Mastodon usernames are currently restricted to Latin characters.

I'd like to have the option to run an instance which allows usernames like "莎士比亚".

I'm not saying that it should be mandatory that every instance allows every Unicode character in a username. But I'd like to run an instance which allows Chinese characters in usernames.

https://oulipo.social/ forbids usernames with the letter "e" - so please can a change be made so I can run an instance which forbids the Latin alphabet?

To address the likely objections:

It's too hard to type those weird characters

This is what my keyboard generally looks like when I'm typing Chinese.

Most systems make it easy to swap keyboards and use "strange" characters.

What about impersonation?

As mentioned in #225 - this is already a problem with Latin character restrictions.

BOB can be B0B (zero and oh), Bill can be BiII (Capital i and lower L) etc.

In addition, anyone can copy "your" username and use it on a different instance.

A sensible policy might be to disallow "mixing" scripts. For example, banning microsoft - which mixes Latin & Cyrillic.

Do you want to bring back Emoji.li?

There once was a social network which only allowed Emoji usernames.
I would love the option of restarting it and making it part of the Fediverse.

Summary

I think it should be up to the instance owner to decide on username policy. I would really like to see Mastodon adopt a more international approach to usernames.

• I searched or browsed the repo’s other issues to ensure this is not a duplicate.

Well... Not quite! #1121 discusses this. At the time, Japanese users said that they wanted only ASCII characters. I'm saying the issue isn't quite as clear cut as that.
People who run instances should be free to choose a username policy which best serves their local community.