Username
From BillionQuotes
| Image:Exquisite-opera.png | This page is an official policy on Wikiquote.</br>It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. </br>Please do not make significant changes to this page without prior discussion. |
When you create a new account, so you can log in, one of the things you'll have to do is pick a username. This page gives some advice on this.
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What are usernames used for?
Your user name will be attached to all your edits, while you're logged in. This is partly for reasons of accountability. It's also helpful from a copyright perspective: if someone wants to use your contributions in a way not allowed under the Wikiquote copyright policy, they can ask you on your talk page, for example. Also, the GFDL encourages giving appropriate credit to authors, and your username is used to give that credit.
It's possible to change your username, see Changing username.
We recommend against using multiple usernames, unless you have a very good reason. See Wikiquote:Sock puppet.
Choosing a username
The best username is typically either your real name, or a longstanding Internet pen name. Please pick a username that helps us to further the project. That means picking a name that you're comfortable writing under, but it also means picking a name that others are comfortable seeing and collaborating with.
Remember that a controversial name may colour other users' perspective on your own credibility or political viewpoint. In addition remember that Wikiquote is a world-wide source book and so take care in selecting a name to avoid anything that might potentially cause offence to someone from a different culture, religious or ethnic group.
Wikiquote recommends that users avoid
- names of politicians, military or religious figures or events;
- any other names that may be seen as potentially offensive, or endorsing or opposing the politics, policies or beliefs of a public figure.
People should be able to judge you purely on your contributions, not an emotional response to a potentially controversial nickname. Avoiding such names is in your own interest. So do please be careful. Remember you are working as part of a community. Show everyone else the respect for their beliefs that you expect them to show yours.
Real names versus pseudonyms
Historically many wikis have encouraged users to use their real name as their user name in their belief that a user will offer constructive contributions to the project if they are more likely to be accountable for their actions. Most Wikiquote users choose to use pseudonyms, although many disclose their real names on their user pages. Wikiquote editors have occasionally been subject to harassment outside of Wikiquote due to their contributions or vandal-fighting activities on Wikiquote.
Also if you use a pseudonym rather than a user name that identifies you with your real name, U.S. copyright law grants you only a fixed period of copyright rather than one based upon when you die.
Avoid using real names of famous figures (living or recently deceased). Many editors consider them overly disruptive and may request that you change them. Creating a username of a famous person, and then performing disruptive edits in that "name", or in an attempt to discredit it, will likely result in actions listed under the "Inappropriate usernames" section.
One major exception to this is if your real name is similar to that of a notorious vandal; you shouldn't use it as you will very likely be mistaken for him. See below for more information.
Username capitalization
Wikipedia usernames are case sensitive and, for consistency, the first letter of all usernames will be capitalized when you create an account. This means that if you request the username "your name", the account created will instead be: "Your name".
If your username will consist of more than one name, and you'd like your signature to be internally consistent, you might prefer to capitalize each one when you create the account. This conforms to the widely accepted rules of capitalization: usernames are, after all, proper nouns. Examples would be "Your Name", "Your Middle Name", and "Your M Name".
Inappropriate usernames
Inappropriate usernames include both clear and masked names. Wikiquote does not allow certain usernames, including the following:
No confusing or misleading usernames, eg:
- Names which can be confused with other contributors. (If someone else is using a nickname that you wish to use, please consider using your real name or an alternative pseudonym instead. In the unlikely event that someone else is editing Wikiquote with your real name, please add a middle name or some other way of distinguishing between you and the existing contributor)
- Names which include commonly used Wikiquote software or community terms, or imply an official position on Wikiquote. (e.g., terms such as recent changes, Administrator or NPOVenforcer)
- Also, beware that the letters capital i and lower case L, and the numeral 1 look exactly the same (I/l/1) in certain fonts, as do upper/lower case O and the numeral 0 (O/o/0). This should be taken into account, and creative use of one in place of the other (I where L would be expected and vice versa) is discouraged, given its past misuse.
Users have been blocked in the past for choosing usernames which were perceived as impersonation attempts on present users, or gave the impression of being "official". Administrators are empowered to block any inappropriate username on sight.
It is also recommended that users do not choose usernames that consist of random characters, such as "asd89w43jsw94". The user may be mistaken by an administrator for a vandalbot and blocked.
