allow nicks starting with numbers

[ilf@…]

In at least the Twitter module, nicks starting with numbers get an underscore in front of their nick and renaming them to without is not allowed. Why is that so? Any chance to fix this? 1.2.7 here, still missing in Trac :)

[Wilmer van der Gaast <wilmer@…>]

In at least the Twitter module, nicks starting with numbers get an
underscore in front of their nick and renaming them to without is not
allowed.
Why is that so? Any chance to fix this?

This didn't happen before but was added later to be more IRC-compliant.
(Admittedly I don't know if any IRC client really has problems with it BTW.)

I have plans for adding some RFC-ignorance options though, and loosening
nickname restrictions will be one of the changes.

1.2.7 here, still missing in Trac :)

Good point, that's fixed now.

[ilf]

Oh, indeed. RFC 2812 sais:

nickname = ( letter / special ) *8( letter / digit / special / "-" ) ​http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2812#section-2.3.1

But this RFC also states that nicknames have "a maximum length of nine (9) characters". I guess it's safe to ignore this, but a $ignore_rfc_nickname_restriction option would be cool.

[ilf]

Just for completeness: There's a draft:

for the server to unobtrusively advertise the ways in which it differs from the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) specification defined in RFC1459 ​http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-brocklesby-irc-isupport-03

It incorporates a NICKLEN parameter:

o NICKLEN=number

This parameter specifies the maximum nickname length that the client may use in a nickname.

[Example: NICKLEN=9 indicates that clients may have nicknames up to 9 characters in length.]

This parameter does not restrict the length of any nicknames other clients on the network may use.

The NICKLEN token requires a numeric value.

The default value for NICKLEN is 9, which corresponds to RFC 1459 [5].

​http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-brocklesby-irc-isupport-03#section-3.13

I can't find a mention of the specification to not start with digits. But then again, the draft expired in 2004, too.

So I still vote for an option to ignore this. tircd ignores this by default. irssi handles it just fine :)