Limiting characters in usernames?

Not exactly sure where to post this question, so asking it here.
(Already tried at vB.com -- no replies in 5 days. Trying here and vB.org now.)

Anyway...

Need a little help here.

I can see this in admincp vB options, but it's either too much filtering or not enough:

Code:

You may require the username to match a PCRE-type regular expression.
(Do not start or end the expression with an escape character)
Examples:
^[A-Z]+$ - Characters from A-Z only
^[A-Z ]+$ - Characters from A-Z including space
^[A-Z0-9 ]+$ - Alphanumeric characters including space
^((?!&#\d+;)[\x20-\x7E])+$ - ASCII characters from 32-127
See PHP.net for more information on regular expressions.

I want A-Z, 0-9, periods, underscore, spaces and hyphens --- and that's it.
Any help on what this would be?

I've had some new users with names like {{JOHN_THE*KING}}|| and that's a ridiculous name.
The forum has been around for years, but only recently has this happened.

And if you know how...
Preferably no "repeat" periods/underscore/hyphen/spaces.
i.e., "--BESTUSEREVER-- ___ -- 123"
Better yet, limit to two total periods, underscores, hyphens, spaces
I don't want any more users trying to use screwball usernames full of ASCII.
Or even overusing what is allowable non-letter/non-number.

Thanks.

try

Code:

^[A-Z0-9 _-\.]+$

limiting isn't really supported unless you have a true pattern.

Thanks much.

I somewhat trust the advice of vBSEO Staff over the other vB sites anyway.
Thanks for the quick assist.

Nope, that makes it to where nobody can register.
I tried to enter a new username of "testIII" and it was rejected.
If I leave the PCRE box blank, all is fine again, but still with the problem of using too much ASCII.

Hmmm.... any other ideas?

Hello,

You may replace the above regular expression with this one:

^[a-zA-Z0-9\.-_\s]+

Thanks for trying Andres. Unfortunately that didn't work either.
I chronicled what did/didn't work here: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/show...scii-2823.html

What I did turned out (so far) to be a "good enough" solution.