Forum:Single User Login (don't panic!)

Forums: Index > Village Dump > Single User Login (don't panic!)

Note: This topic has been unedited for 5839 days. It is considered archived - the discussion is over. Do not add to unless it really needs a response.

First off, this is not a Wikia thread, I'm not wearing my staff hat, and no one at Wikia has asked me to raise the subject. It's just that we have done some user database merges recently, so I was curious as to what the community opinion on this is here these days....

So what this would mean is that usernames on this wiki would also work on all other wikis hosted by Wikia and vice versa. On the positive side, your account would work anywhere you went on Wikia (or is that a negative?), no one could impersonate you on other wikis we host, and people may be encouraged to contribute when they see they already have an account here.

On the negative side, there may be problems with name conflicts for some users, names used only on other Wikia wikis would be unavailable for new users here, and people may be encouraged to contribute when they see they already have an account here.

Obviously Wikia would like this, because it's a lot easier to maintain 5000+ wikis when there are as few special cases as possible - not that Uncyc can ever be anything other than a special case <3

So what are the thoughts on this here abouts? -- sannse (talk) 16:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

What if you use one name on one wiki, and another name on another wiki? --AAA! (AAAA) 17:00, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Then both names would exist on both wikis (and belong to you), but it would be up to you which you chose to use where - sannse (talk) 17:04, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

People being encouraged to contribute is a downside? :) Also, what would happen to the conflicts? • Spang • ☃ • talk • 17:12, 08 Apr 2008

It's the main downside that was raised last time this was mentioned... something like "it will bring all that Wikia riff-raff to our wiki". Go figure ;)

Conflicts: Where the nick is only on one database... no problem, it just becomes usable everywhere. Where the nick is on both databases, and the email address in preferences matches... no problem, the accounts are merged. Where the nick is on both, and the email doesn't match, then the name from the smaller database (Uncyclopedia in our case) is changed to a temporary nick like Uncyc-Sannse for manual review. In most of those cases we've found that it just means people confirming both accounts are theirs. But yes, there may be cases where someone here would lose their nick. I'd need to run a query to find out how likely that is -- sannse (talk) 17:41, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Who will lose their names, and how will they be compensated for their terrible loss? Just try booking a flight with no name! Or getting a nametag! Or naming that tune! Madness! Seriously, how many people will get screwed and, more importantly, will they enjoy it? Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 20:20, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea to me, although I would like more details. I have grabbed MrN9000 on a few other wiki, but if this is a way of doing this quickly everywhere, I see the only problem being the name conflict issue. With this, if someone does have your name on another wiki, it will then become a more convincing impersonation of you. It's probably worth it though. MrN 20:38, Apr 8

I'm all for streamlining stuff, but I'm not all for people losing their names. I'm gonna go register Syndrome at Wikia now just to be safe. --Pleb SYNDROME _{CUN medicate (butt poop!!!!)} 22:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Bollocks. It's taken. I am definitely against a single user login. (Although he doesn't have any edits, it seems...) --Pleb SYNDROME _{CUN medicate (butt poop!!!!)} 22:14, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

It's fine with me--I have a couple accounts on some other wikia wikis, and they're all under this nick, so it would be a positive thing for me. - P.M., WotM, & GUN, Sir Led Balloon (Tick Tock) (Contribs) 22:47, Apr 8

I'm actually somewhat against this as the benefits are small. While this will make things more convenient for people who also use other Wikia wikis, it would put more strain on the DB servers during the merge and it'll make things harder in case Uncyclopedia decides to move in the future. Besides that, the current system works fine for me. --Sir Starnestommy (Talk • Contribs • CUN) 19:35, Apr. 8, 2008

I've been told by a usually reliable source (Artur, our Director of Engineering), that there would be no effect on the DB servers once the databases are merged. We can certainly cope with any effects while the work is being done. -- sannse (talk) 16:19, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

This will make it pretty much impossible to rename user accounts. Hmmm... would this be a good time to create a few User:Chronarion on crack, User:Angela on crack, User:Sannse on crack sockpuppets knowing that, if you go this route, they cannot be renamed without affecting every Wikia-hosted wiki?

