New username restrictions

Just to explain something technical here.

Edeb8 is a database-driven website. One of the key things the database needs to store is lists of users - for example, the list of users involved with any given debate. Unfortunately, a "list" is not one of the data types supported by our database engine.

To get around that, edeb8 internally uses a "control code" to separate usernames when I need to in a list. The code is "|||". So for example, a list with admin, nzlockie and Stag would read "admin|||nzlockie|||Stag". If anyone here has tried to put "|||" into their usernames, you would have been prevented from doing so by the site.

The problem comes when a user begins or ends their names with "|". For example if my name was "admin|" then the list would read "admin||||nzlockie|||Stag". As the script splits it by the control code of "|||" from left to right, reading that list out gives us "admin", "|nzlockie" and "Stag", which is of course incorrect.

To resolve that, a new restriction has been put on usernames - they can no longer begin or end with a | character. For future's sake, you also can't begin or end with a / or character.

Sorry about that.