Wikipedia talk:Changing username

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pradeep

Is there any leeway afforded in usurping accounts with edits? (I'm looking at a name with 4 edits from 8 years ago). -- John Reaves 06:01, 10 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've definitely seen it happen at bureaucrat discretion; in fact, to an account with almost exactly the same specification (although I forget who or when it was). — Scott • talk 16:25, 10 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, just go ahead and file and we will look. –xeno^talk 18:04, 20 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Username requests from users who have RfA page(s), etc.

I've occasionally noticed that a few users have redirects in place to link to RfAs under previous username(s), and find this to be both helpful and transparent. The redirects have been created by various (sometimes apparently unrelated) users, and I've even created a handful myself. Whether the RfA was successful or not, and whether the user remains an administrator seems to me to be irrelevant to transparency. Additionally, for active admins, such redirects are arguably desirable, per WP:ADMINACCT. This has been previously touched on at Wikipedia talk:Changing username/Usurpations/Archive 4#Username changes for admins.

Not to create such redirects seems to me to potentially create unnecessary issues such as not having access to an obvious record of unsuccessful RfA(s), e.g. when a renamed user may several years later be the subject of a new RfA (perhaps even genuinely forgetting about the existence of a previous RfA).

User:NoSeptember/admin username changes seems to be not maintained, so would a requirement to create such redirects as part of the renaming process be an appropriate way to address this?
Are checks performed, and/or questions asked regarding RfA pages as part of the renaming process?
Should such checks be undertaken?
If such RfA pages exist, should redirects be created as a matter of course during the renaming process?

At risk of stating the obvious, by extension the same argument holds for RfBs (and RfArs, RfCs, RfCUs, SPIs, etc. although there is perhaps less likelihood of CHU requests in such cases).

What do people think? Thanks. -- Trevj (talk · contribs) 13:38, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Trev, I had some similar thoughts back in September - see Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 109#Improved transparency for admins that have changed user name. My suggestion was to have a policy that WP:RFA/<Admin's current name> should always link to WP:RFA/<Admin's successful RFA>. The idea seemed to go down quite well, and I meant to take it forward; however some things got in the way and I totally forgot. Now that you've reminded me, I think proposing to add it to the policy on administrators would be timely and appropriate. — Scott • talk 13:57, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. That's a useful link which had evaded my search of the archives. There seems to broadly be consensus but I'm proposing that any unsuccessful RfAs are redirected while retaining the same chronological suffixes. This is to avoid any potential confusion. I've placed that {{Pls}} note now. -- Trevj (talk · contribs) 16:47, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Also a good idea; I think the whole area of adminship and changes of name needs to be encompassed by policy. — Scott • talk 20:19, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds as if an RfC may be needed. How about the following proposed draft wording as a starting point?

RfC: Changing of usernames should require associated RfAs, RfBs, RfCUs etc. to be linked to via redirects
Propose to append the following text to the end of the first paragraph at WP:UNC (Wikipedia:Username policy#Changing your username):
"A user requesting a change of username should expect redirects to be created to any pre-existing pages discussing the user. Such redirects could include, but are not limited to, RfAs, RfBs, RfCUs, etc. The presence of such redirects reflects civility in the editing environment, and may be created by any editor. In some unusual cases, such redirects may be considered unnecessary in accordance with the Privacy policy."

Amendments and other suggestions welcome. In particular, the general process for the creation of such redirects should also be addressed, e.g. Wikipedia:Bureaucrats#Renames could make reference to it, although perhaps the onus should be on the requesting user to create their own redirects. -- Trevj (talk · contribs) 15:28, 5 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bureaucrat note: I'm in general agreement that especially RfX'en should be redirected from the new name, but think that the onus should be on the renamed user to create them. –xeno^talk 06:56, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
- It seems in 2010, I felt that bureaucrats should create them [1]. –xeno^talk 00:14, 9 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  - Tweaked. –xeno^talk 18:47, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
- @Trevj: Sorry for not getting back to you sooner on this, it fell off my radar. I agree with xeno in that users should be expected to maintain RfX linkages. Here's my proposed modification to your text:

"A user requesting a change of username should expect that redirects may be created to pre-existing pages that discuss them. Such redirects may be created by any editor, and their presence reflects civility in the editing environment. In rare cases, such redirects may be considered unnecessary in accordance with the WMF privacy policy.
Users changing username following having been granted additional privileges, such as in RfAs, RfBs, and other similar processes, need to remain accountable to the community. Following such a change, they must ensure that the discussions in which they successfully applied for those privileges are accessible through their current username. For example, Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/New name must redirect to Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Old name (or /Old name 2, and so on, as appropriate)."

