Wikipedia talk:Unified login/Finalisation

User:Ched

The following are what is not "merged"

• commons.wikimedia.org (0 contribs)
• es.wikipedia.org (0 contribs)
• fr.wikipedia.org (71 contribs and usurp declined)
• ru.wikipedia.org (0 contribs)

Commons is really the only one I want, but they put my name change on hold because of the others. What should I do? — Ched :  ?  17:46, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

You have the global account "Ched", so your accounts here (and in a bunch of other places like Wikidata and Meta) are yours. The clashing accounts which are not yours - including Commons - will be renamed out of the way of your account, and you will then be able to use "Ched" on Commons, French Wikipedia (and everywhere else). Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 18:01, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Thank you Jdforrester, now I understand. — Ched :  ?  02:34, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Spelling?

Why is this page using the UK spelling instead of the US spelling? Wikimedia's servers and offices are located in the US. So shouldn't a page about an American organization use American spelling per WP:TIES? --B (talk) 05:58, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

I'm British, and as Product Manager I'm writing most of the messaging around this (though not this document, I'd note). Also, English Wikipedia policy doesn't really apply to global announcements. :-) Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 15:19, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Keep in mind that I was joking ... but even though English Wikipedia guidelines don't apply to global announcements, this particular page discussing the announcement is on the English Wikipedia. Meta can name its page whatever Meta wants to. Commons can name its page whatever Commons wants to. But the English Wikipedia should be able to name its page about the concept according to the English Wikipedia's rules. --B (talk) 04:31, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

It's a good point as to why this is Balkanised on enwiki rather than shared for all users on Meta. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:25, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Because I created an FAQ and help desk for my homewiki, the German Wikipedia, but wanted to share it with the English community, too, and thus translated it. I don't care where it should be as long as it is there and serves the purpose. And I, as a non-native speaker, even care less about AE or BE. Cheers, —DerHexer (Talk) 00:35, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

:-) Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 00:38, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

I think WP:RETAIN trumps WP:TIES anyway. Besides, surely this is by definition a global event? ;-) WJBscribe (talk) 15:03, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

My accounts

I have multiple accounts under the same username on other Wikimedia projects. However I feel they will not be recognised for being me for two problems which I'm not sure if they are unique or not. They are things related to passwords and e-mail. Simply south...... eating shoes for just 7 years 10:46, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Nevermind. I have sorted it out on my own except for one account where I have lost the password. Any help? Simply south...... eating shoes for just 7 years 12:21, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

The last account has no edits, so the easiest solution is probably to wait until 27 May when it will be moved away. You will then be able to create a new account with the same user name. If you have set an e-mail address, you can recover the account by going to mw:Special:PasswordReset. --Stefan2 (talk) 12:24, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Okay. At least what I was worrying over was easier than I thought to sort out. Whilst I'm here I decided to try it with my other account Difficultly north (talk · contribs) and it merged a load of accounts on other wikis I did not create, or did it just create them?

They were located at:

• commons.wikimedia.org
• de.wikipedia.org
• en.wikipedia.org
• en.wikibooks.org
• en.wikinews.org
• en.wikiquote.org
• en.wikisource.org
• en.wikiversity.org
• en.wiktionary.org
• fa.wikipedia.org
• fr.wikipedia.org
• www.mediawiki.org
• meta.wikimedia.org
• nl.wikipedia.org
• species.wikimedia.org

I can confirm both en Wikipedia and Commons were\are mine. Simply south...... eating shoes for just 7 years 12:57, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Many of the accounts seem to have been created by you visiting those project at some point in the past. --Stefan2 (talk) 13:00, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Do they have any edits on them? I do not remember creating them. Does that mean they were autocreated or something when I was logged in here as Difficultly north? Simply south...... eating shoes for just 7 years 13:04, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Details are at CentralAuth for Difficultly north... yes, it appears that way. A number of them were apparently created simultaneously, difficult for a human to do! — Scott • talk 08:47, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Integration

