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Community Wishlist Survey 2022/Miscellaneous/Automatically log in to all projects if you are logged in to one

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Automatically log in to all projects if you are logged in to one

  • Problem: Now I have to log in seperately at all projects (like the Wikpedias, Wikibooks, Wikidata), even if I am logged in to Commons, though the inlog codes are the same for all projects. Sometimes I forget it and then my edits are registered on my IP adress. Going from any project where I am logged in to Commons, I am automatically logged in to Commons, so it is possible.
  • Proposed solution: Automatically log in to all projects if you are logged in to one, no matter which one, like now in Commons.
  • Who would benefit: All editors who regulary switch from one project to another to make changes/edits.
  • More comments:
  • Phabricator tickets: phab:T217519, phab:T226797
  • Proposer: JopkeB (talk) 05:57, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

  • Isn't this supposed to be default already? · · · Peter (Southwood) (talk): 08:44, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    If it is, it certainly doesn’t work for me? Jcshy (talk) 08:47, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    It didn’t work just now for me, logged in to Wikipedia.org but not here. -- TheInternetGnome (talk) 10:19, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    Same here, which is why I submitted a different proposal that is apparently a subset of this one. RSLitman (talk) 19:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    It is, but the CentralAuth extension responsible for the the global account system hasn't been properly maintained in years. I suspect automatic cross-wiki login broke after some browser privacy change (see for example phab:T257853). Majavah (talk!) 06:56, 12 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    Yes this stopped working years ago. First on Safari, then on Firefox and since a years or two on Chrome and Edge. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:09, 12 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    I think it is like a browser problem; and I don't see any problems with unified login. Some tools to patrol cross-wiki needs to have a global account. Thingofme (talk) 03:24, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Added an phab ticket.--Snævar (talk) 08:53, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Agreed. Don't know why this isn't the default already. BetweenCupsOfTea (talk)
  • Comment. Please, make this togglable in the preferences ("Disable/enable the unified login" or something like that), so that you can easily use different usernames on different wikis (for example, the username "EnglishWikipedian321" on en-wiki and the username "ItalianWikipedian123" on it-wiki). Having to log out and in constantly between those two accounts in order to edit both wikis at the same time is a pain in the... 85.76.129.122 11:56, 13 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    User accounts are global so there's no reason to have a different account on each wiki. You can use another browser then. Stryn (talk) 15:08, 13 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks but I'm aware. Here are some reasons I can think of why it's important to implement the togglability:
    • 1) Better privacy
      • Maybe you are very open of who you are on your userpage in another wiki, but you would like to stay as anonymous as possible on another wiki you edit for whatever reason. E.g., you can be pretty open about your political views, sexuality or gender etc. on many wikis, but, sadly, that's not the case on every wiki (not going to name any specific wiki here, but there are language editions whose some users are not used to the same level of liberty of any developed country). Thus, you would be prone to harassment either on wiki, social media or maybe even IRL.
    • 2) Better security
      • When you edit any language edition that could possibly lead you to problems with authorities of specific countries (again, not going to name any specific country, but you probably know at least one authoritarian country with very limited freedom of speech). There's always a risk of this happening. Your less-anonymous other wiki identities would only be clear to users that have a cross-wiki IP check tool or something like that, so it wouldn't be 100% risk-free but still.
    • 3) Personal preference and accessibility
      • When you, e.g., want to use a Latin-script username ("User:John Doe") in a Latin-script wiki, and a Chinese-script username ("User:雨果奖等") in the Chinese-language wiki. This would also make others in that wiki feel you're more approachable when, in their eyes, your username is not in a foreign script. It would be easier to remember someone's username in order to find their userpage to contact or ping them. I personally find it very hard to remember and write usernames like "User:بالتاريخ", "User:дюжин листов" or "User:ギリシャ経済危" compared to a username like "User:John Doe".
    • 4) Username means something else in another language
      • Maybe your username happens to be a name of a large company in some other country? Or a profanity in that wiki's language perhaps? And when something like that gets your username banned from editing that wiki due to that wiki's username policies, you would have to register another username there, and then you would have to use different browsers to edit those two wikis at the same time. I'd imagine there already are some cases like this.
    • 5) No more cross-wiki alerts or emails
      • When you visit another wiki for whatever reason while logged in and your account gets automatically registered there, you're prone to get spammy alerts and emails later on when, e.g., bots leave foreign-language messages to your user talk page on wikis that are foreign to you, i.e. those that you never edit. Sometimes they also like to send you foreign-language emails that you don't wish to receive.
    • 6) It wouldn't be against any policy(?)
      • Well, maybe someone else knows better, but I believe it's not. And I don't think implementing this would cause any cross-wiki abuse--at least I can't think of any possibilities this would open to vandals and such.
    I can't think of any good reasons to not implement this for us who want this waterproof togglable option to opt-out from cross-wiki logins easily. "Use different browsers" = you're prone to make a human error all the time. Also, using a different browser that you're used to is very inconvenient. 85.23.82.28 20:02, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • It somehwat works, but there are many bugs. E.g. T257853, T257852, T256525, T257803. --Tgr (talk) 02:33, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

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