Last modified: 2006-12-12 13:55:53 UTC
I'm not sure whether I put this in the right place. I guess it would be a change to the MediaWiki software, but there is no choice for that. There is something called MediaZilla, but I do not know what that is. On Wikipedia it just redirects to Wikipedia:Bugzilla. I think it should only be done on the English Wikipedia for now, since other languages may have different policies about usernames. Getting to the feature request, I think @ should be prohibited from usernames to stop people from using email addresses for usernames. While names consisting of email address are not expressly prohibited, they are strongly discouraged on the username policy page, and more importantly, editors with such usernames are virtually guaranteed to be blocked. All they need to do is get the attention of an admin who blocks for that reason. First it would save work for admins. Second, new editors would not be blocked for using an email address for their usernames. New users are likely to be hurt that they were blocked and simply leave the project rather than getting a new username. Third, if the editors who are blocked have read the username policy and saw that usernames consisting of email addresses are not prohibited, he or she may feel lied to. Fourth, editors would get less spam, as their email address on their user page or user talk page, often telling them that they have been blocked, can be harvested. Frequently, a user page or user talk page is specifically created to tell them that they have been blocked. Certainly, this is not very bright if the main reason for blocking such usernames is to prevent spam. Their email addresses may be on some talk pages and Wikipedia namespace pages, too, if they make some edits before being blocked. Fifth, even disregarding the spam issue, alienating new users and saving time, having an email address for a username is awkward. Similarly, usernames consisting of random letters and/or numbers are blocked. Note: I had to remove all keywords, like "block", "username", "email" and "e-mail". I got an error message that said the first one was an unrecognized keyword, so I deleted it and tried again. I got the same error message, so I deleted it and tried again, but it still did not work. It gave a list of odd, code-type keywords, but I could have sworn that previously you just put in words that people are likely to search for.
1) The Wikimedia product consists of only stuff related to Wikimedia sites, specifically things on Wikimedia sites that require dev intervention. The correct product for MediaWiki concerns is, of course, "MediaWiki". 2) The keyword field has only ever had a limited list of keywords, to the best of my knowledge. Arbitrary keywords go in the summary. 3) It's possibly a good idea, yes. It could be implemented via [[m:Spam blacklist]], however, so I don't think this is necessarily a software request unless that code is somehow majorly outdated (Rob's comment at http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/UsernameBlacklist/UsernameBlacklist.php?view=log that "I need to rewrite this entire extension" doesn't bode well for that).
(In reply to comment #0) > Note: I had to remove all keywords, like "block", "username", "email" and > "e-mail". I got an error message that said the first one was an unrecognized > keyword, so I deleted it and tried again. I got the same error message, so I > deleted it and tried again, but it still did not work. It gave a list of odd, > code-type keywords, but I could have sworn that previously you just put in words > that people are likely to search for. Kevin - follow the link behind "Keywords" (http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/describekeywords.cgi). Here you can see which keywords are allowed to use. I think you misunderstood the meaning of this field.
I think we should block anything recognizable as an email address, such as $1 + "@" + $2 + ".com" (the dollar signs represent strings of characters). For example, there are several important users with a @ in their name, such as I@n (an en sysop).
As a sysop on nl.wp, I would really like this to be implemented.
Fixed in r16658. Existing usernames won't be blocked for now, but they ought to get renamed...
Thanks Brion!
(In reply to comment #5) > Fixed in r16658.Existing usernames won't be blocked for now, but they ought to get renamed... To inform the community correctly about this in Wikizine; * the @-symbol can not be used anymore for new accounts on the WMF-wikis (so not only EN) * existing user names will still have excess temporary but need to change there username ** -> for how long? Until the single login migration or so? Can you give a time frame?
(In reply to comment #7) > * the @-symbol can not be used anymore for new accounts on the WMF-wikis (so not only EN) New accounts containing the "@" character can no longer be created on any wiki running the trunk (i.e., latest unstable) version of MediaWiki, including all WMF sites. That I can answer; the rest I don't know.
2 questions - Are you only blocking @ or also the similar looking ＠? Is there a reason (other than English Wikipedia policy) to force name changes? Will other wikis need to rename their users or is it fine for those people to continue using their old usernames? We have 159 users with @ or ＠ in their name on Wikia and no easy way to rename them since it's a shared user database.
Only @ (U+40) is blocked. Again, the rest I don't know.
No comment for reopening, reclosing.
Most of these arguments for disabling e-mail addresses in usernames also apply to *not* encouraging them to chaynj their username. i.e. Their old edition would bear marks from their old username unless a bot wer to chaynj their signatures. What about standards compliance. HTML 3.2 requires <link rev=made href="mailto:brewhaha@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca"> tags, and in order for wiki to meet that standard, it could (in theory, anyway) provide an e-mail interface to edition. How that would go? Typically, spam would contain the wrong subject, so I guess it could be automatically filtered from the majordomo.
Scott's Second Law: When an error has been detected and corrected, it will be found to have been correct in the first place.
1. This is *not* a Wikimedia mailing list error 2. Usernames containing the @ symbol are no longer permitted in usernames; that being the focus of this bug, which is now resolved, this bug is now resolved Please raise new issues on a new bug so we can quickly evaluate them.
It prevents edition being performed by e-mail. It's a _blocker_ to development. It also prevents wikimedia from meeting backward compatibility to HTML 3.2, which *requires* ownership tags. As I mentioned these could be implemented in wikimedia by putting the mailing list into these ownership tags. Again, this restriction _blocks_ development.
I don't understand the problem you mentioned. It doesn't seem to be related to this bug: please open a new bug. Also note that MediaWiki's HTML doesn't have to be HTML 3.2 compatible (especially not about including <link> tag, which is not important), as HTML 3.2 is just too old. Please *do not* edit this bug for this, but open a new bug.
I use a sloppy browser most of the time, now, because I can't afford a shell account, and I haven't taken the time to install lynx on my localhost. As far as HTML 3.2 is concerned, well, HTML 4.01 isn't backward compatible with it. Neither was UTF-8. Backward compatibility was a watchword. Sloppy browsers ignore this tag: <link rev=made href="mailto:abuse@ecn.ab.ca"> Sloppy people reinvent it. Please consider the details of my proposal to move the bug into another category at the lowest priority and unspecified version.
Again, please open a new bug report here: http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/enter_bug.cgi , and clarify your proposal *there* (not here). This bug is closed and should not be edited or reopened unless usernames with "@" are allowed again by mistake.