In 2007, I set up accounts on es.wikipedia.org, fr.wikipedia.org, and it.wikipedia.org. Unfortunately, I failed to register my e-mail address on those three wikis, and thus I cannot retrieve my passwords since it's been over 5 years since my last edit there. What to do? Mewtwowimmer (talk) 04:22, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

As no bureaucrats or stewards have replied yet... your distinctive user name, plus the fact that your user pages on the other Wikipedias (es:Usuario:Mewtwowimmer, fr:Utilisateur:Mewtwowimmer and it:Utente:Mewtwowimmer) link back to your English user page, should be enough evidence that the accounts belong to you. Until the changes described on this page take place on May 27th, you'd need to ask local bureaucrats (Spanish, French; Italian doesn't seem to have a "general bureaucrat requests" page, so you'd have to contact one from their list) to link the accounts to your unified login.

Alternatively, if you can wait until the end of the month, when the account finalization has taken place, you'll be able to go to meta:SRUC and ask a steward to do it for you in one go, which would probably be easier. — Scott • talk 08:40, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

This is not correct, I'm afraid. If you did not set your password to something you can remember, and did not set an e-mail, then your accounts are lost. Bureaucrats (and stewards) cannot unify an account for you - only you can do that, and only if you have the password for it. The SUL process does not create a way around this, for obvious security reasons.

When the finalisation process runs, I imagine your eswiki, frwiki and itwiki accounts will be moved out the way of your enwiki account, so you will be "Mewtwowimmer" globally including on those wikis, but your historic edits will have been made under "Mewtwowimmer~frwiki" etc.. sorry. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 14:52, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Oh, I see what you mean - you have to run Special:MergeAccount yourself. That's sad. Why can't stewards reset lost passwords when evidence of ownership is conclusive? — Scott • talk 15:06, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

They don't have the technical ability. Developers can do it I believe, but it's rare that they can be persuaded to do so. Usually if someone loses their password, we rename them to User:Foo (old) or something similar and let them start again as User:Foo. WJBscribe (talk) 15:09, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Not intended as a put-down to anyone - that's a major failing of our software, then. I had assumed it was within stewards' powers because it's such an obvious task. Certainly that's an ability available to superusers/moderators/administrators in numerous other pieces of web software. I guess what they would need to be able to do is assign an email address to a user, who could then request a reset. — Scott • talk 15:34, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

You misunderstand. Yes, it's trivial to add the functionality, but we will never do so, because it would allow users to have their accounts 'stolen' from them by other users. When it's just a message board, that's a pity but not really a problem; however, we're creating an openly-licensed corpus, which means that continuity of ownership and liability are extremely important. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 16:27, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

That's an exceedingly strange answer. How could an account be "stolen" if password resets were only done in cases of evidence of ownership? And count me very surprised that someone who deals with a community for a living could describe having an account stolen on any system as "a pity". — Scott • talk 16:42, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

My apologies for using litotes in a way that you didn't grok. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 18:48, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Sigh. I'm sure "not really a problem" was just a figure of speech as well, right? Or is identity theft only a problem here in the Important World of Wikipedia? Also, you didn't answer my question. — Scott • talk 15:47, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Update

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2013-May/000233.html — Ched :  ?  02:00, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

I can't merge my de-wiki account with my global account

I have the following problem: Last year I created my Wikipedia account which was automatically created as a global account. In January, my account on de-wiki was renamed on my request. In early March, I noticed that the renaming was undone. I can't login to my account on the German Wikipedia since then although I don't have forgotten my password. There is also no e-mail address registered on that account, so I can't merge it with my global account. What to do? Tim Ohrtmann (talk) 15:32, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

@Tim Ohrtmann: Sorry, missed this when you posted it. When you say "the renaming was undone", what do you mean? The design of Wikimedia's accounts system is that you have one account named the same everywhere - if you want your account renamed, you need to get it renamed in each of the wikis you operate in, otherwise you will be logged in as "Tim Ohrtmann" rather than "Kolimak" on dewiki. Unfortunately, right now asking for your account to be globally renamed is very tiresome (this is one of the things that this process will make easier), but this gives some advice on how to get renamed globally - you will need to ask here on the English Wikipedia for that part of your account. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 17:21, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

