

Don't force users to pick a username - FreshCode
http://petrustheron.com/posts/username-sign-up-dont-do-this.html

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pif
Most of the web sites I use regularly use an even better solution: your email
address is used as your user name. How could it be better? A valid email
address is surely unique, and the risk of it being forgotten by the user is
sufficiently low.

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rartichoke
Sometimes an e-mail address isn't enough because if the site has any type of
social aspects to it you wouldn't want your e-mail address being used as your
identifier.

I agree though for sites where you're not mingling with other users or have
any notion of a public profile then a username at this point is pretty silly.

