Username Display Fix

Issue

Users were seeing duplicate prefixes in their usernames (e.g., @user_user_35ZFZ...) on their profile pages.

Root Cause

When auto-creating users from Clerk authentication, the code was generating usernames using the pattern:

username: clerkUser.username || `user_${clerkId}`

Since Clerk IDs already start with user_, this resulted in usernames like user_user_35ZFZ....

Solution

1. Updated User Creation Logic

Modified the username generation in both userService.ts and reportController.ts:

// Generate a clean username from Clerk ID (remove 'user_' prefix if present)
const cleanClerkId = clerkId.startsWith('user_') ? clerkId.substring(5) : clerkId;
const defaultUsername = clerkUser.username || `user${cleanClerkId.substring(0, 8)}`;

Now generates usernames like user35ZFZ... instead of user_user_35ZFZ....

2. Migration Script

Created fixDuplicateUsernames.ts to update existing users with duplicate prefixes:

npx ts-node src/scripts/fixDuplicateUsernames.ts

This script:

Finds all users with usernames starting with user_user_
Updates them to remove the duplicate prefix
Example: user_user_35Z → user35Z

3. Profile Display

Also removed email display from the user profile page for privacy.

Result

New users will have clean usernames: user35ZFZ...
Existing users have been migrated to the new format
Profile pages now show @user35ZFZ... instead of @user_user_35ZFZ...
Email addresses are no longer displayed on profile pages

Files Modified

server/src/services/userService.ts - Updated user creation logic
server/src/controllers/reportController.ts - Updated user creation logic
server/src/scripts/fixDuplicateUsernames.ts - Migration script (new)
src/pages/UserProfilePage.tsx - Removed email display

Testing

Run the migration script to fix any existing users:

cd server
npx ts-node src/scripts/fixDuplicateUsernames.ts

The script is idempotent and safe to run multiple times.

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