When users change their usernames, their user ID stays the same.
When a user is quoted, the Forums markup includes a link pointing to the user ID with text that includes their username at the time of the quoting post.
Putting these together, it wouldn't be hard to keep track of old usernames for users. It would happen most when reading old posts, but could be useful immediately after a name change.
There's another possible source of old usernames in thread lists, as the "posted by" username seems to be cached as of the thread's posting and doesn't automatically reflect subsequent name changes.
Sometimes people edit the quoted user's name as a joke, changing it to "an idiot" or whatever. Maybe a rule like "old username appears in multiple quotes" and/or "...from multiple posters" would be smart?
Not sure where to surface a "possible past usernames" list in the UI. Profile screen?
(Also I know I've had this thought before, but I couldn't find an existing issue for it...)
When users change their usernames, their user ID stays the same.
When a user is quoted, the Forums markup includes a link pointing to the user ID with text that includes their username at the time of the quoting post.
Putting these together, it wouldn't be hard to keep track of old usernames for users. It would happen most when reading old posts, but could be useful immediately after a name change.
There's another possible source of old usernames in thread lists, as the "posted by" username seems to be cached as of the thread's posting and doesn't automatically reflect subsequent name changes.
Sometimes people edit the quoted user's name as a joke, changing it to "an idiot" or whatever. Maybe a rule like "old username appears in multiple quotes" and/or "...from multiple posters" would be smart?
Not sure where to surface a "possible past usernames" list in the UI. Profile screen?
(Also I know I've had this thought before, but I couldn't find an existing issue for it...)