Server protocol:User ID

UID's consist of alphanumerical characters and  can  (not must!) theoretically be used at any place where you use a nick name. The first 3 characters identify the SID of the server where the user is on (this is part of the UID) and thus a UID will always start with a digit.

The benefit of using UID's is that it really uniquely identifies a user regardless of the current nick name. This allows us to solve some long-standing problems where nick collisions and race conditions that cause desynchs such as 'ghosts' in a channel.

Example: :One NOTICE Two :Hi there

Can become: :001AAAAAA NOTICE 002AAAAAA :Hi there

As you can see, it doesn't necessarily shorten the length, that isn't the purpose of UID. The benefit of UID is the uniqueness described earlier.

See also:
 * Server ID
 * UID command
 * PROTOCTL command: you enable UID & SID support via the SID token in PROTOCTL.