Forum:User database merge

Forums: Index > Village Dump > User database merge

Note: This topic has been unedited for 3239 days. It is considered archived - the discussion is over.

UPDATE:" We now do not expect any read-only time during the merge. However, account creation will be locked for a few days. If you can't log in at any time 1) try your Wikia-global password or 2) log in as Un-YourName or 3) contact Sannse for help. -- sannse

Hi all,

As I think most of you know, Uncyclopedia currently has a separate user database from the rest of Wikia. It's an odd legacy from Unycs original move to Wikia, and is why you have to create two accounts if you want to use your username over the whole site.

We're now working on an improved login system across Wikia. The plan is to update the background workings of the system, which involves moving to a single username database for everyone. In most cases the only visible effect will be that when you log in you will be logged in for the whole of Wikia.

However, because of the way passwords used to be stored on MediaWiki (back in the dark days) some early users may find that their passwords no longer work. This won't affect most of us, but it is a possibility. So please update and verify your email address to ensure you can safely recover your password if needed.

There is also the issue of usernames that exist on both databases. We need to resolve these conflicts as part of this process.

For accounts that exist on both databases and have the same email address, it's easy. We will merge the accounts and you will just use your Wikia password to log on, whether you start on Uncyclopedia or anywhere else on Wikia.

If you have the same username on Uncyclopedia and the rest of Wikia, but have different email addresses in your preferences, 'please update both accounts to use the same verified email address so we can merge them seamlessly

That leaves two groups: those who own both accounts and are inactive or otherwise haven't matched up the emails, and those where two different people own the two accounts.

In both cases we will need to rename one of the accounts. We'll be doing this on the basis of edits, which seems the fairest measure of current and past activity. So if the Uncyclopedia user is least active, they will be renamed to "Un-username" or a name of their choice. However, if the other user has less edits, then it will be them that's renamed to "W-username". For example, Frosty's username conflicts with an unrelated user elsewhere, but he will keep his username as is.

If you own both accounts and haven't set up for a merge before we start (again, please make sure you update and verify your email address on both accounts!), then you will need to contact us for help.

If your password is one of those affected by the process, and you don't have an email address in place to recover the account, then again you will need to contact us and we'll do what we can to help.

The changes are happening from Wednesday June 3, and will involve Uncyclopedia being read-only for a while.

I know this is all a bit of an upheaval, frankly it's something we should have done long ago but kept putting off. But we'll do everything we can to make it a smooth process, and will work with you to help if there are any bumps.

And let me know if there are any questions!

Thanks all -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 23:33, May 27, 2015 (UTC)

We last discussed this issue last September-October at Forum:Knock down the username firewall? Wikia told me that a deal-buster was users who, for historical reasons, have an Uncyclopedia user name that matches a pre-existing Wikia username. No remaining Admin seems to insist on the user name firewall, but informed of these historical problems, we dropped the proposal last year and there is no reason to reassert it now except that someone at Wikia is contemplating "improvements." I disagree on the statement of the only "visible effect," as having your user name changed and being unable to edit the wiki for an unspecified time are visible effects. Spıke Ѧ 23:55 27-May-15

As I said above, anyone more active here than with the corresponding wikia account will keep their name. From what I can see in the data, there shouldn't be any other major conflicts now that we've changed the way this will work. The vast majority will not have their name changed, and will likely not be on-wiki to see the read-only time. So I'm comfortable with saying there will be no visible effect for most. I don't have an estimate on how long the read-only time will be, but I'll get that for you as soon as I can -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 00:31, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

p.s I'm heading home in a moment, so won't be replying more for a while -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 00:35, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

What happens in the instance that someone is inactive, and their username ends up being changed to W- or U-, but owns both accounts. Is there any method post 3rd June to merge these accounts (assuming they later become re-active)?

Also if someone does wish to return who is unaware of this, and their username is changed, will the login process be clever enough to determine that they are trying to login is as Batman, but they should be using U-Batman? Will it still log them in (with the changed username), or will it simply reject their entry?

Lastly, has this happened on any other Wikia sub domains in the past? If so, what were the issues that were faced at that stage? If things do go askew, is there a roll back plan?                                • Puppy's talk page • 03:39 pm 28 May 2015

Ah. So if you have a wikia account and uncyclopedia account with the same user name - the wikia password works on both? --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 17:38, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

It's worse than that...Check out Special:Contributions/Romartus. You are an Un-person on Un-cyclopedia. Spıke Ѧ 17:49 28-May-15

Yes I have noticed. My deleted items log is still there. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 17:51, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

So we are to know you by your un-contributions? Spıke Ѧ 17:54 28-May-15

I see a big problem as regards the database name merge. If a user logs into the 'lego wikia' or some other such wikia designed for the genuine short trousered community and then they come over and find articles that may offend/repel/repulse (according to taste) - won't that be a problem? Hope we don't end up as a branch of Disneyland. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 18:27, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

Puppy: Yes, we will be able to merge accounts later if we find they are owned by the same person. Mostly that verification will be by email address (where it was a mismatch rather than no email in either) but we'll work with individuals where necessary to get things sorted.

