UID/nick collision idea

[wnelson <wnelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Simple idea... Instead of changing someone's nick to their UID on
collision, why not allow servers (but only servers) to set a 12
character nick, and have the new nick consisting of 3 character server
ID + original nick?

E.g.

User 'NickBlahh' is on server irc.something.net (with sID 03e) - and
gets collided...

* NickBlahh is now known as 0e3NickBlahh

Advantages:

New nick is still guaranteed unique, but is more easily readable than a
UID as a nick - so if a large channel gets collided you can easily find
your friends. Also, if you tend to use the same server a lot, your
friends could put 0e3NickBlahh in their notify - and find you if you get
collided. And also, a user with a nick which looks like his old nick is
less likely to change back to his old nick too soon - and risk being
collided again.

Disadvantages:

3 extra characters per client structure... Idea won't work until all
servers accept 12 character nicks... Some scripts/clients may need
upgrading to accept 12 character nicks too.

Anyway, just a thought.

Wull@IRCnet