Wikipedia:Courtesy vanishing
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This page documents an English Wikipedia behavioral guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
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This page in a nutshell: Courtesy vanishing means any user—upon leaving Wikipedia forever—may request renaming of his account; deletion or blanking of user pages; and possibly the deletion or blanking of discussions related to his or her conduct. This courtesy vanishing does not include the deletion of user contributions, and normally does not include the deletion of user talk pages. |
The usual way to leave Wikipedia is simply to stop editing. A courtesy vanishing may be implemented when a user in good standing decides not to return, and for whatever reason wishes to make their contributions harder to find to remove their association with their edits. Where there is no administrative need to retain the information, a permanently departing user may request that a wide range of user pages, and other pages that affect him or her alone, are deleted on departure. The user account is renamed; user pages are blanked or deleted; and pages related to the user's conduct may be deleted, blanked, or moved. Contributions, logs, signatures, and user-page templates (for example, templates related to blocks or bans) are usually not removed. User talk pages are usually not deleted.
Courtesy vanishing is discretionary and may be refused. It is not intended to be temporary. It is not a way to avoid scrutiny or sanctions. It is not a fresh start and does not guarantee anonymity. Any of the deleted pages may be undeleted after a community discussion. If the user returns, the "vanishing" may be fully reversed; the old and new accounts will be linked; and any outstanding sanctions and similar will be resumed.
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[edit] Vanishing from Wikipedia
Vanishing typically involves the following:
- A bureaucrat changes the username of the account to, for example, "Vanished User 1." As of 18 March 2011, the account must have made fewer than 50,000 edits, including deleted contributions. This is a technical limitation in the rename tool, not a policy limitation.
- References to the former username are replaced with references to the replacement username. Note that any signatures on user talk pages, and any references or links to the previous username and user pages will not be changed, and links may redirect to the new user pages.
- The account's user page and subpages are deleted. User talk pages are rarely deleted, and may be undeleted by community consensus. Oversight should be used to remove personal information, subject to the oversight policy.
[edit] How to request a courtesy vanishing
You may wish to blank your user page and any subpages in your userspace. To have them deleted entirely, add the {{db-user}} tag to the top of each page, and an admin will delete the page for you. This will work on all the pages in your userspace except for your user talk pages. To request your account be renamed, contact the bureaucrats via e-mail at wikien-bureaucrats
lists.wikimedia.org or by placing a request at the username change venue (enter a random string of numbers and letters as the new name and "RTV" as the reason).
Special:EmailUser/Bureaucrats
or email wikien-bureaucrats
lists.wikimedia.org.[edit] What vanishing is not
- Vanishing is a courtesy. Vanished users have no right to return under a new identity or as an IP. The courtesy vanishing applies only to cases of permanent departure, although in most other cases some scope for blanking exists.
- The courtesy vanishing is normally extended to users in good standing. It might not be extended to users who have been disruptive, who left when they lost the trust of the community, or who have been banned.
- The Wikimedia Foundation does not guarantee that an account name will be changed on request. Decisions to rename an account, if contested, are determined by community consensus.
- Users in good standing are free to request a change of username at any time, without requesting a courtesy vanishing. All contributions made under the old username will be re-attributed to the new username, including deleted contributions, preserving the edit history. Old signatures embedded in past posts cannot be changed due to technical limitations of the Mediawiki software, although in some cases collapsing or blanking is possible.
- The deletion of personally identifying information about users, such as a phone number or a street address, is not "vanishing"; such information can be deleted on request.
[edit] Deletion of user talk pages
While user pages and subpages may be deleted, the deletion of user talk pages is invariably controversial, and is the rare exception, not the rule. This is because user talk pages, unlike other user pages, have largely been written by other editors. User talk pages should not be speedy deleted by admins. Whenever there is a request to delete a user talk page, a bureaucrat should be consulted. Community consensus is that bureaucrats should delete user talk pages only where there is a compelling reason to do so—related to serious privacy concerns and the potential for real-world harm. Otherwise, user talk pages should be deleted only at MfD. Any deletion, including deletion by bureaucrats, can be challenged and overturned at deletion review. User talk pages should never be moved to become user subpages in order to facilitate deletion.
