# Searching the Username Space

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577>\
**Category:** Site Feedback\
**Created:** [March 24, 2021, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577 "2021-03-24T12:26:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577/1 "2021-03-24T12:26:37Z")

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Hi @codinghorror

Is there a mechanism for searching the space of usernames?

I know the **[Users page](https://boards.straightdope.com/u)** has a filter function that will filter on the first letter(s) of a username. And I know about the similar autocomplete of the @ syntax to refer to a user within a post.

But I’m looking for a feature like “Return a list of all users whose name contains the string ‘guy’ anywhere in the relevant field(s)”. From there I could count them, or click to visit their user summary pages. So the results would be akin to what the user page (filtered or not) currently shows.

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577/2 "2021-04-05T03:47:57Z")

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For staff, or for regular users?

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577/3 "2021-04-05T06:21:11Z")

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For regular users to search for regular users.

One of the use cases is puzzlegal’s lament that she can’t remember enough of somebody’s name to find them as-is, but she can remember a syllable or so.

My use case was similar: “out of curiosity, which users and how many have [cat] as part of their name?”

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577/5 "2021-04-06T20:36:42Z")

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Moderators can access a search of all users. Put in part of a name and it will search both user names and emails. This is not available to regular users.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577/6 "2021-04-06T21:01:54Z")

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Thank you. Makes sense the feature would exist. And I can see some logic to not exposing it to the entire user group, including anonymous “users” which is really to say the entire internet, Bulgarian bots and all.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-the-username-space/938577/7 "2021-04-17T07:35:14Z")

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Sounds like a great candidate for being something you can assign to a Trust Level. It seems to me that bad actors would t make it to Trust Level 2, so maybe it could be a feature for us.