Talk:User (computing)

Username

I quote:

A username is a unique name for each user. User names are usually based on a short string of alphanumeric characters. Depending on the policies of the particular service, the name may be chosen by the user or assigned by a system administrator.

So is it "username" or "user name" (note the space)? If "username," then it should read, "A username is a unique name for each user. Usernames are usuall..." That is, the term should be consistently used.

--Lenehey 20:22, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

I see it more often spelled as "username" (no space). Google suggest, "Did you mean: username?" Dictionary.com says "username" is also sometimes spelled "user name." And it should be added to the article that the word "screen name" is also used to refer to the same thing. --Dara 11:03, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

αӻzαℓ мαнαנιя afzal 09:47, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Иσт яєρℓу afzal 09:48, 17 March 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Afzal Mahajir (talk • contribs)

If

If you would write article Mult account (or if there is such an article under another name) plz mention about it on a page Мульт by iwiki. Thanks! Carn 17:04, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

merge Screen name (computing) pls

Screen name (computing) = Username. ね？.--ZayZayEM 06:05, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

not same thing. username is an account/unix thing, screen name is an AOL/IM thing —Preceding unsigned comment added by A plague of rainbows (talk • contribs) 15:33, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

 Done. screen name (computing) now redirects to User (computing). --DavidCary (talk) 14:06, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

whoami, who, and ...?

Is there a command to see a list all existing user accounts, without having to look at /etc/passwd or the contents of /home ?
Well, maybe not:

File: coreutils.info,  Node: User information,  Next: System context,  Prev: Working context,  Up: Top

20 User information
*******************

This section describes commands that print user-related information: logins, groups, and so forth.

* Menu:

* id invocation::               Print user identity.
* logname invocation::          Print current login name.
* whoami invocation::           Print effective user ID.
* groups invocation::           Print group names a user is in.
* users invocation::            Print login names of users currently logged in.
* who invocation::              Print who is currently logged in.

-----Info: (coreutils.info)User information, 18 lines --All

Thanks in advance, --Jerome Potts (talk) 01:11, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

/etc/passwd is definitive —Preceding unsigned comment added by A plague of rainbows (talk • contribs) 02:02, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Cybernaut?

Why does cybernaut redirect here? 86.140.69.123 (talk) 18:23, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

I was wondering the same thing...five years later! 74.174.59.10 (talk) 14:12, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I've redirected it to cyberspace. Mindmatrix 14:25, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

nom d'écran

I think we should add nom d'écran (French for "screen name") to the list, as it is sometimes used in English newspapers in Europe. Any thoughts? --Thorwald (talk) 20:38, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

About the issue of GUEST login.....

The topic of GUEST account in the IT industry needs to be discussed thoroughly, based on the fact of

https://portfolio.umn.edu/guestLogin.jsp;jsessionid=97C4C654F7682F18EC80DE06BD42CAC0

https://mondo.su.se/portal/help/html/content.hlp?docId=guestlogin

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=Guest+login&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_allsubj=all&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1

--222.64.221.91 (talk) 03:48, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

and

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&q=allintitle%3A+Guest+account&btnG=Search --222.64.221.91 (talk) 03:50, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

http://www.homeshop.com.au/website/home.jsp

https://www.colesonline.com.au/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CMLForwardViewCmd?storeId=10052&catalogId=10001&viewName=HomePageDisplay —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.64.221.91 (talk) 04:00, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&q=%22operating+system%22+%22guest+account%22&as_ylo=2008&as_yhi=2009&btnG=Search --222.64.221.91 (talk) 04:04, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&q=service+%22guest+account%22&as_ylo=2008&as_yhi=2009&btnG=Search --222.64.221.91 (talk) 04:06, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&q=software+trial+%22guest+account%22&as_ylo=2006&as_yhi=2009&btnG=Search --222.64.221.91 (talk) 04:08, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Is there a question here?? I very much doubt a guest account would be a good idea for Wikipedia - it is very easy (and free) for anyone to sign up. However, to pursue this further, perhaps you would be better off raising the question at the help desk. Astronaut (talk) 18:38, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

I agree that having an actual guest account isn't necessary for Wikipedia, much like having a physical steam locomotive isn't necessary for Wikipedia -- and the Wikipedia help desk is the appropriate place for further discussion of that topic.

However, I think Wikipedia needs an article *about* steam locomotives, and I think Wikipedia needs an article *about* guest accounts.

I think the above poster's point is that the idea of a "guest account" is mentioned enough times by reliable sources to be at least mentioned in this "User (computing)" article. (I agree, so I added a brief mention of "guest account" to the article). The concept of "guest account" may even have enough sources to give it the WP: Notability it needs for its own independent article.

