Discord is a multitude. That’s not only one fuddy-duddy tech author’s opinion, it’s successfully the official phrase from Discord itself. As a part of an effort to be extra simple and user-friendly, the chat and VOIP platform is transforming its username system and ditching “discriminators,” the four-digit codes adopted by a pound image (or hashtag to you youngins) in favor of an ordinary common username. Unfortunately, which means everybody will want a brand new one.

“Our current usernames can often be too complicated or obscure for people to remember and share easily,” says Discord co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy. In a blog post (through The Verge), he says that the unique function of the discriminator was in order that customers may shortly hop on to totally different chat and voice servers with out working into the dreaded “your desired username is taken” message. But after eight years and a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of customers, Discord is a special place, and it’s intimidating and complicated to new customers. The publish says that nearly half of good friend requests fail because of a lacking discriminator and/or the incorrect character casing.

Of course, we’re speaking a few software that’s well-liked with players, so loads of them would possibly really prefer it that means. “Our current username format has been one of the things that makes Discord unique, and that this change makes our usernames look a lot like those on other platforms,” says Vishnevskiy. I can think about quite a lot of Discord customers clinging to the present system, in a form of communications equal of the “git gud” angle.

Nevertheless, Discord goes to maneuver to a extra standard system, whether or not players prefer it or not. Users might be given prompts to replace their usernames “In the coming weeks.” By default, your present Discord username (minus the pound signal and digits) will turn into your new Display Name, no matter what your new commonplace, case-ambivalent username is. Server Nicknames will stay in place, unchanged.

Discord’s play for a better person expertise and extra broad attraction is hardly distinctive. Mastodon, a decentralized quick message platform that’s risen in recognition as a substitute for the shortly imploding Twitter, lately unveiled a extra standard and straightforward onboarding experience for brand new customers.