As it stands, the user search function will only give you the exact result of the name you searched, or if you were to type in "-A t" it would automatically bring you to my profile because mine is the only username beginning that way.
This to me isn't enough, because get 1 word or number wrong and you can't find the user you're searching for, and also another reason I will address.
Right now users are able to change their username through various means, this places a "Previously known as" followed by their old username below their new one, this discarded username, if searched, wouldn't yield any results, so why not include previous usernames in the search as well?
This may raise a problem in that someone's old username might have been taken by another person, so searching for that would lead to a different profile. A solution to this would be to display all relevant results (perhaps starting with 10) with the closest or exact one starting at the top instead of going straight to a person's profile. This would not only solve the above problem but also the problem of searching for someone with a complicated username or one full of numbers or whatever else.
This to me isn't enough, because get 1 word or number wrong and you can't find the user you're searching for, and also another reason I will address.
Right now users are able to change their username through various means, this places a "Previously known as" followed by their old username below their new one, this discarded username, if searched, wouldn't yield any results, so why not include previous usernames in the search as well?
This may raise a problem in that someone's old username might have been taken by another person, so searching for that would lead to a different profile. A solution to this would be to display all relevant results (perhaps starting with 10) with the closest or exact one starting at the top instead of going straight to a person's profile. This would not only solve the above problem but also the problem of searching for someone with a complicated username or one full of numbers or whatever else.