This is what I mean with "the renaming was undone": As I have viewed at the end of February the revision histories of pages I have edited on de-wiki, I saw my new username Kolimak everywhere. As I did this at the beginning of March, I saw surprisingly my old username Tim Ohrtmann again everywhere. I tried to login to my account on de-wiki then, but it failed although I don't have forgotten my password. Now I want to merge my de-wiki account with my global account, because I don't want it to be renamed to Tim Ohrtmann~dewiki in August. And because I can't it because I can't login to my account on de-wiki and there is no e-mail address registered on that account, I state my problem on this talk page. Tim Ohrtmann (talk) 18:41, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

User Page

Only in http://en.wikipedia.org do I have a user page; however, rather than copy and paste that to, say, http://commons.wikimedia.org , I'd like to have a global user page. Has such a thing been envisioned? Or, does it exist but I'm oblivious to it? Thanks, Vincent J. Lipsio (talk) 12:43, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

@Lipsio: It's been envisioned - see mw:GlobalProfile/design - but no real work has been done on it. It's on the table for the future, but I don't know anything more. I also think it would be a good idea. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 17:11, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

I appreciate and thank you for your reply. Vincent J. Lipsio (talk) 17:19, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

Usernames policy: Sock usernames property of sockpuppetier or wikimedia?

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

It doesn't matter how many socks user create, if he agrees to use only one account then as per current understanding all sock usernames becomes property of that user. If some genuine user wants to rename his/her account as 'X' but 'X' is blocked because it is sock then stewards expect that genuine user should enter in talk with owner of sock to 'release' his 'property sock username' in wikimedia public domain to be used for new users. This is completely illogical and outragious. It is unwise to allow one user to claim or own hundreds of usernames. That may even lead to 'selling' of usernames by sockpuppetier. I think policy is needed to deal with such situation. I faced such situation as you can see here. Thanks. neo (talk) 14:27, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Usurp of this username and a user on another wiki

Back in September 2010 I usurped this username from an existing user on en-wiki. There was also (and still is) a user on fr-wiki named Jguy with no edits. I see in my prefs that my Global Account Status is 'In Migration', because the fr-wiki user isn't me and I can't attach it. Will that mean my Username will change to Jguy-enwiki when this UL Finalisation happens, because my Global Account Unification is technically 'not complete'? If so, that's a bit ridiculous. If I do have to be renamed, is there a way that after the rename has taken place I can get re-renamed back to Jguy as the username won't technically be "taken" anymore? Jguy _Talk^Done 14:33, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

You hold the global account, so the French user will be renamed to "Jguy~frwiki" whereas your accounts will remain under their current names. --Stefan2 (talk) 19:54, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

SUL account with no edits

Hi everyone. Will a SUL account with no edits will be treated any differently from the others? I have such an account (named Arc en Ciel); I usurped it some time ago and intend to switch my account to it eventually. I'm asking so that if there are any potential issues, I could switch over before finalization is completed. Arc de Ciel (talk) 09:01, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Weren't notifications to be sent to affected accounts?

I thought affected accounts were going to receive warnings about the impending renames. –xeno^talk 16:27, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Where is the central place to argue SUL usernames?

Short story, my username was taken as a SUL account by de:user:St-fl who usurped de:stefan 11 March 2008 and 1-2 weeks later when SUL was turned on (for admins, which is was/is) he got the SUL account. I tried to fight but found no place to fight and since I do not use many other wikis I kept things as they are, now I realize that I probably will loose my account very soon and want to try to get control of the SUL account Stefan. detailed story. Does anyone know where I can bring such a discussion, meta? email? Where/who?? --Stefan ^talk 07:00, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

There are multiple pages on SUL finalisation, for example WP:SUL/F (with an interwiki link to German Wikipedia), m:Single User Login finalisation announcement (multilingual page with one talk page per language) and mw:Admin tools development/SUL Audit (with information about the technical implementation). However, there doesn't seem to be a central page for complaints. It seems that the one responsible for SUL finalisation currently is User:DGarry (WMF), but it used to be User:Jdforrester (WMF). If you are specifically upset about the finalisation process, then you could maybe discuss the matter with one of them.

