tahrir
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sanity
Handle multiple userIdentities with the same nick name.
Currently tahrir doesn't support multiple userIdentities with same nickName. One possible solution to this is that when a user types '@' to mention someone, we give a dropdown list of all the contacts with those nicks, which can be got by using the getIdentitesStartingWith() of IdentityStore, and let the user choose one. This should be passed on via the message and added as an attribute to the mention element in the xml representation of the message. If this is done the check for multiple nicknames in the addIdentityToUsersWithNickname() should be removed.
@sanity Do we need to support multiple userIdentities with the same nickname? I feel it would be better with unique nicknames. I'm really not getting the point of having duplicate nicknames.
It could solve this issue if we don't accept duplicate nicknames.
I think the problem with unique nicknames is how to enforce this in a decentralized way, and also preventing abuse, something like a person automatically registering every word in the dictionary as a nickname.
With the DNS system this is achieved through a centralized authority which imposes a monetary cost. I don't think this is an option for us.
So while unique nicknames would be nice, I just don't see how it would be possible to enforce or to prevent abuse.
Hmm, that's true. But can we use some kind of modified block chain which can be used to store encrypted nicknames? Or DHT?
I'm worried that enforcing uniqueness could get very complicated, and raises a lot of questions. How do we prevent people from just grabbing millions of nicknames? What if someone forgets a password or loses a private key, is the nickname gone for all eternity? What happens if someone grabs the name "Ian Clarke" or "Microsoft", even though they aren't me, or aren't Microsoft?
I think it will be far simpler to treat a nickname the same way names work in real-life, they are a non-unique label that acts as a convenience shortcut for an actual identity (in Tahrir an identity is a public key). People call you "Ravi", but there is nothing to prevent other parents from calling their children "Ravi" too. It's a convenient label, but there is no uniqueness requirement. You can suggest that people use a particular label for you (I might suggest "Ian", "Ian Clarke", or "Sanity" for me), but ultimately it is their decision what to use. Someone that knows me well might want to use "Ian", someone that knows me less well might want to use "Ian Clarke".