What do you think? — Scott • talk 10:38, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. That makes sense, except for cases where users have requested user rights and not been granted them, e.g. unsuccessful RfAs. There could be the case where a user registers, edits, submits an RfA, withdraws it (or similar), has a rest from editing for a while, picks up again, submits a request for change of username, submits a further RfA after a period of years... they might either have forgotten about the previous RfA, or otherwise fail to mention it. In any case, it ought to be clear that such pages relate to the current user. Therefore, how about something like:

"A user requesting a change of username should expect that redirects may be created to pre-existing pages that discuss them. Such redirects may be created by any editor, and their presence reflects civility in the editing environment. In rare cases, such redirects may be considered unnecessary in accordance with the WMF privacy policy.
Users changing username following having taken part in requests for additional privileges, such as in RfAs, RfBs, and other similar processes, need to remain accountable to the community. Following such a change, they must ensure that the discussions in which they applied for those privileges are accessible through their current username. For example, Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/New name must redirect to Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Old name (or /Old name 2, and so on, as appropriate)."

-- Trevj (talk · contribs) 08:01, 24 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Incomplete archive

It should be noted that there are a number of problems with malfunctioning bots at present. One effect seems to be that requests are being deleted without being added to the archive. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:56, 6 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@David Biddulph: has this been resolved? If not could you provide some examples? Is it happening at CHUS or USURP? –xeno^talk 06:51, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The problem was with a number of requests which were deleted from CHUS on 5 and 6 Mar by a variety of IPs, but not added to an archive. This was one arbitrarily-chosen example. --David Biddulph (talk) 09:09, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks... I believe there was some issue with the Labs those days (@Legoktm:). If it's no longer happening, (and the customers got what they needed), I'm inclined to just leave it, unless someone else is willing to manually rebuild the lost half-archived requests. –xeno^talk 12:09, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Merging

I am looking for a method to merge two accounts, specifically two that I own, and to have all the edits consolidated into the one account. I understand that this would be done via MediaWiki's UserMerge extension, however, its stated that it has not been enabled. Can I ask why it has not been enabled? AcidBat (talk) 22:10, 19 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It has not been enabled because the community has not requested that it be enabled, probably for attribution and coherency purposes. –xeno^talk 14:05, 30 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Untitled

Hello can u please resister "Shoutbox sidebar" P☮ace-♥-33756 20:34, 28 April 2014 (UTC) thank you.[reply]

Sorry, I don't know what you're asking. See WP:TEAHOUSE for further questions. –xeno^talk 14:05, 30 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Global account browser link broken

The link to the Global Account Browser at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Changing_username/Guidelines#Handling_SUL_conflicts leads to a "user account expired" page on toolserver.org, and the tool is not available. Geoffrey Spear (talk) 11:14, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you @Geoffspear:, I have updated it. –xeno^talk 14:00, 30 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

SUL login?

Where to go to request that a changed name be made consistent? A year ago I changed from Truthkeeper88 to Victoriaearle and since then have been unable to log in to Commons (or anywhere else). The new media viewer crashed my computer and I'd like to get into Commons to have access to preferences there. Thanks. Victoria (tk) 21:54, 16 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Victoriaearle: You need to rename your other accounts (e.g. commons:COM:CHU) and then use special:MergeAccount. –xeno^talk 14:01, 30 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks zeno. Thing is, how is that done? I can't log in anywhere except en.wp. Can someone get it started for me? Thanks for the reply btw. Victoria (tk) 15:48, 31 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]