Comment by vel0city
2 years ago
> generate hashes based on user inputs or something.
Because friend codes were so popular on Nintendo.
Hey add me real quick, my id is 12716472-83647281746-8172649! Or use the hash code, 0x28A56ED9! Super easy to remember, way better than giantrobot22 or vel0city66.
Given nintendo's user base includes a LOT of children who are very young, the long codes may have been a feature, not a bug - the equivalent of a child latch - to slow down/discourage young users from adding people themselves so their parents have a better idea of who they are interacting with.
I expect it's more a combination of several factors:
- if we don't have usernames we don't have to deal with obscene usernames, trademarked usernames, impersonation claims, and similar
- if we don't have usernames and our generated friend codes aren't guessable, we don't have to worry about people getting random unexpected friend requests from people they don't know
Don't get me wrong I get there were intentional reasons for it in regard to friend codes and I don't necessarily fully mind with that in mind in that use case. I do kind of wish there was an "I'm 13/18+, let's take the training wheels off" feature though.
The issue there is "veI0city66". Depending on the font that capital "I" might look identical to a lower case "l". A hash with an alphabet that doesn't include homoglyphs would reduce ambiguity.
There's also the "weedlordbonerhitler69" issue. A user name that seemed hilarious at 16 likely seems less hilarious at 26.
If users were identified with a hash derived from an input user name you could type in "weedlordbonerhitler69" and what would be displayed is a hash on the client side. The contact add UI could simply return the UID for the input username. So you could give out the UID or username and another user could still add you.
> The issue there is "veI0city66". Depending on the font that capital "I" might look identical to a lower case "l". A hash with an alphabet that doesn't include homoglyphs would reduce ambiguity.
They're not going to get mixed up typing it in from me verbally telling me the name. They're not going to get confused typing it in. And even then, validate the user after, that's another feature of signal is in person/out of band validation of the ends. So start the convo the verify through a channel you otherwise trust.
> There's also the "weedlordbonerhitler69" issue. A user name that seemed hilarious at 16 likely seems less hilarious at 26.
And with their setup you can change it at any time, so once again not really an issue.