Page to check the status of a username
Title
Page to check the status of a username
Short, concise description of the idea
Provide a page that allows people to check the status of a particular username, and (if appropriate) provide a link to sign up for notification of availability.
Full description of the idea
The list of newly available usernames (http://www.livejournal.com/misc/expunged_list.bml) says that you can sign up to receive notification when a username becomes available, but it doesn't actually say how to do that.
It would be awesome to have a rename-related page of checking a username's availability -- which could then be linked to from the NAU page -- where you put in a username, and the system returns with either:
* not registered ([link]create or [link]rename)
* registered
* deleted ([link]sign up for notification)
* purged ([link]rename)
* not available
The last one would cover suspended accounts and also redirecting accounts (though the latter is a bit tricky due to the fact that it might rename to a purged account). And could cover reserved usernames, as well.
(The one for active usernames /could/ include a link to signing up for notification, though it would need to have a warning that accounts are only purged if deleted by the owner, so it may never be available)
An ordered list of benefits
- Makes it easier to check for rename-related status
- Provides a central place for that, which is also easier to link to in a general sense
- Somewhat redundant to the site&user search (which will return account status information, and, for deleted or purged accounts, the appropriate links), although not necessarily in an obvious way