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How account names are chosen Your account name, also known as your username or login ID, is the name you use to login to your CSE account and is also your email address on the CSE system. What form of account name you can have depends on what kind of account you have.
Note: this FAQ is an expansion and explanation of the official CSG naming policy as agreed by the Computer Facilities Committee, minutes of which are posted on the Facilities Committee website.
Undergraduate and coursework postgraduate students
The standard form of username for undergrad and coursework postgrad students is a 7 character name where the first 4 characters are the student's initials plus extra characters from the surname, to reach a total of 4 letters, and the last 3 characters are randomly chosen numbers.
Some students who enrolled before 2000 may still have the old form of username where the letter 's' is prefixed to the student's student number.
Undergrad and coursework postgrad students can only change their username by using the priv username command (which will ONLY change it to another 4/3 combination as above) or by requesting System Support to change it IF they meet one of the conditions for a so-called 'named account' listed in the next section.
Named accounts
People generally prefer account names that are recognisably based upon their actual name but named accounts, as they are known, are considered a privilege and are reserved for people who meet one of the following conditions:
- they are employed by/contracted to CSE ie. they are an academic, researcher, general staff, Helpdesk or tutor. This does not include the student assistants to the Helpdesk.
- they are an undergrad thesis (honours) or postgrad research thesis (PhD) student
- they are a student representative, an executive in the student societies Compsoc or SESoc, or an executive in the student branches of IEEE or ACM at UNSW.
- they are a visitor to CSE, or need a CSE account in order to collaborate with a member of CSE
People who do not meet one of the above conditions will only be given a named account if an application on their behalf is made by a CSE employee who can make a convincing case for such a privilege being granted. Acceptable usernames
CSG does not enforce a fixed format on usernames (such as firstname.lastname) and allows the user some leeway in choosing their preferred account name. However, the chosen username is only allowed if it fits these rules:
- A minimum of 3 characters. A maximum is not enforced but is recommended to be 8 characters.
- Must begin with a letter and all letters must be lowercase.
- Must contain only letters and numbers ie. it is alphanumeric.
- Must not be offensive or suggestive in any way.
- Must not be a nickname. However, well-known diminutives may be acceptable.
- Must not equate to only one of the user's names, but instead must reflect the user's whole name as it appears in their
acc. The three accepted ways of doing this are: - initial of first name + surname;
- first name + initial of surname;
- 3 initials
Visitors and newly hired staff with an established identity on the internet may request that identity be used as the basis for their CSE username; this will be subject to it being neither offensive/suggestive nor confusing (e.g. it is too similar to an already existing username).
Here are some further notes on the rationale behind the various restrictions. Character limitations A minimum of 3 characters is required for some individuality; any 2 character combination is likely to form the initials of numerous people within CSE. 8 characters is recommended as the maximum as some applications (eg. xlock) are known to break upon longer usernames. A username starting with a numeral may also confuse some programs.
Punctuation characters are reserved for the mlalias program which is heavily tied into the user database.
Using both names Choosing a username based upon parts taken from your complete name provides a balance between yielding a username that a person can easily identify with without overly compromising the choices that other people with similar names might be allowed to make, and without introducing too much subjectivity (e.g. "My first name is really rare, so there is no chance of confusion if I use it as my username" is a subjective argument; somebody with the same name as you may join CSE any day). Maintaining some equity between present and possible future users is important to CSE.
Nicknames Nicknames, IRC handles and external email account names are never acceptable as usernames. However, a distinction is drawn between nicknames and diminutives. Diminutives are traditional abbreviations such as 'Bob' or 'Rob' for 'Robert' or 'Liz' for 'Elizabeth'. Staff and visitors who commonly use a diminutive may substitute it for their first name in the 'first name + initial of surname' form of username; however, for consistency it is preferred that their acc also use the diminutive in the Name field. The reason for this is that our mail system looks up people's accounts to try to guess the intended recipient of incorrectly addressed email. The more closely your email address matches your recorded name, the more likely the mail system is to forward wayward email to you. The use of diminutives is less often allowed for students since a) they generally enrol under their proper names and b) there are a heck of a lot of 'Dave's and 'Sue's in the student body! It may be allowed if you can convince SS that you commonly use the diminutive form, especially if the username formed from your proper first name is already in use by another person.
Long names The 'initial of first name + surname' and 'first name + initial of surname' forms of account name are preferred because they are obvious, easy to remember and easy to guess for somebody who knows you or can lookup your acc. However, many people have long first and/or last names (ie. longer than 7 characters) which can lead to an unwieldy username. In such cases the user can take the prefix of the long name and use it as a substitute for the whole name. The prefix is usually the first syllable.
Example: A user enrolled as Fred H Bloggs would be allowed any of 'fbloggs', 'fredb' or fhb' as his account name unless one of these was already in use. A user enrolled as Frederick H Bloggs would also be allowed any of these account names, as would Frederick H Bloggsworth.
Note: When we say 'prefix' we mean 'prefix' not 'letters randomly chosen from all over my name'. Even if your name contains all of the letters 'a','c', 'i','m','o' and 'w' you will not be given the username 'ImACow'. Attempting to exploit the prefix exception to give yourself a username that is cute/amusing/a dictionary word, or equates to one of your names is also disallowed. A user enrolled as Mirra Ainsworth will not be allowed the account name 'mirra' on the specious grounds that 'mirr' is a prefix of her first name and 'a' is the initial of her surname.
Finally, if your names are very short, you may be allowed to use the whole name instead of an initial. Again, this is more likely to be allowed if it would avoid a clash with an already-taken username.
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