To be clear, some really great community members have these names, but they’re everywhere now. And with the right characters you can create some really annoying overlaps: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3790

Enough of them floating around now that I’ll probably do a PR for my favorite client to filter them out.

    • Kogasa
      429·
      11 months ago

      That does kind of defeat the purpose of display names.

        • Kogasa
          216·
          11 months ago

          You’re missing the point. There are people who want to solve this problem (certain problematic display names abusing nonstandard unicode) without ruining display names entirely as a feature. I don’t care if you want to see display names or not.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
        17·
        11 months ago

        Sucks to be them. I didn’t agree to see their vanity names that they can change on a whim.

        • Kogasa
          324·
          11 months ago

          I do not give a fuck if you want to see display names or not. I am all for giving you the ability to disable them. Most people like display names, and we already have display names, so I think it makes a lot more sense to offer a solution to the problem created by a small minority of abusive users that isn’t just “disable display names.”

          • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
            13·
            11 months ago

            Why the agressivity? We’re just voicing our opinions here and GP only asked for the option to do it. Please let’s not make this a new re**it.

            • Kogasa
              118·
              11 months ago

              Because I’m getting flooded with downvotes and inane replies that are aggressively misunderstanding me.

              • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
                7·
                11 months ago

                Just take a deep breath and maybe take a break from the Internet. No one knows who you are. No one’s personally coming after you. No one’s agressive.

        • Kogasa
          15·
          11 months ago

          Allowing people to better control how they’re identified. Not to write Zalgo spam on people’s screens.

          • seathru@lemm.ee
            4·
            11 months ago

            Fair enough, but I second the opinion it should be a base lemmy option to opt-in/out. Let those who want to see display names see them; and those who don’t just see the static username.

            • Kogasa
              25·
              11 months ago

              Yes. Fine. I’m just saying “option to disable the feature” is not an ideal solution when people are abusing a feature. That doesn’t mean I think you shouldn’t be able to disable it.

  • SatyrSack@lemmy.one
    42·
    11 months ago

    Those are “display names”. Some Lemmy clients have a setting to use the actual usernames instead of display names.

    • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
      81·
      11 months ago

      This is why I don’t understand people getting annoyed if you don’t read their display name. No, I don’t want to see your ascii art that can change any minute, I want to see the identifier that will always mark who you are.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
        15·
        11 months ago

        Why? It’s supposed to be anonymous. Why on earth would a site that discusses privacy issues daily want to force people to have individual identifiers for tracking purposes?

        • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
          41·
          11 months ago

          Lemmy is not known for its privacy and is only as anonymous as you make your account. If you don’t want individual idenitifiers then you should use 4chan without an account. Lemmy accounts exist whatever you do, I just enjoy being able to tell that I am talking to xSlayerXx from last week and not ❌Sl4y3️⃣r✖️ from today.

        • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
          5·
          11 months ago

          If there exists another way to display pronouns, I would happily use it. But as it is, I want my comment section to be clean, readable, and consistent from day to day. If I really need to know someone’s gender before talking to them instead of using neutral langauge then I will check their profile.

  • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
    366·
    11 months ago

    There are users I’ve blocked only due to having username like that. If you’re that desperate to stand out I’ll make sure it has the exact opposite effect.

    • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      2413·
      11 months ago

      If you’re that desperate to stand out

      Very interesting take IMO.

      I however see it as no different to setting a profile picture, a forum signature, or attaching an image inside a comment. It’s there to be customized

      If they get you annoyed to the extent that you’re blocking users… have you considered switching to a Lemmy client that doesn’t show display names?

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
        143·
        11 months ago

        I only use the browser version of the site which luckily allows me to hide profile pictures. Signatures aren’t a thing here anyway. On forums it’s a bit different I feel, as having a profile photo/signature is the norm rather than exception so users with those don’t really stand out.

        I don’t mind blocking people for petty reasons. My blocklist has somewhere from 300 to 500 users I’d guess and I add few news ones every day. Same for communities. I got over the FOMO ages ago and though I’m sure I’ll miss things I would’ve liked to see, the truth is I’m going to miss much of it anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Especially since I don’t even know what I’m missing out on. My reasoning behind this is that the only way to make social media tolerable is by heavily curating it.

        I also have word filters for posts about Elon, Twitter, Trump, Sailor Moon etc. All this greatly increases the signal to noise ratio. Sometimes when I see a blocked user comment something I might log out to check what they said and more often than not my conclusion is that nothing of a value was lost.

          • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
            21·
            11 months ago

            Interesting. I’ve never thought about it that way but I definitely agree. Even on Instagram I’ve always treated my friend list more like a list of subcribed users. I don’t follow people because I know them; I follow them because I like the content. However since not following people back seems to be frowned upon I’d just much rather spend my time on places where I’m anonymous. I’d never ever tell anyone my reddit/lemmy accounts name.

        • Rincewindnz@lemmy.world
          2·
          11 months ago

          I’m curious, what happens when you block a user? Do you just not see anything from them anymore? Cause that seems like a super effective way to not get irate at a user you really don’t agree with on anything and can’t have a civil conversation with.

