Solution
The Lemmy server appears to have a database limit of 255 characters [2]; however, individual instances appear to put their own limits on username length though the frontend [3] and/or the API [4.1][4.2].
Original Post
If you know, please also provide relevant documentation.
UPDATE (2025-02-02T06:06Z): I did some brute-force testing, and, at least for sh.itjust.works, it seems that the maximum username length is 50, and the maximum password length is 60 [1].
References
- “Sign Up”. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Accessed: 2025-02-02T08:49Z. https://sh.itjust.works/signup.
- When creating an account on sh.itjust.works, the sign-up form will throw this error if the provided password is greater than 60 characters in length.
- @[email protected] To: [“[SOLVED] What is the maximum username length for a Lemmy account?”. “Kalcifer” @[email protected]. “Lemmy Support” [email protected]. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Published: 2025-02-03T00:54:51Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936.]. Published: 2025-02-02T05:57:26Z. Accessed: 2025-02-03T00:44Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936/16442382.
- They pointed to code on GitHub for the Lemmy server which outlines the length of the username data in the SQL database.
- “[SOLVED] What is the maximum username length for a Lemmy account?”. “Kalcifer” @[email protected]. “Lemmy Support” [email protected]. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Published: 2025-02-03T00:54:51Z. Accessed: 2025-02-03T00:46Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936.
- §“Original Post”. ¶2.
[…] I did some brute-force testing, and, at least for sh.itjust.works, it seems that the maximum username length is 50 […]
- The maximum username length for sh.itjust.works was found to be 50 characters by brute-force testing the length limit.
- §“Original Post”. ¶2.
- “Andrew” @[email protected] To [“[SOLVED] What is the maximum username length for a Lemmy account?”. “Kalcifer” @[email protected]. “Lemmy Support” [email protected]. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Published: 2025-02-03T00:54:51Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936.] Published: 2025-02-02T19:57:49Z. Accessed: 2025-02-03T00:59Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936/16453656.
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curl -L http://lemmy.world/api/v3/site | jq -r .site_view.local_site.actor_name_max_length(26)- The maximum username length for Lemmy.world was found to be 26 characters via an API request.
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curl -L http://sh.itjust.works/api/v3/site | jq -r .site_view.local_site.actor_name_max_length(50)- The maximum username length for sh.itjust.works was found to be 50 characters via an API request.
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I have no reason to expect any obligatory answer from anybody. IMO, it would be very entitled of me, or anyone else, to expect otherwise.
Is it? Maybe. If I was using software, and asked a question that the developers of it could easily answer, and they didn’t, I might think about using something else. It certainly would’ve helped though, if you’d got an answer from someone you were more ready to believe.
Believing a Lemmy developer’s claim simply because they are a developer of Lemmy is an appeal to authority, imo. I would still ask for some documentation as proof, or for them to point to functionality within the code, or similar.
There is no contractual obligation for the Lemmy developers to provide me with any service [1]. I would agree insofar that I think that there is some level of advertisement provided by their behavior towards their base, but I personally don’t feel entitled to anything. Of course, this is just my personal opinion.
References