# We need a user name character limit! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 15, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361 "2003-11-15T02:00:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/1 "2003-11-15T02:00:45Z")
When someone chooses an absurdly long user name, it makes the pages showing threads almost unreadable. For a while, there was The Vorlon Ambassadors Aide. He, however, mercifully changed his name to TVAA. Now there’s a new one that’s even worse: Puce\_Strands\_of\_GlibberPuklasM. There are a couple of others which, while not _quite_ this bad, are still pretty annoying. Any chance we can get a reasonable character limit on user names? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/2 "2003-11-15T03:58:03Z")
I second the OP. vBullletin has a function available for administrators to limit the length of a user’s name. Why not use it? If a user wants to write an essay, he can start a thread. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/3 "2003-11-15T04:10:02Z")
I think we have a limit on username lengths. I think it’s 25 characters. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/4 "2003-11-15T04:11:17Z")
Er, actually, I guess I must be getting it confused with Location strings. I thought for sure we had some limit, though. Ah well. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/5 "2003-11-15T05:03:01Z")
I think we do have a limit, but I dunno what it is. If we don’t have one, we should - and if we do have one, it ought to be less than whatever it is now. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/6 "2003-11-15T07:04:53Z")
Respectfully, why does it bother you so much? Just Ctrl+C and move on. ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/7 "2003-11-15T07:48:20Z")
[hijack] **tyrvin** You interest me strangely. I’m fascinated by posters like you. You’re one of the earliest board members but you’ve only made ten posts! Where have you been and why did you come back? Or have you been dilligently lurking all this time? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/8 "2003-11-15T07:53:52Z")
In one of those older threads it says there’s a 25-character limit, but **Puce\_Strands\_of\_GlibberPuklasM** is clearly 30. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/9 "2003-11-15T15:44:03Z")
FWIW, vBulletin has both a minimum and a maximum user name length setting configurable by admins. I think, but I’m not sure, that affects only the initial entry, so if the longest-length parameter was changed now, it probably wouldn’t truncate existing long-named users, just prohibit new ones. IMHO, I don’t see any good reason to allow extremely long names, which seem to be just an ego thing. And if the search function is disabled for character strings less than 4, the shortest name should be 4. I’ll bet a search (by a mod) for all names \>20 characters won’t turn up many, and most of those are inactive anyway. I vote for 4 – 20. Think of the hamsters! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/10 "2003-11-15T16:28:34Z")
[salivating] I _AM_ thinking of the ham§sters! [/salivating] ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/11 "2003-11-15T17:20:26Z")
Shall I pass the ketchup? Hot sauce? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/12 "2003-11-15T17:26:26Z")
Gee, I find that I actually started TWO threads on this. **TubaDiva** locked this one, reflecting the futility of the topic: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=175035](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=175035) I bring this up because I wound up having some private correspondance with one of the long name owners, who honestly didn’t understand the gripe about wasted screen real estate. I wound up sending him a screen capture where his long name expanding both the “Thread Starter” and “Last Post” columns caused multiple subject lines to wrap more times than they otherwise would have. It was just serendipity that a prime example using his long name was in my browser at the time of the email. Some people just aren’t as annoyed by the wasted space as some of the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/13 "2003-11-15T17:34:42Z")
If the mods don’t seem to want to limit the number of characters, maybe we could gently encourage names to incorporate spaces instead of underlines. Then the automatic wrap would help in some displays. I think the people using underlines are assuming, newbies as they are, that spaces are not possible, which is the case in many parts of the computing world. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/14 "2003-11-15T17:45:57Z")
We do ask people with unwieldy names to work with us. I believe the current character limit on screen names is 30. your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/15 "2003-11-15T17:48:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Musicat \* > \*\*If the mods don’t seem to want to limit the number of characters, maybe we could gently encourage names to incorporate spaces instead of underlines. Then the automatic wrap would help in some displays. > > I think the people using underlines are assuming, newbies as they are, that spaces are not possible, which is the case in many parts of the computing world. \*\* Won’t help much. The table cell entries in the forum display for the “Thread Starter” and “Last Post” columns are specified “nowrap” (an attribute on the TD tag). You can also simply observe that user names with spaces in them don’t wrap in those columns. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/16 "2003-11-15T19:01:37Z")
I believe what I said was it “would help in some displays.” The cel attrib on the normal thread/post display does allow wrap in the user name field, at least on my screen. In any case, I feel 30 characters is a bit too generous and unnecessary, altho life is too short for me to worry about it much. The mods have to live with their decisions the same way us ordinary peons do. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/17 "2003-11-17T07:31:05Z")
You could always put someone with a name so long that you nap during it into your ignore list. I do that to everyone with more than six characters in their name. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/18 "2003-11-17T17:02:05Z")
One must wonder to whom **moriah** is addressing that reply, **Mr. B** or **yabob**. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-a-user-name-character-limit/213361/19 "2003-11-18T01:03:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*One must wonder to whom **moriah** is addressing that reply, **Mr. B** or **yabob**. \*\* I don’t know what you’re talking about, since you’re on my ignore list, Mr. Seven Letters.