New, unique Community Center usernames

[Airbnb]

We’re updating each Community Center member’s username so it’s unique and easily searchable. Now you’ll be able to make sure you’re mentioning the right @Annie or @Guillermo in your posts and replies.

Here’s how it will work: We will automatically add numbers to the end of your existing username to make it unique. To keep it simple, you won’t be able to further customize your username, but this change should help you find hosts and be found by them in the online Community.

We’re excited about this change and are happy to answer any questions you might have about it. Just reach out to your Online Community Managers here in the Community Center, @Lizzie, @Stephanie or @Quincy.

[Tim191]

I'm sorry this is just silly. There is a very simple executable code in database driven websites to prevent people from using the same name. Every website with user/pass uses this tool.

As a UI/UX expert, I can tell you that you've done the opposite, you've made us LESS distinguishable.

These new names are frankly kind of belittling and demeaning

Tim [Surname hidden for safety reasons]

CEO+Creative Director

Tim ***8Marketing

[John47]

@Tim191Fully agree! If i was non-unique, it should be MY choice in what to change to make it unique! If that's adding a initial or some other suffix (even if that was a favorite number), then that's MUCH better than some random number! i realize that my name is quite common but WE should be the ones who decide what we are known as.
Are you listening, @Airbnb ?

[Mark-TP0]

Listening?  Whats that?

[JoLynne0]

Hi Tim,

I like it the way it is too! I for one am a little confused! Are they changing the name of our Airbnb's?  I already made mine unique!

JoLynne

[Lizzie]

Thanks for your feedback @Tim191. It great to hear you have so much experience in this area, I hope you will also share feedback on other areas of the Community Center as well – would you mind taking a look at this topic, I would love to hear your thoughts. 

In terms of the usernames here, certainly a lot of thinking went into the best way to tackle this and I really wish it had been a more straightforward job! 🙂  In an ideal situation, we would have loved to enable all CC members to create their own username, but particularly for safety reasons (and preventing personal information shared) the team did think this would be the best option. We considered a whole range of different ideas. 

I think having the usernames as they were was nice as it replicated how you would talk to someone in real life (calling each other by their first name), but this caused many difficulites with @ mentioning and finding the right person to speak with here in the CC, due to their being thousands of people with the same name – so there needed to be a change. This way we have taken your Airbnb name and applied numbers based on when you joined the CC, so there is reasoning behind it. 🙂 

The product team are still ironing out a few things with the username update, but please do continue to share your thoughts on this going forward. 

Thanks again and hope to hear from you more. 

Lizzie

[John47]

@LizzieSo you said that we can't create own user ID's due to safety and sharing personal info? BUT - if I choose to be publically known here as i am elsewhere on net, why is that a corncern of yours? If I want to stay obscure, I could do that as well but when I'm easily found on multiple sites by my full name or my business name, and here I'm not, I see that as a problem, ok?
As long as my user Id is unique here, and not profane or such, i just don't see any issue.
i really DO detest/object to this assigned number suffix and hope it will be able to be user changable soon.

[Lizzie]

Hey @John47,

Thanks for your follow up message. The guidelines here in the Community Cente, which include the removal of personal information,  are here to help protect everyone in our community and are inline with Airbnb's Terms, which are adviced by our Trust and Safety team. 

I know you might be happy to share your personal information, but the guidelines are across the whole global CC and at their heart is a good reason for why they are in place.

As I've mentioned before, I too would have loved to make it possible for everyone to choose their own usernames and the product team did explore all available options, fully, but this wasn't possible at the moment. I hope you will still see that this is an improvement.

As you use it more, please do continue to share you feedback. 

Thank you,

Lizzie

[Catty-Pilar0]

Super, me encanta..!

[Peggy-J0]

So when and how will we see our NUMBER?

[Peggy-J0]

Okay I see now I am a level 2... why?  I also see people are level 7 and level 10, what does this mean?

[Sarah977]

@Peggy-J0   The levels only refer to activity on this forum. Nothing else. If you make a few more posts here, you'll see your level go up. It's really unimportant. The levels also have nothing to do with your user name. Maybe you don't have any numbers after your name because you're the only Peggy J?

[Diego541]

@Sarah977 I thought that if I reached level 10 I would have a prize...

[Sarah977]

@Diego541  Oh, you mean that reaching level 10 wouldn't be a prize all on it's own? It wouldn't boost your self-esteem hugely? Like getting gold stars in kindergarten?

It would actually be really nice if the moderators explained at the top of the forums what the levels refer to. Because there are posts here asking about them constantly. 

I love this forum but I hate the Level thing- people think it means that Level 10s are some kind of experts and I get private messages all the time asking me questions about Airbnb stuff that I know nothing about 🙂

[Diego541]

@Sarah977  I was joking. Sorry.

[Sarah977]

@Diego541  I knew you were joking. So was I.