Space in user name

Often users want to use spaces in their user name; for example, Geek Girl instead of Geek_Girl.  However, I have noticed that adding spaces to user names can cause problems in certain areas of the site, at least it did for 7.0.9; one such area was in the uploader for photos.  I tested it by adding a space to my name in the database and it did display with a space.  I was thinking that it is only the display of the name that needs the space and the user name without the space could be used internally.  The trick here would be to let users enter a "special symbol" in their user name that when displayed is converted to a space.  For example, if a user adds an underscore when display that underscore is converted to a space but internally the underscore is still used.  The rub to this idea would be how user names are retrieved and displayed.  If it is not a single script that handles this then all the areas in the site that has local code handling the display of the user name would have to be adapted and frankly that is more work than I want to do and it would be overwritten with any updates.

Prashank was working on this for a while but the thread about it got deleted for some reason. I thought 7.1 was supposed to have this built in but I guess not?

 The thing i was working on was to show full name everywhere but 7.1 have that by default. So, no point to rip you dolphin installation now.

Go to admin->profile field builder->NickName->Advance

and replace the "check" textarea content with this

return ( preg_match( '/^[a-zA-Z0-9_ -]+$/', $arg0 ) and !file_exists( $dir['root'] . $arg0 ) );

Do it in a test site and test, see what breaks up.

Yes, Dolphin 7.1 allows use of First Name + Last Name and combinations of.  However, it still will trip the error message that a user name must not contain a space.  I don't know if 7.1 B1 just forgot to change the check, or if it user names with spaces are still not handled by the system.