The issue with conflicts between usernames on other wikis is also not new, User:Fool was hit with this problem when trying to register on fr:, for instance. This is an idea that has been rejected once or twice before, I'd suspect. --66.102.80.212 01:05, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

The idea is to prevent future name conflicts. You wouldn't have to register on fr:, because you would automatically have that nick on all Wikia wikis. There are conflicts now, but there wouldn't be in the future (as far as all Wikia wikis are concerned that is, unless we ever get involved in Open ID, that's about as far as I could promise :).

On renaming accounts, I have an idea for that. One of our guys has written a script that allows reassignment of edits on request. So any user could create a new account, and have his old edits reassigned. The only difference between this and a true rename across Wikia would be that the forgotten edit to dofus.wikia would be left assigned to his old account. On any wiki he remembered editing his edits could be reassigned to the new account. I'm working on getting this approved and installed, and think it will solve the renaming problem.

On the User:Sannse on crack issue, we deal with that in two ways... firstly, only active accounts are shown on the user list (unless you select to see all) so accounts from wikis other than Uncyclopedia won't show up, and neither with vandal accounts made to flood that list with silly usernames. Secondly, we can remove names from the list directly, and have done that at least once when vandal accounts got to be a bother. -- sannse (talk) 16:19, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Who is this IP and how does he know so much about Uncyclopedia? --Pleb SYNDROME _{CUN medicate (butt poop!!!!)} 02:41, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Nobody knows... I personally believe that he's a soviet spy. Unsolicited conversation Extravagant beauty PEEING 02:45, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Aren't we all IPs, on the inside? • Spang • ☃ • talk • 02:50, 09 Apr 2008

I'm actually a squishy mess of blood and iron on the inside. And I think there's my dinner in there somewhere. -- The Zombiebaron 02:53, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Oy! you sure that wasn't my dinner?! -- sannse (talk) 16:19, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't particularly care for the idea. I use several different names on several different Wikia wikis, and though THINKER is the light that lets my creativity shine, I don't want to cease being User:Cambot on the MST3K wiki which I'll be fixing up at some point in the future. My multiple personalities would be bitterly disappointed. --THINKER 14:04, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

You wouldn't cease to be Cambot, you would just have the choice to log on with either account on either wiki. Which you used where would be up to you. Although you would have to watch out going from wiki to wiki to see which you are using (as you do now between wikia.com wikis) -- sannse (talk) 16:19, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Ohhh.. well then hellz yeah, saddle up the mules on that one. --THINKER 17:31, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

/me quickly squats on User:savethemooses on Wikia just to screw with the system.--<<>> 22:49, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

/me quickly squats on User:Slavethemooses on Wikia just to screw with the system. Maybe, like reindeer, they could pull Santa's sled across Canada, eh?

Seriously, though, this does look like something with no tangible benefit and some very clear disadvantages to Uncyclopedia. If you have a name which someone else already registered on Wikia, you stand to lose it - even if the other user has no ties to any of the Uncyclopedia projects or has never posted much of anything. If you are trying to register a name, and someone has registered it on Muppets or Wookies or some other Wikia that has nothing to do with Uncyclopedia, again it fails - immediately. One more pointless step in turning Uncyclopedia into UncycloWikia, in the finest tradition of ugly "wikia spotlight" graphics on every page.

I can see what Wikia stands to gain; their main interest in buying the domain is to use Uncyclopedia to drive traffic to other unrelated (and often-dead) wikis, of which there are thousands, which they can then jam-pack full of ads. This business model would be consistent with a desire to have all Uncyclopedia users "conveniently just happen to also already be registered" at whatever empty wikis they're promoting in the sidebar here. That this would break things here on Uncyclopedia is unfortunate, but ultimately the bottom line comes first. Why else would this issue keep being raised and raised again if indeed there were at least two prior discussions (once when the site was moved off independent hosting in 2005, once when Chron sold the domain out from under us in 2006) and the idea soundly rejected every time it was inflicted on Uncyclopedia? --Carlb 18:26, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Having thought about it, against. There's no real benefits that you can't get from taking 10 seconds to register on wikia.com, and it seems that where there's a legitimate username conflict, uncyclopedians would automatically lose out.

