[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress] #5185: BP Signup - spaces in username issue

[buddypress-trac]

#5185: BP Signup - spaces in username issue
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 Reporter:  hnla                            |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement                     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                          |   Milestone:  1.9
Component:  Core                            |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                          |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch needs-testing commit  |
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Comment (by boonebgorges):

 hnla and henrywright - Thanks for chiming in.

 There are a number of incidental reasons why we want to avoid username
 restrictions in BuddyPress. It adds extra logic to BP that requires
 maintenance and debugging. And the fact that BP imposes restrictions
 causes problems for developers and site owners who want to debug signup
 issues. Along the same lines, when we interfere with stuff in this way, we
 have the potential to break plugins that modify the signup process for WP
 but don't explicitly take BP into account.

 But the fundamental reason is this: it's not our job. BP does not handle
 authentication; WP does it for us. The purpose of `user_login` is
 authentication. So we really have *no business* messing with it.

 I think the reason why people in this thread (including me) feel a bit
 uncomfortable about spaces in usernames has to do with URLs and other
 public stuff. But it's important to remember that BuddyPress does *not*
 use `user_login` in public places default. It's only when
 `BP_ENABLE_USERNAME_COMPATIBILITY_MODE` is enabled that we do. If we could
 get rid of this mode, I would, but we are stuck with it :)

 ==

 Side note that 5185.02.patch needs testing with more kinds of funky
 user_login values with username_compatibility. I realized after posting
 the patch that the switch to user_nicename for activity @-mentions might
 cause problems for existing sites where @-mentions are already in use (and
 have users with logins like "foo.bar"). Also, some of the autocomplete
 fixes for message composing might cause clashes if a site has a user "foo
 bar" as well as a user "foo-bar". This latter bit is a pretty extreme edge
 case, but could use some eyes.

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5185#comment:11>
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