Wikipedia talk:Username policy

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Wikipedia Talk:Usernames for administrator attention and Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment/User names now redirect here. Click "show" for archive links and other relevant information on those pages.

WT:UAA archives:

Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment/User names archives and deletion notices:

This page was nominated for deletion on 12 October 2007. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

This page was nominated for deletion on 28 April 2007. The result of the discussion was Keep with option.

This page was nominated for deletion on 4 April 2007. The result of the discussion was reform.

2014 Request for Comment on reforming and updating this policy

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This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be auto-archived by if there are more than 2.

Discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab) § Merging Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User names with WP:AN

You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab) § Merging Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User names with WP:AN. House Blaster (talk • he/they) 19:50, 6 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Policy will need to be updated when temporary accounts are activated

At Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF), NKohli (WMF) and SGrabarczuk (WMF) have notified us that the foundation plans to "deploy temporary accounts to English Wikipedia in about a month, preferably October 7th." More details about this process are included in their message and I strongly recommend keeping general questions and discussion there. I am posting this message here because it seems that we'll want to update the "Misleading usernames" section of this policy once the change takes place so we're clear about explicitly disallowing the use usernames that resemble the names that will be used for temporary accounts. Ideally we could also support that restriction programmatically, too, but people more technically knowledgeable than me will have to work on that. ElKevbo (talk) 00:34, 12 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Why? According to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions) § Restrictions on usernames we already have that restriction in place. Primefac (talk) 01:11, 12 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The policy does forbid usernames which resemble IP addresses, even though they're 'technically' impossible. I've seen many of them, and expect we'll also see some temp account spoofing. There's no harm adding two words to the existing policy, though there's no rush. You could say that policy already forbids such things. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 01:28, 12 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) § RfC: merging Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User names with AN(I)

You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) § RfC: merging Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User names with AN(I). House Blaster (talk • he/they) 16:16, 14 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Archive of old RFC/User name pages?

I commented on a Request for Comment/User names from earlier in September and came back here to see what the resolution was. I can't find it on the Archives page, though I can see it being removed from the main page. Was this an error, or is there some sort of mechanism here that I don't understand? Thanks! Jessamyn (my talk page) 21:50, 14 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It should have been archived, not sure why it wasn't (I might have gotten distracted). I'll sort that out. Primefac (talk) 23:45, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Why make it difficult for editors to report usernames?

Why aren't there any instructions or assistance for editors when they report a username at Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention? A simple way of adding a new username to that noticeboard - one of those nifty text boxes that when used prefills a standard report would be ideal - would be great. In the absence of that, a text comment at the top of the page or instructions that explicitly provide the format of a report would be helpful. ElKevbo (talk) 12:47, 20 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

When you edit the #User-reported section it has a comment saying REPORTING A USERNAME: Add * {{user-uaa|Example user}} How this username violates the username policy ~~~~; is that what you're looking for? Primefac (talk) 23:50, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That text is not always present. It was not present when I wrote this message; it appears to have been removed on September 11 (presumably by accident) and was not restored until nearly two weeks later.

If this is the only way to provide this critical information to editors using this noticeboard, the text should be monitored by a bot and restored whenever someone edits or deletes it. And it would also be helpful if a more user-friendly tool could be provided for editors who may not be as familiar or comfortable with using a template. ElKevbo (talk) 00:11, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't that true with almost all pages? - FlightTime (open channel) 00:14, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If there are other noticeboards that have text that editors should not edit that is easily edited then they should be monitored by a bot, too. ElKevbo (talk) 03:04, 14 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

WP:TWINKLE does it easily. Secretlondon (talk) 12:19, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Many editors don't use that specific tool and it's not reasonable to ask everyone to use an optional tool to use this noticeboard that should be accessible to all editors. ElKevbo (talk) 03:04, 14 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]