This idea has already been discussed several times, but for different reasons. This is one of the threads.

Main reason for deleting old users? With monastery growing fast and so many usernames that have been registered but never used, it's becoming more and more difficult to get a "nick" that you want to have. There've been some people frustrated being unable to register a username of their choice, because someone has done that a year or so before them, yet never used it.

I agree that the unused "nicks" can be frustrating. My own handle would be 6 characters rather than 17 if either corwin or rattus had been available. However, given what JayBonci said lower down about deleting user nodes being potentially problematic, I wonder if renaming the users would be a better solution. I would suggest something like User<node_id>, which most likely would cause few if any username collisions. This would free up the usernames that are registered but have never been used.

- $0.02 from the rat
__________
He seemed like such a nice guy to his neighbors / Kept to himself and never bothered them with favors
- Jefferson Airplane, "Assassin"

Posting cause I feel the renameproposition deserves a stronger vote than a ++.

Makeshifts last the longest.