Single login/Omegatron

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This is an archived proposal for the implementation of single user login. For more information, see the single login documentation page.

As I said on Bug 57

Possible solution based on this idea:

For instance, my first wiki account is on English Wikipedia as Omegatron. With no transition period, we just make it so that I can log onto any other wiki with the same password and the same name plus a modifier specific to the English Wikipedia.

This should then allow me to log onto any other projects using a single login: "Omegatron@Wikipedia:en" (or "enpedia:Omegatron" or "Omegatron@WP.en" or some other suitable unique modifier based on which wiki I registered on). English wikipedia is now my "home", but I have a single login name valid for all the rest. If someone else has the same login Omegatron on the German wikipedia, there is no conflict; their local name is still Omegatron, but they can also log onto any other project with Omegatron@WP:de, for instance.

With this proposal, I am still free to register the shorter, more personal name Omegatron on any other wikis that I want (and get another global login for each that I probably won't use), but if I just want to leave a note on de I would use my singlelogin Omegatron@WP:en, or if there was a "conflict" with another wiki I could just use Omegatron@WP:en all the time, keeping us distinct. Or whatever. In most cases I can just register on that wiki as Omegatron and everything is the same as it's always been.

If someone clicked on my "- Omegatron@WP:en" signature on a German discussion, for instance, it would by default just redirect or link to my en user page, since that is my "home".

Benefits[edit]

  • No transition period
  • No "big bang"
  • No migration
  • Users don't have to do anything to use it. As soon as it's turned on they can log onto any wiki with their name plus the modifier. No changing names or registering new names.
  • No complicated tables with lots of cases and the actions to take for each case.
  • More names to go around. If someone who speaks Slovenčina wants to register the name Omegatron, too, they are free to do so. My registering on one pedia doesn't lock out the name on all of the pedias that I will never visit. If I want to lock it out on certain wikis, I just register on them as normal.
    • (And if you *want* to lock out a single name on every pedia ever, so that we are all stuck with AOL names like Om3gatr0n5749272, I guess that's perfectly possible, still, too.)
  • Would allow for a combined watchlist and user preferences for the home wiki and any other wikis that are logged in with the interwiki login.

Disadvantages[edit]

  • Slightly ugly name? (only on pedias I haven't registered on, though)
  • You can't have different names on different pedias with the same inherited preferences, like people are talking about on kate's proposal.
  • Would not implicitly allow a combined watchlist for the same username registered separately on several wikis.

This could be enhanced by allowing usernames on other wikis to be associated with the same account, while always having the interwiki login for other circumstances.