Single Uiser Login finalisation announcement/Schema announcement

Single-uiser login finalization is scheduled tae occur oan or aroond 15 april 2015. Th' tiext o' th' general announcement kin be found on this page. Basically, th' finalization wull rename uisers sae that ilka accoont oan general, public Wikimedia projects wull be global 'n' hae a unique name. This process haes bin occurring in stages 'n' is noo near th' point o' completion. This wull require renaming 2,851,363 accounts that exist oan local wikis that dae nae exist globally 'n' hae clashing uisernames. Accounts that ur awready global (check oan Special:CentralAuth) wull nae be renamed 'n' wull nae be affected by this process. Some basic metrics wull be updated as th' process moves tae th' future.

All accounts that require renaming will be contacted on the user talk page of each wiki where an account is registered. Additionally, each individual wiki has Special:UsersWhoWillBeRenamed, a page which lists each user that will be renamed on that wiki. Local community members are welcome and encouraged to use that information to help users who may need it. If a renamed account attempts to log in with their old credentials post-finalization, they will be informed of the rename's occurrence. Users can request a global rename on their local wiki at any time before or after this process using Special:GlobalRenameRequest.

How are the accounts to be renamed determined?

In the event of a clash, where a global account has clashing local accounts, the global account holder will get to keep their name and clashing local accounts are renamed either to a new username of the account holder's choice, or to a localized form of the username if a new username is not selected (e.g. Oldusername~ptwiki). In the event of a clash, where multiple local accounts clash with each other, and no global account exists, the following username conflict resolution scheme is used to decide who gets the global account name. This is determined and executed by a software script. All of the same conditions above and below will be applied to blocked accounts.

Note that if a right is not listed here, then it is not considered during the calculation of who will own the global account name.

1. Global account holder
2. CheckUser
3. Oversight
4. Bureaucrat
5. Administrator

Resolving remaining clashes

If there is a case of local accounts clashing where none of the accounts holds a user right mentioned above or a user right is shared and there is no global account, the local account with the most edits on any wiki at the time this announcement is posted will keep the name. In the event there is a tie with the number of edits, the local account with the earliest registration date will keep the name. If there is a tie with the registration date, or neither account has a registration date due to the age of the account, the script will choose the owner at random.

Why this scheme?

• User rights are the fairest way of determining unique account name ownership. No way of doing this is perfectly fair, but others involve too much variance between wikis. For example: the value of an edit count varies massively between wikis, and we have no way to account for that programmatically if we had to use the edit count as the chief determining factor and not just as a tie breaker.

• These rights, and only these rights, were chosen as they are the core user rights across all of our wikis.

• The ordering chosen represents the difficulty of acquiring the respective user right, and the perceived need for the person with the right to act on a cross-wiki basis.

• The problem of clashing usernames requires a technical solution to solve. However, it is not the only solution. Ultimately, the stewards and global renamers can override this scheme on a case-by-case basis by renaming users through the appropriate community channels, processes, and policies, and with discussion among the affected parties. This process should be as collaborative as possible.