Mon Nov 27 2023

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Releasing Display Names

What's New

FastComments has always supported display names for SSO users. However, this has never been available to regular commenters. Today changes that!

On the Account Details page, you can now fill out a new Display Name field. Display Name will be displayed on your comments and your profiles.

Emojis

In the past, users faced challenges using emojis in usernames since you needed to enter your username to log in. Now, however, Display Name may include emojis.

Uniqueness and Abuse

The idea behind Display Name is that it is not unique. If two FastComments.com users, in two very different major communities, have similar names, we want them to be able to set their preferred display name. However, we can't restrict where people comment with their global FastComments account, so this may sometimes lead to confusion.

Having a similar name to another user, or a moderator, by itself does not constitute abuse. However, if you misuse this by intentionally impersonating other users, we may disable this feature on your account, and you will be limited to using only username.

Logging In

You still use your username to log in - not your display name!

For Developers & Gotchas

The regular User objects exposed via the API now include displayName.

In Conclusion

Like all major releases, we're pleased that we could take the time to optimize, test, and properly launch this feature. Let us know below if you encounter any issues.

Cheers!