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I'm pimping myself networking on other sites, and rather than linking to my stackoverflow profile, I'm considering linking to my Stack Exchange profile.

I didn't realize I had such a scary looking URL though:

http://stackexchange.com/users/86d37599-c894-4366-8a0f-ae8727db7e13

Compare this to my Stack Overflow profile:

https://stackoverflow.com/users/2915/adam-davis

While it's understandable that moving to UUIDs makes sense knowing that eventually every single atom in the universe will desire a Stack Exchange account, I can't help but be homo sapiens centric and suggest that perhaps we humans can receive special treatment and have nicer, shorter URLs.

Lacking a better option, please consider allowing users to choose a custom URL, similar to how Careers has allowed me to choose http://careers.stackoverflow.com/adamdavis

Perhaps the following would be easy enough to implement:

http://stackexchange.com/users/[customName]

It would have to be first come first serve, but even http://stackexchange.com/users/adamdavis42 is vastly better than http://stackexchange.com/users/86d37599-c894-4366-8a0f-ae8727db7e13

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  • 1
    Although I must admit that balpha's efforts can make even the most unpalatable UUID pretty
    – Pollyanna
    Apr 14, 2011 at 16:19
  • 11
    You're missing an Eeeek in the question title.
    – Powerlord
    Apr 14, 2011 at 17:08
  • 5
    @RBemrose I'm an Eeeekophobe, due to terrible experiences in my early thingadongdong years.
    – Pollyanna
    Apr 14, 2011 at 18:46
  • 1
    hey Big Spender! youtube.com/watch?v=iG3VfKlfDEk
    – Jeff Atwood
    Apr 25, 2011 at 23:33
  • OK, as long as no one steals mine!
    – Benjol
    Apr 28, 2011 at 12:19
  • 2
    StackExchange should've grabbed a simple domain, like on.fb.me. I suggest sex.com. What? sex.com/users/adamdavis looks pretty hot.
    – Dan
    Aug 4, 2011 at 14:48
  • 1
    In the recent past, this changed; you're 2114 now!
    – Arjan
    Oct 2, 2011 at 20:29

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
10

Stack Exchange network profiles now have urls similar to the rest of the network:

https://stackexchange.com/users/86d37599-c894-4366-8a0f-ae8727db7e13

is now

https://stackexchange.com/users/2114/adam-davis

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1
  • Please oh please extend this to s.tk (as long as I get s.tk/Benjol!)
    – Benjol
    Oct 26, 2011 at 5:42
7

I would suggest Stack Overflow alike user page URLs.

Probably they just need to sort user table by created date, and start assigning numbers from 1, and map those guid and numbers one to one.

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10
  • 1
    While I would prefer vanity URLs, if that's not feasable then using the scheme common to all other sites would be most appropriate.
    – Pollyanna
    Apr 14, 2011 at 16:22
  • 1
    Well, @Adam, I am not against it, but I don't want to put extra numbers after my username.
    – YOU
    Apr 14, 2011 at 16:25
  • 2
    You want the extra numbers before the username? "stackoverflow.com / users / 2915 / adam-davis" ;) I'd like to see both implemented. That way you can use the built in, arbitrarily assigned user number, and if you happen to get your vanity URL you can use that as well.
    – Pollyanna
    Apr 14, 2011 at 16:27
  • 1
    @Adam, well, that's correct. May be I'm just used to it. I don't feel offended with those numbers before my name because of slash character. And well, if they implement both, that's great.
    – YOU
    Apr 14, 2011 at 16:34
  • 1
    If they were to have vanity usernames, I think it should be a privilege extended only to users with a network-wide reputation of at least x and at least y on one or more sites (so you couldn't just get your auto-bonus on 5 sites). x and y could be maybe 1000 and 500? Open to suggestions
    – nhinkle
    Apr 14, 2011 at 21:57
  • @nhinkle, I feel that is like discrimination to low rep users.
    – YOU
    Apr 15, 2011 at 1:04
  • @you true, but then new users could go and register vanity URLs before the people who they should really go to get a chance. Perhaps a much lower limit, like the 200 required to get a rep bonus on other sites, or even just 100 on an individual site would be appropriate?
    – nhinkle
    Apr 15, 2011 at 4:16
  • Maybe even throw in a cipher as well. ;)
    – Mateen Ulhaq
    Apr 25, 2011 at 3:55
  • 3
    We need network wide unique usernames
    – waffles
    Apr 25, 2011 at 12:05
  • 1
    @YOU: low rep users don't have any reason to advertise their profile, so they don't need vanity URLs
    – Ben Voigt
    May 27, 2014 at 23:54
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+250

Not that putting the reliance on a third party is ever a great option, but you could perhaps set up a custom option with a url shortener (e.g. http://bit.ly) and use that...

e.g. http://bit.ly/davidsleeps

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5
  • I like solutions like this. Using third party tools, Adam can solve his problem, yet we still keep the SE development team focused on things that really improve the network. Of course, the one problem with bitly urls is they too are hard to memorize and are almost as bad as the guids. But I do like how you think!
    – jmort253
    Apr 25, 2011 at 4:53
  • @YOU nope, cannot see
    – davidsleeps
    Apr 25, 2011 at 5:31
  • @YOU maybe mine has a useful example?
    – davidsleeps
    Apr 25, 2011 at 5:31
  • may be, the other one don't have example, except listing of url shorteners, bit.ly, is.gd, short.ly, tinyurl.com
    – YOU
    Apr 25, 2011 at 5:59
  • 2
    If you own your own domain, just put a simple redirection in there. E.g. davidsleeps.com/profile
    – tylerl
    Apr 26, 2011 at 7:53
0

How about a new subdomain, http://users.stackoverflow.com or http://users.stackexchange.com to hold your master profile. It could use the shorter form URLs (or even vanity URLs if you earned one). It could turn into a Meta site about SO users and their connections.

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