Username Hack Request

[Parker Clack]

I have a very large board and we moderate our usernames. I am wanting to change the registration page so that they sign up with a required username and a nickname. Then the script checks the username and nickname together to see if they are in use already and if they are they get the alreadyregistered template if not they are taken to the registration page.

I know I would have to create a row in the user table to allow for nicknames but I am wanting to know how to set up the register.php page so that it checks both the username and the nickname before allowing them to go forward with the registration.

I am still using 2.3.6 and will be upgrading to 3.5 when it gets out of Beta.

Thanks,
Parker