Username format?

[gauravjulka]

Why r u wasting time asking such a question.............. These things are not going to be added in any standardization formalities....Nor user name adoption technique is going to be standardized in very near future yet..... till we have so many discreet networks across the internet.

You have a problem to assign user names to all people of ur organization.. .. simply put use whatever is convenient to remember for your colleagues and for u to identify them.... take care of the rules and regulations so that nobody's confidential info is revealed.. and lo u have the solution.

[catch]

They do? Did they get spanked too? In my day they used the SS number. ( I was in over 30 years ago. ) Any idea when that changed?

I should have said us(ed.)/(es?)

The US Army introduced Serial Numbers in WWI (I don't believe the Social Security system came into effect until the Great Depression.) and killed them during Vietnam. The problem was that under the McNamara project, minimal IQ requirements were dropped to meet manpower needs. Subsequently they switched from serial numbers to social security numbers... as it stands now I believe you get a social security number and a serial number, but the serial number never makes it to the dogtag and is used pretty much exclusively for internal tracking (as the serial number is more "intelligent" than the social is) However with everything being on computers now, more data can be stored and numbers don't need to be so smart... so really I have no idea what they are doing.

However, I do know that when you sign-up/are drafted you can give an Employer Identification Number (nine digit number, EIN) instead of your social.

cheers,

catch

[BrainStop]

All,

If I remember correctly, a social security number is not compulsory.

As stated by the Social Security Act:

(B)(i) In carrying out the Commissioner's duties under subparagraph (A) and subparagraph (F), the Commissioner of Social Security shall take affirmative measures to assure that social security account numbers will, to the maximum extent practicable, be assigned to all members of appropriate groups or categories of individuals by assigning such numbers (or ascertaining that such numbers have already been assigned):

Numbers shall be assigned to the maximum practicable extent. Back when I lived in the States, I seem to remember having a couple of non-US colleagues who did NOT have an SSN.

To get back on topic though, I would agree that your employee ID is probably your best best for account names. Of course, this does not address the need for email addresses ...

Cheers,

BrainStop

[IKnowNot]

The US Army introduced Serial Numbers in WWI

Well, since I'm not as old as nihil this doesn't apply to me.

The problem was that under the McNamara project, minimal IQ requirements were dropped to meet manpower needs.

Well, now I know how I got in.

I do know that when you sign-up/are drafted ...

I don't recall any reference to any other numbers back then, guessing this did change over time though. ( hey, they now keep samples of DNA of everyone in the service, thus no more “ Unknown Soldiers” . ) But my biggest disappointment was that they took my draft card. I would have like to of had that as a souvenir.

I really don't want to hijack this thread so I won't go further into the “ draft “ subject.

I do want to commend catch on bringing up the SS number restrictions. ( I can't assign him APs at this time though ) I think this was extremely pertinent to this thread and something everyone in similar situations should be aware of. With the advent of computers ( years ago ) it was extremely easy to just use a unique identifier which was already assigned to an individual, so lazy people took the easy way. They had no forethought, no hindsight, and no cares about the laws which applied that no one was willing to enforce; .... until it bit everyone in the arse.

Does this scenario sound all too familiar??

Since I'm typing slow,

I seem to remember having a couple of non-US colleagues who did NOT have an SSN.

Another good point, but is on topic. They were, as you said, “ non-US “.

I may be wrong here, this is my understanding, but let me give you this:

You work for a German company in Germany. They send you to the U.S. for a few months. You are still employed in Germany. Why would you have a U.S. SS number, or need it?

You are a citizen of India. You move to the U.S. You get a new job with a company based out of India. Because you are employed here you would need a SS number in the U.S., even if you never applied for citizenship.

Again, I won't go further with the merits of the SS system itself as it is not pertinent to the topic, but that may explain the above post.

As how it applies to this thread? How many companies have people with accounts who are employed outside of the U.S. ???

[cacosapo]

When you are creating account names, dont use a "format rule" that forces will to change acct name when user move between depts.

For example: suppose you are naming guys like SALE001, HR001, etc... some day a employee move from sales dept to HR dept... do you want to change his account?

I allways prefer a simple one:

Ennnnnn - for employees
Nnnnnnn - for non employees

here nnnnnn is a sequential number, starting from 1000

easy, inst it?

(why not starting from 0001? because in one company i had soooo much problem when a lot of VIP were disputing the begining range (1-10).... )

[catch]

Take care to not overlook morale as a cost to information systems.

Sure using an employee number might be more convenient for the MIS people, but like I said above... how will employees feel about this? There is a reason that prisons assign and use a number identifier rather than name... it dehumanizes you.

Just stick to a simple first.last / last.first / flast / fmlast, etc system. Users are people too.

cheers,

catch

PS. Yeah, I know I'd suck as a BOFH.

Edited to correct the typo of "moral" to "morale".

[Tiger Shark]

You'd be surprised how quickly duplicates appear when you use these "never hit a duplicate formatted ID's" the OP suggested.

When I first started working here I inherited a database that used the first name initial, the first two letters of the last name and the last four of the SSN as an ID. When I had to rewrite the db I first had to check over the data prior to import, (it was a flat file rather than relational). I found 14 duplicate ID's in 4,500.....

[catch]

A fun idea might be to let users pick their own login/email name. Clearly it would have to be unique (and nothing too offensive)... but beyond that, let 'em go hog wild.

This would solve all the problems... now I know some people might argue that the lack of predictable formatting or intelligence is a bad thing... but really how is it? Do you really need the user name to tell you anything? Most systems support a user description and with email addresses most people just click "add to address book" and "reply" I can't even remember the last time I wrote down an email address.

cheers,

catch

PS. Granted having users with email addresses like "zarganoth_destroyer_o_udders@blah.tld" isn't going to give you that faceless, IBM-style corporate image...

[mrlucifer]

very good information posted on this topic. I will continue to think about the username format I will use. But you know what, I too have an everyday account that uses my SS as my username! I am not the one to talk or gossip, but there is a major education institution here in Houston, Texas that I use and that students use their Social Security Numbers as user ids. This whole time I did not care to think about this. Damn, how could I been such a fool. Oh well, I agree with user "catch" I would like to make usernames easy but unique for users. Not only do I need a format to benefit the department, but something to benefit the users and to cut down frustration. Email is not a problem. All accounts will be tied to this format Lastname.Firstname@domain.com. I am still leaning towards the id format that I posted about.

[BrainStop]

catch,

[QUOTEnow I know some people might argue that the lack of predictable formatting or intelligence is a bad thing... but really how is it? .... that faceless, IBM-style corporate image[/QUOTE]

Speaking of that faceless IBM corporate image, they are not very predictable themselves. First of all, you need to know in which country the employee works (which is not always easy when your first level of sales is in Switzerland, your first line of support in the Netherlands, your second level of sales is in the UK, second level support in Canada and overall account management in the US ....), then you need to start guessing at the formatting.

I've seen the following so far:

firstname@<countrycode>.ibm.com
firstname.lastname@<countrycode>.ibm.com
<initials>lastname@...
lastname@...
lastname<initials>@...

Now granted, IBM has an online employee directory ... but it only works if you know the country where the employee is located.

Cheers,

BrainStop

PS = Yes, I spend a bunch of time dealing with IBM on a software product at the moment.