No inflammatory usernames: Wikiquote does not allow potentially inflammatory or offensive user names. Inflammatory usernames are needlessly discouraging to other contributors, and disrupt and distract from our task. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Names which promote hatred
- Names which are recognised as terms of disparagement and/or slurs
- Names which refer to symbols of hatred, including historical figures who are widely associated with such
- Names which refer to sexual acts or genitalia
- Names which refer to violent real world actions
- Names which are scatological or pornographic
- Names which contain profanity, obscenities, or other potentially offensive language
- Misspellings, or spellings of the above with "cr34+1v3 sub5717u710nz" (Leet) (creative substitutions)
No harassing or defamatory usernames: Harassment and defamation is in any case inappropriate on Wikiquote. Further, your username is not a vehicle to attack other users with whom you have a disagreement. Your username should not be used to insult or mock other users, usernames, articles, or actions. Additionally, a username should not be used to defame other people, companies or groups, regardless of whether they edit Wikiquote.
Fairly or unfairly, the line between acceptable and unacceptable user names is drawn by those who find the username inappropriate, not by the creator of the name.
No usernames that closely resemble notorious Wikiquotian or Wikipedian usernames. Willy on Wheels, MARMOT, Jake Remington and Wikipedia is Communism are considered to be the most infamous usernames. Any username based on these or significantly similar to them (EG. Contains "Willy", "Wheels/On Wheels" or "Communism/ist") will likely be blocked as soon as it is seen. Generally, such names are difficult to choose accidentally, but if you are concerned, click on the names above to see a list of names they have used.
Rationale
The primary purpose of user names is to identify and distinguish contributors. This facilitates communication and record-keeping. The user name is not a forum to be offensive or make a statement. No one has a right to any particular user name. While colorful, interesting, or expressive names may add to the pleasure of Wikiquote, they are not essential. This might include legitimate names and long-established internet pseudonyms that can be misconstrued.
Signatures
Through the Preferences, one can choose a nickname used in signatures, independent of the actual user name (connected to a User: page). In general, the same rules apply for signatures as for usernames. A signature should not be misleading.
For more information on signatures, read the official guideline at Wikiquote:Sign your posts on talk pages.
Changing inappropriate usernames
If enough people complain about your user name, through talk pages or the mailing lists, the administrators will require you to change it. Neither complaints, nor name changes should be arbitrary, but user names that are offensive to a significant number of people will be changed, not without notice, but without appeal.
Co-operative contributors should normally just be made aware of our policy via a post on their talk page. Voluntary changes (via Changing username) are preferred: users from other countries and/or age groups may make mistakes about choosing names -- immediate blocking could scare off new users acting in good faith.
Where a change must be forced, we first discuss it. This can take place in a number of convenient places (i.e., the Administrator's Noticeboard.) The user should also be made aware of the discussion.
For uncontroversial cases where the user is actively editing, the decision can be taken in a day or two. For more controversial cases where the user is less actively editing, a week is more appropriate. For highly controversial cases, or cases whether the user has left Wikiquote, discussion might well take a month.
After an appropriate time for discussion, a sysop can take a judgement on the name in question. They should only take action if their judgement is that a "rough consensus" has arisen that the username is inappropriate. This will involve blocking the inappropriate username, for which see Wikiquote:Blocking policy.
Where inappropriate or borderline inappropriate usernames are coupled with vandalism, the username may be blocked indefinitely on sight: again, see Wikiquote:Blocking policy.
Usernames that are designed to impersonate legitimate users may be blocked immediately. The IP address of these users should be left autoblocked.
Deleting your user account
Accounts on Wikimedia wikis can not be deleted. Accounts with contributions can not be deleted since this would allow another user to create the account, and claim authorship of those edits. It is not possible for your edits to be removed entirely. They can only be reassigned to something else so as not to violate the GNU Free Documentation License. Requests and/or demands to delete accounts will not be honored under any circumstances. (This is primarily because account deletion is a technical impossibility; there simply is no way to do so.)
If you decide after creating an account, particularly if you did so using your real name, that you would rather be anonymous, you can have your account renamed. You can request this by contacting a Bureaucrat. When this is done, your contributions list will be assigned to the new user name.
You may also request your user and talk page be deleted as explained at Wikiquote:Userpage.
Any talk pages that you have signed will still display your former user name. These need to be changed manually by editing the pages concerned. If you feel strongly about your name no longer appearing on the site, you can edit these pages to remove your signature. The easiest way to find these is by clicking "what links here" from your user page. There is currently no means of removing signatures from old revisions in the page history.
- See also: Right to vanish
