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Show HN: I built an app that scans every social media network for your username

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Re: Show HN: I built an app that scans every social media network for your username

#52

Post by xwdv »

mattl wrote: post #50
xwdv wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because overtime we can wear down the idea that a public facing username is some kind of unique identifier.

Do you have any alternative solution in mind? ICQ numbers?

Content

Re: Show HN: I built an app that scans every social media network for your username

#54

Post by bombcar »

mattl wrote: post #49
bombcar wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same reason we recycle domains.

Which is a bad idea also. We should have some domain name space which we let people register forever.

That results in the clownpenis.fart problem.

Re: Show HN: I built an app that scans every social media network for your username

#55

Post by s1mon »

someweirdperson wrote: post #42

False positive bug list. These always return a match even if there is none: Archive of Our Own Dribbble Enjin Fiverr HackerNews Instagram Quizlet Smule We Heart It livelib

I put in a userid. I got a shorter list, but clearly this is an issue.

[ ! ] Checking username q349t8y on:

[ + ] Enjin: Enjin

[ + ] Fiverr: Fiverr

[ + ] HackerNews: HackerNews

[ + ] Instagram: Instagram

[ + ] Quizlet: Quizlet

[ + ] Smule: Smule

[ + ] livelib: livelib

[ X ] End Results: 7

Re: Show HN: I built an app that scans every social media network for your username

#56

Post by s1mon »

Some people are liking the UI here, but it wasn't clear to me at first that a [+] meant the username was used on that site. In my mind, it could just as easily mean that it's available on that site (that could be a positive result if you're looking for places to sign up with a name). This should be made more clear.

It would be interesting if you could toggle on the not-found list as part of the results. If you get a big positive list, but you'd like to find the sites where the username is not in use yet, there's no quick way to get that info. (Yes you could scrape both lists and use some simple command line scripts to get those results, but it's such a simple thing to add to this tool)

Re: Show HN: I built an app that scans every social media network for your username

#60

Post by lamontcg »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #59
jfk13 wrote: post #57

A bunch of the occurrences it "finds" appear to be false positives, as far as I can tell.

Yes, even for HN it returns false positives.

Yeah I tried "dvmnasrtjkhqofjsenvign" and got false positives on Dribbble, Enjin, HackerNews, Instagram, Quizlet, Smule, and livelib.

Also got the same false positives with a couple aliases of mine that seem to be actually unique so far. I was a bit annoyed someone had already stole them on HN for a second.

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