Replace username registration with a simple duplicate warning

[holmesworcester]

Username registration has been a maintenance burden and it will not be compatible with our LFA-based, multi-admin, mutli-device plan.

Signal now warns users about duplicate usernames. This is a simple solution that will work well for us too. Let's do it, and remove existing user registration code.

We can still attempt to stop users from registering duplicate usernames and prompt them to change their names.

[holmesworcester]

In Signal this is a warning bar across the top of the screen in any chats with duplicate names.

[jgaylor]

We can do a warning bar in any chats idea. Just want to point out we've explored some other things:

1. Here in changing username, we warn that the username is already taken: https://www.figma.com/design/CkkTkVhpCh2lPpF1mRd1vF/Change-usernames?node-id=13-20&t=NAlvxMU1YFJ1IMqd-1
2. In a different ticket we were going to explore a 6 digit hash. https://www.figma.com/design/CkkTkVhpCh2lPpF1mRd1vF/Username-(changing%2C-displaying-dups)?node-id=2814-5322&t=NAlvxMU1YFJ1IMqd-4

Also, what's "Existing user registration code" mean. I'm trying to get the screens together to start working on this.

[jgaylor]

@holmesworcester I'm trying to understand the why behind this feature, and then what users are supposed to be able to do. This will help drive the design solution. Currently, i'm just making solutions based on assumption. So, besides the maintenance burden and incompatibility rationale can you provide more information on this ticket...

1. Why is it important to signify duplicate usernames to people? Here are some that I think make sense:

• Avoids confusion in conversations
• Increases user trust and prevents impersonation
• Aids in moderation and accountability
• Prevents accidental info sharing

2. More importantly, Once we've indicated this somehow, what is the desired action an admin or non-admin will want to take? Here are some that I think make sense:

• To verify the correct person by checking profile details
• To report any suspected impersonation
• To block, mute or remove the duplicate user if needed
• To change their own username

3. Should user be able to dismiss this warning? If so, Is there another way to access the duplicates? What's the logic? Does it keep coming back until you take some action? What is that action?

[jgaylor]

Anyway, latest is here, for easy reference later: https://www.figma.com/design/CkkTkVhpCh2lPpF1mRd1vF/Username-(changing%2C-displaying%2C-duplicates)?node-id=2828-24755&t=BC07iebO4ivkPK0l-4

[holmesworcester]

I think the above questions are covered by the design. In larger open communities having a "report" button would be good, but we're targeting smaller high-trust communities first, so I think just messaging admins about it is fine, and admins will see the warning too.

One note on this is that we do not want a situation where someone can send a message as a duplicate name, in a DM say, without being registered, since this would hide the impersonation warning from everyone accept the targeted user. Messages from users that aren't in the sigchain should be ignored.

[holmesworcester]

Remaining todos:

• Use the red warning style with the text noted in the issue
• Incorporate the "duplicate" flair on individual names
• Don't display image avatars for duplicate users and instead show the jdenticon-generated avatars.
• Give non-admins some action they can take

On giving non-admins an action they can take:

Both users who saw this asked "so what would i do here?" and it felt a bit weird that there wasn't an action. Ideally they would do something that helped resolve the problem. One idea would be to notify an admin.

Another desirable thing would be for this to happen automatically. That is, admins would all get notifications for all new users and username updates, and these could be silenced depending on their settings, but duplicate usernames would always show a notification to all admins. This would require the "suppress silent notifications" permission from Apple. (This isn't design related but I'm noting it here for further work on this issue.)

[jgaylor]

@holmesworcester The latest is here Signifying duplicate usernames

Going through your bullets:

1. Use the red... - done
2. Incorporate "duplicate" flair
   Are all these "Flair" things still relevant from previous designs? If so, we're out of room, unless "Duplicate" trumps all other flair, we allow for wrapping, or some other solution:
   
3. Don't display image avatars.. -
   What do you want to display? I mocked this up with gray backgrounds for now.
4. Give non-admins some action they can take - I added another variant to the mockup where non-admins still have the ability to 'Send message.' Let me know if you have something else in mind.

[jgaylor]

@holmesworcester I was finalizing this and had a couple of questions for you. Take a look at this when you get a chance.

Outstanding questions:

1. Do we need to consider "Duplicate!" on profiles and other lists where we show members or just on the list inside of the DM/Channels? Like if I click through on a duplicate to view thier profile, seems like we should also show "Duplicate!" there.

2. I've included Change / register usernames in this Figma since it's related to usernames and not allowing duplicates. It would be good to close out the outsanding Figma questions in yellow and pick a direction on how we notify others when names have changed.

Moving this to internal review status.

[holmesworcester]

1. Yes let's consider how to show duplicates in other places like lists of usernames.

2. Will look at the mockups for changing names.

[holmesworcester]

Responded to questions about how to display name changes.

There's a question here when we develop this feature and for user feedback about how long name changes should be visible for and whether it's desirable that they eventually get deleted from our history. I can ask people about this.

[jgaylor]

Cleaned up stuff on Change / register usernames based on your feedback.

Will look into displaying "Duplicate!" in other lists and on profiles.

[jgaylor]

1. Yes let's consider how to show duplicates in other places like lists of usernames.
2. Will look at the mockups for changing names.

@holmesworcester for item one; I completed a first audit and identified other areas where "Duplicate!" might also need to be displayed. We previously decided to hide all other 'flair' when a user is a duplicate. I've left some of that 'flair' on the actual profile, since there's more space there, but we could choose to remove it if you think we should for symmetry. Let me know what you think.

[holmesworcester]

All of this looks good to me. Left a couple minor comments.

[jgaylor]

Addressed your comments. Feel free to move this to backlog if you're happy with it.

[jgaylor]

@holmesworcester You left Figma comments, I responded to them here.

[holmesworcester]

Two user-reported issues I'm still not sure what to do with:

1. User expects to be able to click on "duplicate" to learn more, but feels unsure whether this will work or not. (As designed, it won't.)
2. User feels it's unclear what they should do on the "Duplicate Usernames" screen.

Maybe we could add an admin action: "Suspend all" to easily suspend all duplicate accounts.

Perhaps "suspend" should be the action on all of these accounts, too.

[jgaylor]

WIth duplicates, one of them will always be the person that's legit/original/intended/verified (not sure the right word), and the other(s) might be imposter, or accidental. I was thinking when faced with duplicates you'd want to somehow warn the imposter/unverified person, but not the correct one. So "Suspend all" seems like it could be too aggressive or wrong.

Couple of thoughts:

1. Introduce signifiers displaying Account longevity or Activity levels to help make the decision on who to take action on. Whatever makes sense. Just ideas.

2. Or maybe something could be automated to suspend all duplicate accounts that were created recently and look suspicious. We'd want to tell people they have X time to sort it out before being removed or something.

I'm still trying to understand how we end up with duplicates though. Is that because of delays between syncing or something else?

[jgaylor]

@holmesworcester

1. just a bump on the thoughts/questions above ☝
2. This wasn't in "Design in Progress" but noticed some figma comments for duplicate stuff, so I responded to your comments and drafted based on them. See Option B here.