Does the bot use every possible permutation of "Clyde"? It must be every Clyde that can ever exist?
Apparently it's do deal with fraudulent uses for their internal bot.
Username cannot contain 'clyde'
11–20 of 225 posts
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#12This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names (and perhaps distinguished through other means too); if the error was instead "Username cannot contain 'discord'", it'd be more obvious.
I feel bad for all the Alexas and the few Siris out there that have had their names hijacked my a couple of the biggest companies on the planet.
I know an Alexa. She hates it.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#13This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names (and perhaps distinguished through other means too); if the error was instead "Username cannot contain 'discord'", it'd be more obvious.
This of course rests on the assumption that there is such a thing as a 'regular name'. I'm obliged to link you to 'falsehoods programmers believe about names' now. I'm not happy about it, but those are the rules. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...
There are certainly far more Clydes than there are Discords (has anyone even been legally named Discord before?)
I'm not happy about it, but those are the rules.
..."then change them", as someone might say. But that article seems to be mostly about the edge-cases. I don't think someone named Clyde is an edge-case, nor would someone named Bonnie, for that matter.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#14This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names (and perhaps distinguished through other means too); if the error was instead "Username cannot contain 'discord'", it'd be more obvious.
This of course rests on the assumption that there is such a thing as a 'regular name'. I'm obliged to link you to 'falsehoods programmers believe about names' now. I'm not happy about it, but those are the rules. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...
That's why I name my bots "A" and just ban any username with "a" in it. If you can't get it 100% right, fuck it, do whatever you want.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#15This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names (and perhaps distinguished through other means too); if the error was instead "Username cannot contain 'discord'", it'd be more obvious.
I feel bad for all the Alexas and the few Siris out there that have had their names hijacked my a couple of the biggest companies on the planet.
Slightly different, but my friend's daughter Isis hasn't been too happy about what's happened since she was born.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#16Why is an internal system in the same namespace as users? I wonder whether there are constraints that made it difficult to implement this functionality in another way, or this is just a bad design decision.
It's probably a mix of both.
Namespacing often seems to be an afterthought in many systems, and it can be hard to refactor in once an architecture has solidified.
It's not always the wrong choice to mingle identifiers of different types, but I think often people err on the side of convenience (/ laziness) instead of thinking through all of the potential issues.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
This of course rests on the assumption that there is such a thing as a 'regular name'. I'm obliged to link you to 'falsehoods programmers believe about names' now. I'm not happy about it, but those are the rules. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...
There are certainly far more Clydes than there are Discords (has anyone even been legally named Discord before?) I'm not happy about it, but those are the rules. ..."then change them", as someone might say. But that article seems to be mostly about the edge-cases. I don't think someone named Clyde is an edge-case, nor would someone named Bonnie, for that matter.
So I perhaps should have been more clear.
If your plan in choosing a name for your bot is to choose one that won't collide with a human, you are going to run into the fact that humans have a lot of very different names. Hence the link to the 'falsehoods' piece.
The US Census of 1950, for example, has a lot of Descords, Descards, Dicords, Dioscords, and... in PA, a Rosa B Discord, in NYC, a Mr Discord.
In general, all I'm saying is, it is far better if your intention is to allow people to choose their name, to not put any arbitrary restriction in place with the justification that 'it probably won't affect anyone'. If there's one thing people really care about it's their name. And no matter how unlikely you think it is that someone will run into your restriction... you're almost certainly wrong.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#18This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names (and perhaps distinguished through other means too); if the error was instead "Username cannot contain 'discord'", it'd be more obvious.
> This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names
I disagree. The username can be clyde_discord/clyde_bot and the display name could just be "Clyde". Then the username Clyde wouldn't be taken, and the users would be able to still message the bot and not be confused.
Though I personally really dislike simple human names for bots because it sounds cheesy and dumb.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#19This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names (and perhaps distinguished through other means too); if the error was instead "Username cannot contain 'discord'", it'd be more obvious.
I feel bad for all the Alexas and the few Siris out there that have had their names hijacked my a couple of the biggest companies on the planet.
Not nearly as bad as "Karens" have it.
Re: Username cannot contain 'clyde'
#20This is a good case for why system bots/messages/etc. shouldn't be given regular names (and perhaps distinguished through other means too); if the error was instead "Username cannot contain 'discord'", it'd be more obvious.
This of course rests on the assumption that there is such a thing as a 'regular name'. I'm obliged to link you to 'falsehoods programmers believe about names' now. I'm not happy about it, but those are the rules. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...
There's not exactly a list of canonical human names per se, but "bots can't use human names" would still be a very sensible rule for us to have. Put the cost and the burden on companies making bots, not on individual people who got unlucky.
Also names are part of human culture, and Alexa for example has been in use for a very long time. There are valid reasons for names to die off in a single generation (eg adolf) but this is not a reason that our culture gains anything from imo.