I am a bit hesitant to do the parenthesis thing, just because it would make usernames quite big, which I think will cause some problems with some upcoming redesigns we have for the frontpage.
Given this, maybe it would still be a good idea to officially encourage people to use their real names as their user names (or something that’s very easy to associate with their real name like a shortened form of it)? Because unless the real name is displayed everywhere, I still have to keep a mapping in my brain between their username and their real name, which seems like a pointless cognitive burden to impose on someone.
Is there’s some important benefit to letting people (who don’t want to keep their real names completely private) choose a different display name, that I’m missing?
Given this, maybe it would still be a good idea to officially encourage people to use their real names as their user names (or something that’s very easy to associate with their real name like a shortened form of it)? Because unless the real name is displayed everywhere, I still have to keep a mapping in my brain between their username and their real name, which seems like a pointless cognitive burden to impose on someone.
Is there’s some important benefit to letting people (who don’t want to keep their real names completely private) choose a different display name, that I’m missing?