Yesterday, I observed the following interaction in public chat, with some redactions for the sake of decency, and nicknames and IGNs substituted with placeholders since the point is not to name and shame, and timestamps (GMT-4 timezone) to show the sequence of events and the timing involved:

[23:45:35] [Donor] PlayerA: i like fat [*****] in my [***]
[23:45:40] [Donor] PlayerA: wow
[23:45:42] [Donor] PlayerB: wow PlayerA
[23:45:44] [Donor] PlayerB: thats nasty
[23:45:46] [Donor] PlayerC: lmao
[23:45:48] [Donor] PlayerA: yes it is
[23:45:49] [Donor] PlayerC: wow PlayerA
[23:45:55] [Donor] PlayerA is IGNPlayerA
[23:46:07] [Donor] IGNPlayerA: PlayerB, /nick me again
[23:46:12] [Donor] PlayerB: PlayerA what is wrong with you
[23:46:16] [Donor] PlayerB: i never did /nick tf?
[23:46:21] [Donor] IGNPlayerA: nick me again.
[23:46:22] [Donor] PlayerB: my nick was PlayerB the whole time
[23:46:23] [Donor] PlayerC: No proof PlayerA
[23:46:23] [Donor] PlayerB: lol​

The realname command results are shown 20 seconds after the suspected /nick abuse text. A screenshot of the chat with the /realname evidence shown might have gotten the wrong person in trouble, and the innocent party would be hard-pressed to prove their innocence, unless they happen to notice it in chat and protest the abuse convincingly enough in public chat (as the example above appears to do) and take screenshots to defend themselves in case they are falsely reported.

A brief cooldown timer (say, 60 seconds to 5 minutes) on /nick would help prevent this type of abuse by locking players into a nickname long enough that there's time to gather /realname evidence, but not so very long that it becomes an inconvenience to legitimate users.

Note to staff on implementation caveats:

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I think this is a really good idea. It'd make nick abuse a lot more apparent.

 

Support! I see some people nick abuse me in game grrr

 

plz no i love nick abusing nyxa

 

Even if you're changing your nick to something for fun, a minute or so cooldown would allow for you to be caught if it was unwanted nick abuse and not be too annoying for people just having fun.
Support.

 

No Support

 

For your second part, we sort of have that already. Support, for the cooldown though.

 

just make staff like /nick logs or something?!????? i payed 100 hard earnd dolars 4 this rank /1//????

 

Yeah Dont Touch My /nick powers

 

That sounds like a great idea! Absolute support.

 

Support. Nick abuse is so annoying

 

Support! Great idea.

 

Support. I'm sure this would help reduce the amount of nick abusers, which would be nice.

 

Thanks Laini! I hope that a bit of enforced transparency about /nick changes will help keep people honest. Thanks for your support.

That's awful! Hopefully something like this will help stop /nick abuse. Thank you for your support. : )

Fair enough. Thank you for your honest feedback. : )

Okay : )

Thanks for the feedback, WiFi. Just something else for you to consider, though:

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I hear you. The /nick command is definitely a neat perk to have, and I'd hate to see it go, too. I'm not suggesting that we get rid of it, only to make it less easy to abuse. I'm hoping that if we can get it under control, we don't get to a point where the staff decide that /nick is more trouble than it's worth. Thank you for taking the time to comment and for sharing your perspective. : )

Thanks Natalia. : )

Indeed! Thank you for your support. : )

Thanks Wolfie! I'm glad you like it. : )

That's my hope as well. Thanks for your support and for taking the time to reply. : )

 

Support, would help get rid of nick abusing for the most part

 

I'm totally for like a nick log so when you do /realname ???? It says ???? Was lego , and then gives the current nick

 

Support, would defiantly help stop/catch nick abusers.

 

60 seconds would be enough, support.

 

support, 5 mins isnt rlly neccesary tho

 

Support,

However 5 minutes is way too much considering that you can /nick. 60 seconds is enough.