On 5/26/02, Jim McAtee penned: >I let people choose their own usernames, with some small restrictions, such as >a minimal length and no spaces. It's easy enough to do a lookup on existing >usernames to avoid duplicates and display a message if already in use. >Usually, you're doing some other error checking anyway, such as validating the >format of email addresses, so the extra check is simple to add. I generally >also let people change their username if they have access to update their user >profile online. Just don't use the username as a primary or foreign key. >Always use the UserID or whatever you use as the table's primary key to >identify a user.
The one thing I like about using e-mail addresses is, if people come back to your site, and don't remember their username, many will simply register again if it doesn't cost anything to register and if there is no information they need from a previous session. For instance, my shopping cart. If I used a username, which I used to, and they forget it, which they always do, they just enter their billing info again. Since I use e-mail now, when they go to log in they know their e-mail address. If they enter the wrong password I just e-mail it to them. If they try to sign up again rather than logging in, unless they've changed their e-mail address since their initial purchase, I can catch it and send them to the login screen. I can never remember my username at places that take usernames because buddy is ALWAYS taken. So is bud. My real name is Edward and friends used to call me Budward as a kid. You'd be amazed at how often budward is taken. LOL My standard fallback is budley, that is ALSO taken alot of times. [EMAIL PROTECTED] is NEVER taken. :) -- Bud Schneehagen - Tropical Web Creations _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ ColdFusion Solutions / eCommerce Development [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.twcreations.com/ 954.721.3452 ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