While we're on the subject though, it might be a good idea to run the RemoveUnusedAccounts maintenance script to get rid of all the accounts with no edits. And if the databases were to be merged (I don't think they should be), it would be really good to run that before doing it. • Spang • ☃ • talk • 18:56, 10 Apr 2008

Carl, remember this is not an Official Wikia Thread. This is just me independently being interested in what the community opinion is on the idea these days (after all, it does change over time...). So please don't extrapolate our buisness plan from my curiosity :)

For me, the main benefit is in preventing conflicts in the future. Yes, there will be some oldies that we would have to sort out manually and some users may have to change names. But for the future, all would be able to have the same nick on all Wikia versions of Uncyclopedia and all the other wikis we host. As for newbies not getting the name they want - frankly, if anyone wants to register "sannse" anywhere, I'd rather that I got their first (Damn you Skype-Sannse!!). The main benefit for Wikia is in simplifying our hosting structure. Uncyclopedia has been merged into "Wikifactory" already, which means that many settings are controlled centrally (and also means I have the ability to adjust them for Uncyclopedia locally, which I couldn't do before). That's a back-end change that helped us look after all 5800+ wikis. This would have more impact on users, but help us in a similar way.

To give some real figures, I've had a query done, and there 224 active users with potential conflicts. But all that means is that people either have different email addresses in their preferences, or haven't put in an address in one or both places. Several, including Angela, Sliferjam, and AAA I've confirmed as the same person. Some like Zombiebaron, TheLedBalloon, and CarlB I'm pretty much certain would be the same person. So far, I've confirmed that Syndrome and Fag would have problems, and suspect a couple like bot and administrator will do so. How many we are actually looking at, and how easy they will be to resolve, I can't say for sure

Spang, "where there's a legitimate username conflict, uncyclopedians would automatically lose out." - no, it would initially be the uncyc name that's changed, but each case would be looked at individually and there is the possibility of the Wikia name being taken over. -- sannse (talk) 20:21, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

I looked at wikia briefly, and it looks to me like <insert name here> would have to change their account name, too. - P.M., WotM, & GUN, Sir Led Balloon (Tick Tock) (Contribs) 20:50, Apr 10

Meh. <insert name here>'s a douchebag anyway. -OptyC Sucks! CUN 21:48, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

And also Jack Phoenix. VGD >=3 20:54, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

How long would this merge take, anyway? VGD >=3 20:54, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

From the user point of view, the initial change would be instant... then it would take us a while to get conflicts sorted -- sannse (talk) 10:40, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

"...and there is the possibility of the Wikia name being taken over". Possible, how? (I just hate the idea of people, some of whom have been contributing to Uncyclopedia since the late 1800's, losing their names just to make things "simpler" in the future. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one here who has no interest in any other wiki, at wikia or elswhere, so the advantage of wiki synergy, of working in a mixed, out-of-the-box environment, with a trust relationship between us and our customers built on trust, while contributing to share with our partners and subsidiaries and helping the community to build a better community, arouses me not at all...while me, or anybody else here, losing their name for this future convenience, makes my spine shiver. Shiver with cold. Cold with fear. Fear with noodles. Spicy noodles). Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 21:31, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

mmmm... noodles....

Possible by direct manipulation of the databases. So "User:Whatever" on Uncyc (long-term active user since 1834) would claim the name "User:Whatever" on Wikia (only ever made one edit, and the content of that was "yoo arr a fag"). It's not easy, so I'm not saying it could be done for every conflict, but it's option is there -- sannse (talk) 10:40, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Collaboration among wikis benefit us

Response to CarlB. Following the notable drop in uncyc's editors I would say it's going to work the other way round, this declining wiki may get more editors from other growing wikia wikis. Unless you think wikia is also responsible for the drop by causing a shift of uncyclopedians to memory alpha (of course, it has nothing to do with the deletion of every new article after we reached the 23.000th). Other wikis are a good place to look for uncyclopedians, their editors alredy have some of the skills, the knowldege and the spirit.---Asteroid B612 (aka Rataube) - Ñ 17:58, 11 April 2008 (UTC)