Topic on Talk:New requirements for user signatures

I wonder if your work will cover the case when someone displays a different username than theirs in their signature. Example: [[user:Foo|Bar]].

This shouldn't be allowed since it is very confusing for everyone. I've already seen people being wrongly pinged, or seeing Foo complaining because someone pinged user:Bar instead of them.

The counterargument "my username is already taken, I want to display my real identity" is a false one. No one complains because they get a phone number they don't like. When one wants to change their username, they can if the account is not taken, or if the account is not in use any more. It is done often. Already used and active usernames simply follow the "first arrived first served rule" and it is clearly not much of a big deal. It happen to me back in the days: my current username was my backup nickname on the Internet. I had the opportunity to built a new identity which was a great experience.

I’ve seen various creative solutions that aren’t confusing IMO, including [[User:Foo|foo]] (lower case), [[User:Foo Bar|Foo_Bar]] (underscore instead of space), or [[User:FooBar|Foo]][[User talk:FooBar|Bar]] (user name spanning over the user page and talk page links); Tgr’s signature was at a time roughly [[User:Tgr|TG]][[User talk:Tgr|<sup>®</sup>]] (“registered trademark” logo instead of “r”). [[User:Foo|Bar]] is confusing indeed, but I’m not sure if allowable and non-allowable names can be differentiated using software.

User:Foo using the signature <code>[[User:Foo|Bar]]</code> is not covered by these changes. That's something best enforced by local signature policies and guidelines, not by technical methods as Tacsipacsi described.

[[User:Foo|Bar]] will be accepted, as long as your username really is "Foo". I agree that this can be confusing.

Local policies need to be enforced. But honestly, who cares about them? Even on Meta, displaying a different username is perfectly accepted.

An a minima requirement would be to highlight the risk of confusion.

At least, we can expect to have a mention button like we have here on Structured Discussions, that would help quoting participants in the discussion. Hoping that would raise questions like "why this user is not listed?". And hoping that people won't tell themselves "I could change my name too". And lead to more confusion.