Hey everyone,
The topic of username rules has sparked recent debate. The rule regarding user-impersonation in particular has been criticized as vague and applied unequally, which has prompted us to review it with the moderation and administrative teams. We recognize moderation of usernames could be further clarified, so we've decided on the following changes in order to address some of these concerns, while preserving the ability for users to rename themselves.
First a short summary of the changes, with more detailed info and reasoning below.
Summary
Changes to the rules regarding usernames have been made, and we believe these changes strike the right balance between clarity and flexibility.
Usernames are not allowed if they:
- Are difficult to distinguish from other usernames or otherwise too similar to other usernames
- Exploit visually similar characters, such as 'l', 'I', '1', 'O', and '0', or are otherwise intentionally designed to be difficult to read, are not allowed.
- Were previously owned by another player in the previous 6 months
- Are homophobic, racist, political, or otherwise offensive
Usernames can be renamed:
- Once every year
We'd like feedback on:
- When renaming an account is required due to rule breaking, should the account be locked until the account owner contacts the moderation team, or should the account be reverted to the last used acceptable username?
Changes in detail
What makes changes to these rules difficult is that we have to balance the wants and needs of several groups within the community. On the one hand, we recognize that in our small community knowing who you're playing with is important. Reputation matters, especially in a close-knit community like ours. Frequent name changes have made it hard to keep track of who's who, and can even make in-game communication difficult when you have players refer to others by their old names. It’s even created issues for moderation, where reports for one person were meant for another player, or creating additional work because a user in a screenshot has changed their name four times since, or even it’s not the player they think but a username that looks identical. Because of this, we have internally discussed the possibility of removing the rename function altogether.
On the other hand, there are genuine reasons for why people would like to change their username, and in many cases these username changes haven’t led to any issues. We certainly don’t wish our playerbase to be forever locked into a username they may have chosen as a 14 year old, for example. Because of this, we've decided to make changes to the rules rather than doing away with the feature altogether.
Rule changes
Readability
We think it is very important that usernames are unique and easy to read, because players should be easily able to distinguish, recognize, and mention each other. For this reason, we are changing the rules to reflect this. Usernames that are difficult to distinguish from other usernames may no longer be used. This includes usernames that exploit visually similar characters, such as 'l', 'I', '1', 'O', and '0', or are otherwise intentionally designed to be difficult to read.
We're also keeping an eye out for usernames that are otherwise too similar to other usernames. This rule is slightly more of a gray area, because usernames could technically be visually distinguishable yet still be too similar to other usernames. Generally speaking, if your username is not a standard word or phrase, or it's based on another user's name, you might have to change it. Because it is difficult to make very rigid rules about this, the moderation team will handle those on a case-by-case basis. To keep things fair, these decisions will be handled by internal discussions within the moderation team, and not just by one moderator on their own.
Renaming
We're also making some changes to the option to change your username. Previously, our rules against impersonation were enforced in such a way that players could change their username while keeping some claim to their original username. We do not think that is fair, because this system could lead to a player 'claiming' a whole list of usernames they used previously. However, we also had to consider that we are a relatively small community, and players often know many of the other players of their same rating bracket. Because of this, we see the need for changes that will reduce the frequency with which names can be changed, but also make sure that players are not easily mistaken for another if they use a previously used username
As such, we will be limiting the ability to change your username to once per year. We will maintain the current policy of making previously used usernames unusable for six months, meaning that another player may not immediately pick up the name that has now been freed up. This grace period will give the community some time to get used to seeing players under a new name, and helps mitigate player-impersonation. Be aware that this means that changing your username might mean that you lose that name permanently: your old username will become available several months before you are able to rename again.
Inappropriate usernames
We haven't made any changes to the rules regarding inappropriate usernames, as we think those are working well. These rules ban names that are racist, homophobic, political, or otherwise offensive or inappropriate. Such usernames are judged on a case-by-case basis by the moderation team.
Moderation
Although seriously offensive usernames—as well as intentionally and repeatedly breaking these rules—may result in a ban, we think it’s excessive to issue bans for usernames that do not meet these standards. Instead, we will address the issue by forcing a rename of the account.
Previously, we've locked accounts with a message to contact a moderator to rename the account. This was primarily a result of a lack of tools, as we do not have the capability to lock specific accounts out of renaming. This method is far from ideal. It forces players to get in touch with a moderator through an external system, and they’re completely locked out of playing until our volunteer staff can get to their request. We're thinking about replacing this system by renaming the user to their last used acceptable username instead. Please let us know if you have other ideas!
Since the moderators are volunteers too, we don’t intend to spend our limited time executing a naming-purge. We know of a few accounts which have recently changed their usernames to ones that are difficult to distinguish from other users though, and those will soon have their accounts renamed to their latest compliant username. For any other accounts, we will take action as we notice them and will continue depending on the community to file reports when they notice a rule is being broken.
Feedback
Got questions or thoughts? Let us know, constructive comments welcomed!
The rules page will be updated based on initial feedback around this change.
Cheers,
FAF Moderation Team