Twitter Stopped Letting New Users Pick Their Usernames During Sign-Up Years Ago

#1

Post by troberti » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 9:35 PM UTC

Twitter Stopped Letting New Users Pick Their Usernames During Sign-Up Years Ago
daringfireball.net

Re: Twitter Stopped Letting New Users Pick Their Usernames During Sign-Up Years Ago

#2

Post by tinus_hn » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 11:48 PM UTC

Makes sense not to reserve usernames for people who are just using the account to follow and don’t tweet themselves.

This is a problem Twitch runs into, there are many more people watching than streaming but everyone has an account name and can stream so a lot of names are taken.

Re: Twitter Stopped Letting New Users Pick Their Usernames During Sign-Up Years Ago

#3

Post by shannifin » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 3:23 AM UTC

Reduces sign-up friction I guess. Signing up for something and finding your default usernames are already taken is always annoying.

Re: Twitter Stopped Letting New Users Pick Their Usernames During Sign-Up Years Ago

#4

Post by damieng » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 8:35 AM UTC

I was working at Xbox when we made the same change there. Web analytics were showing a massive drop-off in signup as users struggled to think of a good gamertag that wasn't already taken.

At the time you had to pay to change your gamertag so when we introduced this you got a free change after it had generated one instead.

Re: Twitter Stopped Letting New Users Pick Their Usernames During Sign-Up Years Ago

#5

Post by Can_Not » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:20 PM UTC

shannifin wrote: post #3

Reduces sign-up friction I guess. Signing up for something and finding your default usernames are already taken is always annoying.

Especially if that person registered your handle 3 weeks before you and didn't login again for the next 15 years.