• No names with profanity, slurs, offensive content or connotations. [This bullet is mostly unchanged, and should get top billing.]
• No names implying official staff positions (e.g. "Staff, Operational Staff, Moderator, Admin, Administrator, etc.) [Slightly expanded example for more clarification.]
• No names implying specific, unique positions/affiliations in the Foundation or other fictional groups on our website (no SCP-173, O5-Money, D-1234, MTF Leader, etc.)
• No names with pre-established Foundation characters on site. (like Dr. Bright, Dr. Sophia Light, Able, or Alto Clef.)

Consequence of that above third bullet would be that names with Director or Executive would be allowed, since those are not strictly exclusive to the SCP Foundation, so Director Happytime would be allowed, but SCP Director Happytime and Foundation Director Happytime would not be.

That said, I don't think it's that big of a deal, since we already have a few bajillion Doctors who I'm sure are not actual doctors, and if anyone roleplays with their name, they get the book.

That said, no need to change it. It works, and we have bigger fish to fry.

• No names with profanity (swear words), slurs, or offensive content.
• No names saying that you're associated with any real world hate groups, or any of their members.

Doctor, Researcher and Agent importantly don't imply hierarchy, and that's really what we want to avoid.

I don't particularly care about roleplaying, except insofar as it makes conduct harder to control, and nor do I care about preventing people from naming themselves in cringeworthy or silly ways. But I do care about people naming themselves to imply they have authority on the site (because that enables abuse and makes moderation more difficult), and I also care about naming themselves such as to imply they're open to abuse or hazing (which also enables abuse, and is why I think permitting D-class names is a bad idea).

I am more in favor of "let people name themselves anything that isn't an established character/offensive", since I don't think it's really our place to dictate what is a "good" username, but whichever way it goes I just want our rules to be consistent and straightforward.

As a preemptive note: This is totally a low priority issue that we just want to patch out. This will not be delaying, in any way shape or form, the reopening of applications. It was just noticed while looking over system:join.

For reference, here's our current username rules:

Usernames:

• Bad Usernames
  • No names with "SCP" or "Class D" or an SCP number.
  • No names with a Foundation character that isn't yours (like Dr. Bright, Dr. Sophia Light, Able, or Alto Clef).
  • No names saying you're official website staff (like 'admin', 'administrator', or 'moderator').
  • No names saying you're in charge at the fictional Foundation, or other fictional groups on our website (like Senior [anything], MTF Leader, O5, Director, Executive, or Overseer).
  • No names with profanity (swear words) or offensive content.
• If you have one of these names, we may remove your account. Please change that name.
  • To change your name: Go here and click on Edit next to your username. You can only change your account's username twice, so be careful.
• You can have names like "Doctor", "Researcher", and "Agent", because these names don't say you're in charge at the Foundation. If you're not sure, ask a staff member.

While it's generally agreed that names with profanity, offensive content, or names that imply position on site staff (like "Admin") should be disallowed, discussion occurred regarding our somewhat inconsistent enforcing of in-universe titles, such as "D-Class," "Researcher," "Agent," and "Site Director."

Should our current username policy, specifically in reference to in-universe titles in usernames, be modified?