New username policy

All,

As I was thinking about my review suggestions, I realize we need to think about making more creative, better usernames. Some ideas:

1) Remove all vowels from existing usernames and require vowel-free usernames in the future. ntwl has a nice ring to it, I believe. As this is a writing site, creativity should be encouraged, and using only consonants forces users to forge a creative identity.

2) Have at least one x in your username, like xXdarkxniteowlXx. This will allow YWS to stick to its historical roots by making usernames appear like the screen names of old.

3) Let users pick their own color. Obviously, official mod colors would be off-limits, but I get SO SICK of seeing all these blue names. I'm sure users would love this additional means of self-expression.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I'm not convinced by the vowels thing, I think we can just get around that by using l33tsp34k. Including numbers would be cool though. Like Tenyo442. That will solve the 'hey we're running out of available usernames' crisis.

I like the idea of picking individual colours but would mods be able to as well? That might cause some mass confusion but it seems unfair to give the members more choice than ourselves.

Hm...I didn't think about that, but you're right. Maybe moderators could pick their own colors, but add a giant banner signature saying "I IZ MODERATOR! OBEY ME, LOWLY YWSERS! OBEY!!!!!" to distinguish them from the ordinary members.

I bet if we made username colors a paid option, we'd be seeing a lot more revenue...

Looks like I decided to retire just in time. o.O