Suggest alternative usernames if yours is already taken

[Paul]

Hi all,

Perhaps I'll work on this hack, but since it's late, it's likely I'll forget I even considered it, so I'm posting here.

I'd like a hack that would suggest alternative usernames if the username selected is already taken--i.e. if I want the username "Paul," but someone else has already registered with that, vBulletin would spit out "Paul is in use, but perhaps you'd like one of these instead" or something along those lines. It would then generate a list of usernames containing the original one I wanted with some other data--perhaps a birthday?

I.e. if I my birthday were april 1st and I entered that in while registering, offer Paul401 as an alternative nick or if I inputed a value for location while registering, use that. Say I put in "NY"--offer PaulNY as an option. Or if there's no other data to go on, add a random string of numbers ala Paul123.

Of course, the system would check to see if any of these usernames were taken already--perhaps through a query checking any usernames beginning with my original selection 'paul%' and storing them in an array to make sure they aren't displayed as an option.

And finally, a plain old input box to let the user make another personalized choice.

Supposing I attempted to register as 'Paul', filled out my birthday as 4/01/1900 and said my location was 'NY', I could see the following:

We're sorry, but the username 'Paul' has already been registered by another member on our forum. Consider one of the following suggestions or pick something else:

• Paul401
• PaulNY
• Paul<threerandomnumbers>
• <Input field to select something completely different>

Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions? It's way past my bedtime.

Best wishes,
Paul