I am in a similar situation: both a German user and I registered the user name "Stefan2", he on German Wikipedia and I on English Wikipedia, although in this case we both registered our user names several years before SUL was introduced and without knowledge of each other or of SUL. The other user owns the user name on German Wikipedia and on Commons, an unknown user with zero edits owns the name on Dutch Wikipedia, and I own the SUL name and thus own the user name on all other current and future projects. I would assume that quite a lot of other users are in the same situation and that many of those may be upset by the SUL finalisation. --Stefan2 (talk) 07:32, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! --Stefan ^talk 08:23, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi Stefan.

The finalisation process will force renames on some users so that these conflicts so that this kind of thing is resolved once and for all. Determining who has the greatest claim to the SUL for a particular username is a matter that has been left to community processes to determine and Wikimedia Foundation staff have therefore not been involved in that. Unfortunately in this case, since the other user already owns the SUL, this means that in the finalisation you're going to be renamed to resolve the conflict. I'm sorry to say there's there's nothing that can be done about that. If you wish to be renamed before the finalisation forces a rename on you, you can request that at WP:CHU or User talk:Deskana (my volunteer account, which has bureaucrat rights and can therefore rename users).

Best regards,

--Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:47, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Dan Garry where was/is the ' community processes ' discussed, I would like to discuss at that place before it is to late! The Foundation points at the community and as far as I know and remember there was NEVER any public discussion on the rules on who should get the SUL name and I have yet to find a place to discuss. SUL was just suddenly a fact and there were no place to discuss. I guess I will loose my username that I have had for over 10 YEARS, to someone that changed his username and usurped mine about 2 weeks before SUL was finalised, and I cannot even discuss this with anyone?!?!!! --Stefan ^talk 00:23, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

@Stefan: The community process around cross-wiki re-naming is at m:Steward requests/SUL requests. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 01:13, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

No Expected Date for Finalization?

This page reads "SUL finalisation was delayed ...[and]... now does not have an expected date." So, is this thing going to happen, or not? And if so, when?  ● Thane — formerly Guðsþegn  19:03, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Hello Thane. The finalisation is now my job. I'm still very new on the job so I can't offer an expected date. I'll try to update the relevant pages as things progress. Thanks. --Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 19:09, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I'm glad the SUL project wasn't abandoned.  ● Thane — formerly Guðsþegn  19:14, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

And what is the status now? --Jmk (talk) 09:13, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

Vaporware Still unknown. — Scott • talk 22:57, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

So it seems. --Jmk (talk) 09:40, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

See also mw:SUL finalisation/status. --Stefan2 (talk) 16:10, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Joining two unified accounts

Recently, I changed my user name from Phaneendra M to Political Cricketer, both are unified accounts. But after changing my user name, my othter accounts (Except home wiki en.wiki) were not shifted to the new user. But I can access the wikis with the newer user name as well as older user name. I want to join the older one with newer one. What should I do? -Political Cricketer ^talk 16:08, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

@Political Cricketer, you can request a rename of your "Phaneendra M" account on simple.wp, te.wp (not sure where the local page is, you could find it better than I) and wikidata. Once that is done, you can go to Special:MergeAccount here to activate your global account on all other projects. You need not worry about the other global account left over from the rename. Ajraddatz (Talk) 03:30, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

My Global Account

Hi, I had changed my user name but after that I cannot access any other wiki using this user name. When I try to merge from preferences it asks for a Global Password which is not same as my en.wiki password. Also my global account status is unconfirmed. I do not know whom should I approach. Can someone help. -sarvajna (talk) 07:22, 28 January 2015 (UTC)