          • seathru@lemm.ee
            4·
            11 months ago

            Correct. You don’t see their posts or comments, nor do you see the replies to their comments that make you wonder what you missed. It is more like they were never there, they don’t even exist.

        • 🐑🇸 🇭 🇪 🇪 🇵 🇱 🇪🐑@lemmy.world
          11·
          10 months ago

          Honestly good on you for having a healthy mindset regarding this kind of stuff. I learned to just block people whenever I feel a little too engaged in trying to argue with them. It’s better for my mental health to filter what I see anyway

    • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comOP
      31·
      11 months ago

      I’ve already made LCS and LPP for Lemmy, maybe I should make LU2D (Lemmy Username To Display) haha

  • Luvs2Spuj@lemmy.world
    185·
    11 months ago

    I don’t see the issue. I don’t mean I personally don’t mind the names (which I don’t), but even after reading your explanation I can’t understand what the problem is.

    Maybe I’m tired.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
      12·
      11 months ago

      Some characters that are permitted in the Display Name field can totally mangle the layout of the page on a website or even on an app. Like those letters that have a bunch of random noise attached to them that people like to use to symbolize glitchiness or Eldritch corruption.

      I would hope that something like mine, which is just standard emojis, wouldn’t do that since modern layouts account for those. I kind of agree that there should be some limit, just due to the fact some non-standard characters can totally break the site.

      • Luvs2Spuj@lemmy.world
        42·
        11 months ago

        T̸̜̣̱̈͛̀̂͊̕ḩ̵̛̛͇͚̫̘̘̮̓̀͌̿́̀͋̎̑͝͠ǎ̸̛̗͖̈́̓͗͊̏͊̐̅͋͝͠ņ̸̨̘̘̬͕͓͖̈͆̀͒̄̅̕̚ͅk̸̹͎̜̭͐̍͂̓̒̍͆̏̐̈̀̏̒̂s̷̡̟̹͖̺̞̤̰̥̘̀̿͗̄͂̏͌̌̈́̀̂̌ ̶̤̜̹͔̬͖͖͔͉̼̇̔̋̎̄̅̍͘͝f̴̤̅͂́̈o̸̧͎̝͚̬̱̝̪̞͔̫̰͖̫͒̋̎͐͛̿̊͂͊̈́ŗ̵͕͓̥͙̭̝͔̠͈̂̾͐̊̓͠ͅ ̵̛̱̀̈̎̋̿̈́̉͊͂̚̕̕͝ţ̷̳͉̻̘͈͕̝̣̳̱̈́̃̎͋̃͂̏ͅh̵̳̼̹̪͒͒͐̒̈́é̸͖̫̮̹͙̒̓̀̄ͅ ̵̧̛̰̥̤͉͎͕͔̣̖̼̩̼̮̓̀̂̄́͋̌͐e̶̝̜͍͔̰̳̻̜͎̯͖̠̠̓̆̈͗̕͜͜ẍ̴̖́̾͛̕p̴̧͚̜̻͒̃͂͆̔̾͋̓́̂̒͝l̸̩̃̈́͂͋ą̸̝͎̹̜̯̜̫̖͔̰̪̙̦̽̍̒̃̃̈͒̉̄̊̐͊̿̊̕n̶̢̨̧̘̫̲̞̱̩̙̳̦͙͓̄̓̇͐̓͊̓͑̆̔̕ȁ̷̢̖̜̪̟̬̤͈̈́̀̉͌̽̄̊́̋̄̽͆̂͌t̶̳͔̲̪̻͉͉͉̜̦̞͇̪̆̈́̃̔̐̿͌͌̌̅̚͝ͅi̵̢̢̻̫̺͎̦̜͉̟̘̰̦͕͆̊͑ơ̴̙̊̉̑̃̊̏̉̚ͅṅ̸̖͎̣͚͔̖̝̞̘̼͜!̴̘͖͎̬̹̯̻̟̻̳̓̓̐̊͂̆̿͜ ̷̖̝͖͎̀̽́

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
    11·
    11 months ago

    Yes I used to see lots when I used Jerboa, but not one since switching to Boost. It wasn’t something that annoyed me at all, but I see your point, it’s something that could be exploited I guess

    • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      22·
      11 months ago

      This reminds me of a situation previously where a user’s pronoun wasn’t visible to another user because their client did not show display names

      A solution for this that doesn’t alienate usernames with pronouns and non-latin languages will be tricky IMO, to be honest I’d just leave it as-is since the fancy display names I’ve seen so far aren’t excessive or abusing unicode modifiers.

      • Arcka@midwest.social
        5·
        11 months ago

        Just because people use display names for that doesn’t mean display names are a good place to indicate pronouns, and it especially doesn’t mean that having a client use usernames is alienating anyone who currently puts non-name data in a name field.

        I’d much rather there be a dedicated field where it can be treated with the importance it deserves and not just lumped in with other miscellany as a kludge.

  • Poxlox@lemmy.world
    10·
    11 months ago

    I use Connect for Android and everyone’s name is the same. Couldn’t be happier with Connect, actually