Single login/Jdavidb

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki
This is an archived proposal for the implementation of single user login. For more information, see the single login documentation page.

This proposal results in an indefinite transition period. It has not been checked for technical feasibility. It includes ideas that may not be popular.


  • Establish a moratorium on new user accounts in any wiki such that all new user accounts must be single-signon accounts that have a username that is unique across all wikis.
  • Create the ability to merge accounts from multiple wikis. Permission to do this may be granted to bureaucrats, admins, or some special task force. The merge procedure will take a set of usernames and rename them to a single username valid across all wikis.
  • A program will be written to scan every account on every wiki.
  • Accounts having a username that is unique across wikis will become new single-signon accounts.
  • Accounts that have the same username on multiple wikis and have the same email address will be automatically merged.
  • Accounts that cannot be automatically handled by one of the two points above will be renamed with a suffix indicating the wiki to which they correspond, e.g., en:User:Jdavidb will become User:Jdavidb_en. (This will not be popular, but accounts can be renamed and/or merged as specified below.)
  • Accounts that have the same email address but different usernames will result in an automated message sent to the user by email and the talk page of each account asking for confirmation that the accounts are the same so that they can be merged, and for the username to be used for the new merged account. The accounts will be renamed but the usernames will be reserved pending confirmation and merging.
  • Accounts that have the same username across different wikis but different email addresses will also result in a similar automated message sent asking for confirmation that the accounts can be merged. The username will be changed but the original will be reserved pending merge confirmation. If these accounts belong to different unique users they can negotiate among themselves as to whether one or none of them will receive the original name, which will be reserved until all agree.
  • Users having usernames belonging to other people on different wikis will have the right to have their accounts renamed to a completely new name (which will of course include having their edit history belong to the new account name).