 10-06-2000. > > So the board has doubled in membership in just over a year!