On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 4:01 PM, Risker <[email protected]> wrote: > > On the surface, I'd agree. The problem is that many of the people whose > usernames get changed will have them changed because someone else is > usurping the original username, so it's not acceptable to redirect the > (original) userpage to the "new" name; it will now belong to someone > else.This will become increasingly complex as users elect to use the global > userpage that's now being tested per a separate email to this list today. > Those old signatures will link to the wrong user, so there is now a much > more valid reason to update them. > I do agree with both Brad and John that it's not really been considered all > that acceptable in the past on enwiki, but then again in almost all cases > I'm aware of, the user was changing hundreds or even thousands of signature > lines, as a result of an entirely voluntary change in username. I suspect > that, with careful communication, even the enwiki community would come to > see this as a net benefit for username changes related to the SUL > finalization specifically. > What would be needed is some script or bot that changes the signatures from > prior to the date of username change, in particular, so that signatures by > the "new owner" of the username won't be changed. > Risker/Anne > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l >
This. If anyone is interested, do let me know. The idea for this tool is completely optional, just as its use, but I think it's one well worth pursuing. With SUL finalization and global userpages, as Risker points out, the English community might be willing to change its mind in the near future. And I'm not even speaking specific to the English Wikipedia, this is a global consideration. If there's a bot with a web UI hosted on labs I'd expect it go through the same bot approval process as any other bot as needed, per-wiki to see if the communities accept it as an opt-in. -- Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Product Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
