[design] Alter the (@user:server.net) suffix on duplicated displaynames to be "out of band" of the displayname itself

[ShadowJonathan]

I feel like i can best describe this with the comparison between two images:

And;

The first image describes the current behaviour, the second one the behaviour I want; I'd want for the (@user:server.net) suffix of displaynames to be reworked so this displays as a "tag" instead (such as discord's "BOT" labels:

But meant to be less "visible"

That mockup was generated with:

color: grey;
font-size: 80%;
font-family: monospace;
margin-left: 1px;

Plus placing the (@user:server.net) manually in <span> tags, and then applying above CSS to the specific span.

(A bug variant of this request is #16896, which describes specific behaviour when a user detail sidebar is opened on the right)

[ShadowJonathan]

Alternate configuration where the username is "under" the displayname, like so:

[niquewoodhouse]

I personally really like this idea because it seems small to do and is hopefully high reach (hopefully most users view a populated timeline) and makes it easier to read every timeline, which is pretty important.

Somethings I don't quite understand:

• Are the brackets necessary for some reason around the (@user:server.net)? If so, what are they doing?
• Sometimes in my timeline I see people who don't have their (@user:server.net)bit, and just a name

vs

Do we know the reasons as to why that might happen, I'm totally guessing it's something configured on the homeserver, or by a user in their settings?

I was seperately wondering if, longer-term, forcing the (@user:server.net) to be visible on tapping/hovering on the user in a small pop up was as useful/might be the right place for it where you can take more actions (eg message/ignore etc)

Discord example

Slack example

[t3chguy]

The appended bit in brackets is a disambiguation, it only shows up for users whose display name in that room is not unique

Its to help prevent malicious acts which try and confuse you into believing a person is someone different by them setting their name+avatar to match someone you trust

[SimonBrandner]

Are the brackets necessary for some reason around the (@user:server.net)? If so, what are they doing?

I don't think they are if a different enough styling would be used. But if we decided to have them I'd like to use the suggested square brackets (Šimon Brandner [@simon.brandner:envs.net]) because it nicely matches the Matrix logo ([matrix])

[ShadowJonathan]

@niquewoodhouse I should note that the disambiguation side of things is noted in the spec, while i feel that in this case it's more of an implementation detail (hiding as a recommendation), this could be open for design and discussion.

But if we decided to have them I'd like to use the suggested square brackets (Šimon Brandner [@simon.brandner:envs.net]) because it nicely matches the Matrix logo ([matrix])

Agreed, I think bracket disambiguation looks nice when styling 👀

FTR, discord somewhat goes around the "malicious users" thing by implementing a bunch of other implicit trust-relationship methods, such as the Friend system, having users set special colors for admin roles (that stand out against the white), and using # disambiguation with usernames. All-in-all it creates tools for a user to verify someone with, even if it's needing to be explicit.