A difficulty's name must not solely consist of one or more usernames. Words that happen to be usernames are acceptable within difficulty names as long as they relate to the song.

1. At this moment, the highest difficulty (or difficulty level for Insanes/Experts) of a mapset is already under no obligation of following a clear naming scheme for the difficulty progression. As such, there is already a big number of mapsets where Insane/Expert difficulties do NOT follow any classic difficulty naming scheme, using unrelated terms instead;
2. As explained by some of the posts in the discussions I've linked above, some of these difficulty names (e.g. Arles) already have a preconceived notion of mapping style and difficulty in the osu! community, making them effectively descriptive of the difficulty in some cases;
3. In general, the rule is worded in a way which makes its application unclear for a number of edge cases (one of which is present in the first discussion linked above).

Difficulty names in a beatmap must be clearly progressive and accurately indicating of their respective difficulties, excluding:
- The highest difficulty of each game mode.
- The highest difficulties of each game mode with a similar level of difficulty, applying only to Insane and Extra difficulties (e.g. the Insane difficulties of a ENHIIII set or the Extra difficulties of a ENHIIXXX set).

Mismagius wrote:

Full support but this was decided by peppy himself stating that he would not allow this under any circumstance IIRC because he just doesn't like the idea of usernames being associated with diffnames, and that pretty much overruled any community stance on it

However this was around 10 years ago so I hope he changed his mind lol

source:
community/forums/topics/169960?n=83
community/forums/topics/159456?n=187

-White wrote:

As a zoomer I'm not sure what purpose this would serve.

-kevincela- wrote:

Besides, let me turn the question around: what would the purpose of keeping the status quo be? Why are difficulty names like https://osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets/2254715#osu/4796242 and https://osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets/2290581#osu/4897326 ok and not something like [Rin]? To me it's not just a matter of nostalgia, but rather of consistency. Why are arbitrary words ok for top diffs but usernames is where we draw the line? I would rather simplify and be consistent than maintaining edge cases which, by many, are considered of little use for the mapping ecosystem.

-White wrote:

If we want to change the rules to just allow any words/names/titles for top diffs then sure, that would be consistent. Going and updating it to explicitly allow usernames seems overly focused on bringing back 2014, at least to me.

-kevincela- wrote:

If anything, I would even be open to adding more guidelines or even rules to go on the other side and restrict the range of words/themes that can be used as diffnames as long as there's some consistency, but I don't really think the mapping community is interested in this at this time.

A beatmap host cannot indicate possession in a difficulty's name. (e.g. Beatmap Host's Insane). Conflicts caused by beatmapping multiple songs with the same metadata and collaborative difficulties are the only exceptions.

Ascendance wrote:

i think this is an overreaction, and disagree that this is the logical next step for difficulty naming when you can basically name difficulties whatever you want already.

Ascendance wrote:

i think a top difficulty spread of just usernames sounds genuinely awful. restrict it even more and maybe but if i saw an enhiixxx spread and the x diffs are all just people’s usernames it just doesn’t make sense in the current era of the game.

Ascendance wrote:

Edit: the two cases are also completely different. Arles is not the same case as “Phob’s “ being acceptable for a song named NO TITLE. Please disconnect these topics.

Ascendance wrote:

i think a top difficulty spread of just usernames sounds genuinely awful.

Ascendance wrote:

if i saw an enhiixxx spread and the x diffs are all just people’s usernames it just doesn’t make sense in the current era of the game.

-White wrote:

As a zoomer I'm not sure what purpose this would serve. This suggestion/sentiment seems to come from nostalgia more than anything, from the time where the community was smaller and dominated by big names like NatsumeRin and Skystar. I don't think this is appropriate for modern osu.

It doesn't really matter though, since the decision is peppy's to make it seems.

RandomeLoL wrote:

I do believe there are reasons beyond "I don't like it" worth considering.

-White wrote:

I support Randome's idea to make it a guideline, I think this would enable it to be uses when justified without every diff devolving into the mappers name.

AJT wrote:

35+ posts without someone giving one says a lot to me

RandomeLoL wrote:

If anything, a takeaway from this thread is whether the current approach of non-descriptive difficulty names is a good one to begin with

AJT wrote:

When exactly are uses meant to be justified? Cases where the diffname happens to be the mapper's username but is thematically relevant ("Fiery Rage", Satellite etc.) are already explicitly allowed. Which usage cases would moving this to a guideline further allow, and for what reasons (keep in mind it was concluded that the Phob case technically follows current RC)? I'm a bit confused on what potential examples are being referred to.

RandomeLoL wrote:

I genuinely think there's no benefit in letting every single top difficulty be able to become a username. In most cases it is not descriptive of either the beatmap, the song, its difficulty, or anything in relation to it.

RandomeLoL wrote:

If anything, a takeaway from this thread is whether the current approach of non-descriptive difficulty names is a good one to begin with

Shii wrote:

On a whim I'd probably say sets that try to recreate the aesthetic/impression of maps from the era where usernames as diff names was more common, or where the music track somehow justifies it (perhaps a track from Your Name?). And of course, what is already allowed, thematically appropriate usage of mapper names.

Are there any other actual use cases for usernames as diff names?

AJT wrote:

RandomeLoL wrote:

I genuinely think there's no benefit in letting every single top difficulty be able to become a username. In most cases it is not descriptive of either the beatmap, the song, its difficulty, or anything in relation to it.

I don't think there really needs to be a significant benefit (what's the benefit towards allowing 72 character essay diffnames?), it's just about being consistent and giving mappers the choice. On the other hand, there does need to be a benefit or logical purpose towards the enforcement of something as a rule (in my opinion). If the diffnaming rules in other aspects were as strict as they were in [insert year] and hadn't been relaxed, then this rule would be more in line with the others. On that note:

RandomeLoL wrote:

If anything, a takeaway from this thread is whether the current approach of non-descriptive difficulty names is a good one to begin with

This doesn't solve the dilemma of why this specific method of non-descriptive difficulty names deserves special treatment over the other methods. I actually don't have an issue with your general viewpoint at all and think that many current (and surely future) diffnames are dumb, but I don't really think it matters what I think of them and to have a logically consistent ruleset would be a good thing to me.

AJT wrote:

I think our talking points are asymmetrical in that you guys are saying there should be a good reason for using such a diffname. My entire point is that the reason these diffnames were outlawed was in part due to a need to clearly indicate difficulty progression due to primitive SR and icon systems. Since these concerns are fixed, the only reasons left are variants of "it looks bad", which leads me to my opinion that the rule is unnecessary. I'm not particularly concerned with how justified any individual use case is.