Is there any other article more appropriate for explaining guest accounts? --DavidCary (talk) 11:44, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Post merge discussion

Thanks to User:Diego Moya for finishing up the merge of End-user (computer science) into this article. I went through and clarified some of the text and incorporated a lot of excessive see also links into the body. I am now done messing with how it was and I think the article is ready to be expanded further. We do need to check other related articles (like UML and software engineering concepts, access control schema, operating system architectures, etc) and make sure we are not duplicating content but only mentioning how it is related to an abstract user or a concrete end user and letting the links do the rest. References can also be improved greatly here. –Paul M. Nguyen (chat|blame) 15:38, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Suggest to remove line about hacker-related contexts.

In the intro there's the line:

In hacker-related contexts, such users are also divided into lusers and power users. Both are terms of degradation,[citation needed] but the latter connotes a "know-it-all" attitude.[citation needed]

I've never witnessed this before, especially the term "power users" being degrading. I know anecdotal data isn't evidence, but that statement also has no evidence to back it up. I vote for it to be removed.

Also, the power users category is probably used much more often outside hacker-related contexts, and in that case it's not degrading at all. For example, power users are often used as a user group in design or marketing.Dideler (talk) 22:43, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

192.168.0.1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.139.111.23 (talk) 01:21, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

End user (without hyphen)

Shouldn't "end user" be written without a hyphen, like End user? -- ChristopheS (talk) 13:45, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi. Both practices are okay. Treat them per MOS:STABILITY. When you are using "end user", be careful not to cause ambiguity; e.g. "End user license agreement" means "terminate user license contract". "End-user license agreement" can only mean "the license agreement for the end-user". Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 01:37, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

For clarification: I was referring to "end user" as a noun, outside the context of more complex compounds etc. See e.g. Collins English Dictionary, Oxford, Merriam Webster. "End-user license agreement" would mean "the license for the end user" (without a hyphen). --ChristopheS (talk) 09:24, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, but to me "end-user" is still better; "end user license agreement" could mean termination of a license agreement. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 17:27, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

My point was that you need to distinguish between "end user" as a noun on its own and "end user" as used in "end user" used in compounds. There is no ambiguity when "end user" is not part of a compound; no hyphen is needed here. You sometimes need hyphens to avoid ambiguity, e.g. in the following example from Constance Hale: "the little-used car v. the little used-car". Using a hyphen in "end-user license agreement" does not imply you need the hyphen outside such compounds. --ChristopheS (talk) 18:26, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Please have a look at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style § Hyphens instead of endashes, for example, or Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Archive 151 § En dashes rather than hyphens for both prefixed and suffixed adjective phrases. (2) – hyphens vs. en dashes vs. no/less/more hyphens always provides tons of seemingly endless and, of course, free fun. :) — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 19:25, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Fake accounts

I suggest that fake user accounts be covered by this article as well (or maybe on a separate article). Couldn't find anything on this subject in this Wikipedia, even though there are articles on the subject in other wikis (Italian, Portuguese etc.) —capmo (talk) 19:55, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Ok Ayut patil (talk) 17:32, 17 March 2019 (UTC)

Change username

who do I talk to about changing my username? AaronSand4605 (talk) 12:05, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Changing_username ~Kvng (talk) 00:12, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

History of the concept "user"

This article could use a history section. I just came to this article to find out when the idea of a user "account" was first invented in a computer operating system. This information seems to be missing. My guess is, that it came around with maybe the IBM System 360? This may also involve Multi-user software and History of IBM mainframe operating systems. --Lasse Hillerøe Petersen (talk) 03:29, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

user vs end user

The article seems to be inconsistent: "A user is a person who utilizes a computer or network service." This statement excludes machine accounts to be users. And this is how the English language defines user. But then: "Some software products provide services to other systems and have no direct end users." Then the term end user is defined to distinguish between users and end users. But users are defined being the persons and no machines, so how do they distinguish between end users?

Furthermore, if a computer has a purpose, the users fulfilling the purpose could be seen as end users, the admins that ensure the computer is working are not "end users" as they are only ensuring the purpose can be achieved - so not clear the term "end user" makes much sense in here.

Or am I wrong? 195.212.20.242 (talk) 10:27, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

We have a separate End user article which seems to agree with you. I would support edits that clarify that User (computing) is a superset of End user. ~Kvng (talk) 16:33, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

Down-Level Logon Name format?

Username formats says that there are "Down-Level Logon Name format". Really? Shouldn't that be "Domain-Level Logon Name format"? User:Haraldmmueller 12:45, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

That phrase in the article is sourced to MSDN and checks out. ~Kvng (talk) 13:58, 4 March 2024 (UTC)