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

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61–70 of 94 posts

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

#61
post #46
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a bad idea. Why would it be a good idea to recycle usernames like that?

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

I really like how Discord handles it. Username + 4 digit number = unique handle, but if nobody else has the same username in a server then you can just use the username to refer to them

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

#63
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't use your real name on the internet.

For most people it doesn't matter much because there is many dupes. Mine seems to be unique, which is a little scary.

There’s a few other people out there who use the same username as me, so I have had to come up with several other usernames.

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

#64
post #55

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

Just retried with the same name as before, now I see it reduced to your list, plus a new entry:

[ + ] TikTok: TikTok

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

#66
post #54
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For reference: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NWIlScfHwOU

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

#67

You should also mention you are using Sherlock as the underlying backend which does that actual searching as you did in this post. https://old.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/z1ts1n/i_built_an_a... S̵h̵e̵r̵l̵o̵c̵k̵ ̵u̵s̵e̵s̵ ̵M̵I̵T̵ ̵l̵i̵c̵e̵n̵s̵e̵ ̵a̵n̵d̵ ̵y̵o̵u̵ ̵s̵t̵i̵l̵l̵ ̵h̵a̵v̵e̵n̵'̵t̵ ̵a̵d̵d̵e̵d̵ ̵M̵I̵T̵ ̵l̵i̵c̵e̵n̵s̵e̵ ̵t̵o̵ ̵y̵o̵u̵r̵ ̵r̵e̵p̵o̵.̵ https://github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock https://github.com/bn…

It really is amazing how many people advertise or shun license without even knowing what it does...

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

#70
post #28
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could be useful for people who like to “claim” their common handle.

what I find annoying is that (other than HN) most places won't let you claim your username if the person has signed up, yet never posted over years (or even logged in) and places where an account was deleted. when I signed up to HN, I had a different username. I reached out to admins and they looked at the other account that had been created but they let me have it because the person hadn't logged in since. Oh! I thi…

> I think GitHub did as well.

I can confirm that GitHub definitely does that.

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