"The username violates our guidelines"

Yes it's a technical issue. I'm sure if you create a new account it would work. People are becoming kind of paranoid about "AI" and being tracked. Not good.

I fixed my issue by installing the Microsoft Start News App on my Android phone (Microsoft Start: News & more - Apps on Google Play).

I started the process using the Microsoft Start home page (first appears when you open MS Edge) on the MS Edge browser on Mac (Big Sur). When I was configuring MS Start, it is then I ran up against the "...username violates out guidelines," issue when signing up for the Community section. The username line in the 'sign up' dialog was EMPTY. I went through the normal motions and changed my Full Name under the "Your Info" section of my MS account, but nothing worked. No matter what I did, while using MS Start home page (or website) in the browser on my Mac, the username was always empty when trying to sign up for the Community section. I believe the empty username is a data fetch error. Furthermore, since the username line is empty in the Community sign up dialog box, it violates user guidelines of having a blank username. So, it is not a conspiracy but a programming issue (or maybe a browser specific issue not caught in testing).

I stumbled on a post that talked about the MS Start App, so I decided to try that on my Android phone. Once I installed the app outlined above and logged into it, I could see my preferences were indeed sync’d (news types, notifications, etc.) from when I set them on the MS Start home page on my Mac. However, I noticed that after I logged into the app there was still an error showing. The error had a Contact Support link and it started workflow for an MS Rewards support ticket. So, I did 2 things and, of course, I’m not sure if both or one of these things fixed it. 1). under the sign in portion of the MS Start app on Android, there are a few options. One option is 'My Rewards.' I touched 'My Rewards' and essentially joined the Rewards program (it looks harmless and didn't cost anything). Once I did that, the error message that was appearing on the sign in portion of the app on Android went away and a 'dashboard' showing my points was displayed in its place. 2). I then went back to the home page of the app (still on Android) and picked a news article. I then went to comment on it. When I did that, I got the same Community 'sign up' screen I saw on the MS Start home page using my Mac but this time, the username was populated (with my Full Name in my MS Account). So, I touched "Join" and that was it; it worked. So, I was able to join the Community and comment on a news article all in the app on Android.

So, I went back to MS Edge on my Mac, picked a news article and tried to comment. It asked me to sign (I assume to try to perform the Community requirements needed to comment). After signing in, I was able to comment.

To me, it seems the web app (browser) is not properly pulling the Full Name from the "Your Info" section of the MS Account, but the android app is. It may be possible to use Edge on Windows, or some other browser and the bug may not appear.

I will say the app on Android is a bit buggy (screen flashes) and the website is still kind of clunky (obviously). I hope these things will be fixed as they refine the platform and the multiple ways to access it.

My account is as old as Hotmail, so mine's old too, but this is no excuse for such buggy software.

The political snowflakes of both the left and right need to realize that not everything is political. Admittedly, censorship is a thing, and it is getting awful with places like YouTube, but I'm not sure if that is a left or right issue either, as it smells like a money issue. Both left and right are getting censored...well... left and right. The only videos that need not worry about the algorithm ban hammer are twit makeup videos with nothing more in-depth than which lipstick goes with which skin color, made by teens.

I find it funny that you say "no excuse for such buggy software." I would assume you're not a programmer and don't know the first thing about writing code and how complex it can be. I would assume you don't know that every time you fix one "bug" generally another "bug" shows up. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. Old code often doesn't behave well with new code and it's very hard to merge and update systems. While I'm not a programmer, I am well aware of the complexities of software development and I've made a choice decades ago that this wasn't the kind of life I wanted for myself because it's tedious work which never ends. You can see how many times software is updated and if you look at the changelogs you can see how many bugs are fixed. Running huge systems which run on thousands of servers is complex, and saying "no excuse" and things like that is just not appropriate. I remember Verizon was having huge problems putting eligible people on the EBB discount plan when those accounts were old, and the solution, as I had suggested, was to re-create the accounts, and that worked, but took a few weeks for them to figure it out. You can't just expect things to work perfectly when it comes to computers, because computing by definition is working on writing software and then solving various conflicts and bugs, that's just the way it is, and if you can't accept that, it's best to not use this technology at all.

Regarding "snowflakes" well yeah not everything is political, but censorship is just a word and it doesn't mean anything on its own. The question is what content should be allowed and what should not be allowed. Making an argument that all content should be allowed is just delusional because there are types of content which can cause serious harm. This is why online platforms have Terms Of Service and Acceptable Use Policies. If you sign up for an online service you must indicate you agree to the TOS and AUP. Once you have agreed and are allowed to use the service, then you need to follow the terms carefully and make sure you don't break the rules. As you say, there are algorithms which help humans make sure people are following the rules. Sometimes these algorithms fail and tag legitimate content as being in violation, and this is expected since AI is not human and isn't very "thoughtful." So in view of this, one must be even more proactive and careful to stay clear of anything which might appear as a violation. This really isn't hard. Ultimately if one isn't happy with the TOS or AUP they can start their own services, but they still need to keep in mind that they might be bound by other service providers and ultimately the laws in their country and even laws in other countries. In other words, stay civil and respect others. If you don't agree with something be sure you do research before commenting, and if you decide to comment, be sure your answer is well researched from legitimate sources (you know what those are!) and keep it respectful and civilized. If you can't do that, just don't bother engaging and you'll save time and nobody will miss anything either.

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation on how to solve this bug. As for suggesting this may not occur on a desktop with Edge browser, yes it's happening to me in this scenario.