[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] Permalinks break when user changes their display name (#482)

[Andrew Harvey]

andrewharvey left a comment (openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website#482)

Recently a DWG member who had changed their display name, had another user claim their prior display name who then went on to use the profile to spread insults towards DWG members. This was problematic because the user profile URL was baked in to many places.

The problem stems from the fact that this "Display Name" is treated and used by mappers as a stable username. I don't think that's going to change.

I think it's best to treat the display name more like a username. You can change it, but nobody else can then reclaim your old usernames, and any links to your old username just redirect to your current username.

This prevents this kind of user/display name theft, and helps reduce the effect of people using user/display name changes as a way to evade monitoring by the mapping community.

Being able to scrutinise other mappers changes and work and tracing back the history of changes is very important and allowing users to claim another users previous username/display name makes that much more difficult.

-- 
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/482#issuecomment-2861652942
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.

Message ID: <openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/482/2861652942 at github.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/rails-dev/attachments/20250507/7e750930/attachment.htm>