Unfortunately the login process won't be able to alert people that their name has been changed. We will be relying on people contacting us if they have a problem logging in. Staff will know what to check for, and be able to help them if they want to change their name to something non w- or un-

This is a unique situation, we have never hosted another wikia with a separate user database. However, it's a very similar process to merging a user database when a wiki moves to Wikia. We've done that many times, for communities like Memory-Alpha, YoYowiki, FFXIclopedia... As far as I know, there were no major issues with those merges. I haven't had a chance to ask about a roll-back plan, so I'll get back to you on that one

Romartus! my un-love!: First, your questions: yes, your Wikia password will work wherever you log in, and that login will continue as you move between wikias (or just as you sit on Uncyclopedia)

Secondly, have you _been_ to some of our short-trousered wikias? They can be scary places. I don't think the user database merge will make any difference to who sees Uncyclopedia, it will just mean that they will arrive here logged in, rather than as an anon.

And lastly and not leastly, your contribs. Oops! Some pre-work didn't quite... work. Which will show up in missing contribs (they are fully intact and will be back) and login problems. Sorry guys, especially Romartus as he's in the middle of it. You'll be back soon -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 19:40, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

Aaaand, they're back. -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 20:07, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Sannse.I have been de-de-UnCycled. Did George R. R. Martin nick and adapt your user name for his Game of Thrones character Sansa Stark?--RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 20:45, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

I have my suspicions... -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 21:37, May 28, 2015 (UTC)

Maybe it's just me, but suddenly I see Uncyc with ugly ass Wikia skin - both as logged out user and logged in. Please tell me this is also a temporary glitch.

With the change of user names we normally have a change of user space pages. For those pages that are changed, we may see a significant number of incorrect links. While I assume that a redirect will be created, it will mean a redirect from a user name of an existing user in the Wikia database - which could cause some confusion. Are we able to get a listing of the user names locally that are likely to change?                                • Puppy's talk page • 09:36 am 29 May 2015

Do you have a choice of 'skins'? --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 12:41, May 29, 2015 (UTC)

Yeah. Preferences are for "monobook". I'm accessing via my phone, and it's not going to mobile site. Added to that I was in Wikia skin prior to logging in - and as far as I know should have still been logged in.                                • Puppy's talk page • 12:51 pm 29 May 2015

Never mind. I visited Wikia Community Central where my preferences are for Wikia skin, and when I came back to here the cookie didn't change to say I wanted monobook. I cleaned out the cookies on my phone and logged in again, and I'm back to the nicer skin.                                • Puppy's talk page • 01:00 pm 29 May 2015

I'm still curious about the user page redirect stuff though - don't want that missed with the other stuff.                                • Puppy's talk page • 01:03 pm 29 May 2015

I'm pretty sure that the pages will be moved without redirects (because, as you say, they would point to another user). I'll get that confirmed though. Links from history and other such pages will automatically show the name and link to people's new name. So if Foo is renamed to Un-Foo, all his contribs will go with him, and the history pages, logs etc. will show his new name and link to his new pages. What won't be changed is links from sigs. So if Foo wrote on my talk page, that link will continue to show and link to "Foo".

Luckily, very few of those renamed will have links from talk pages or elsewhere. Most have no edits, and most of the rest have very few. Some of those with more edits should be resolvable easily - things like Foo@gmail in one database and Foo@hotmail in the other... or MikeSmith@gmail and M.Smith@gmail. I'll try and mop up as many of those as possible before the script runs. I don't have exact numbers at the moment, mostly because working with 173,000 rows is pretty tricky and I ran out of patience.

The devs want to do some more testing after the weekend, so they are delaying the run until June 10th. That gives me time next week to do more obvious tidying too -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 23:53, May 29, 2015 (UTC)

Funny thing happened to me at Wikipedia when they did that. The Wikimedia and Wikiversity accounts I had which used the same email but different password got changed to a different user name like OrionBlastar.Wikimedia and OrionBlastar.Wikiversity and then moved my Wikipedia account to OrionBlastar on those sites. Like it created clones of my account. On different Wikia sites I use different passwords but the same email address. To make matters even worse I get this user name at Wikipedia and I'm not sure which one I get to log into that has my contributions and such. I am certain I used the same email on all of my accounts, and they still got cloned that way via different names. Orion Blastar (talk) 03:56, May 31, 2015 (UTC)

They were dealing with more databases than we are, so I imagine it was a more complex process. We only have the two accounts to compare, or less for the majority of accounts that don't clash. At the moment your accounts have different email addresses, so your global account is set to be renamed to w-Orion_Blaster (that account has fewer edits of course). So please change one or the other, or I can do it for you if you are feeling particularly lazy ;) -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 15:48, May 31, 2015 (UTC)

I changed it to my GMail account, forgot my Wikia account uses my Yahoo one. They both should be using my Gmail account. They both have different passwords will that be an issue? Orion Blastar (talk) 18:47, May 31, 2015 (UTC)

Nope, that'll be fine. Your Wikia-global password will work on the merged account, whether you log in here or on any other wikia :) -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 00:26, June 1, 2015 (UTC)

People who have been active this year (one edit or more), have more than 1000 Uncyc edits, and have not got matching email addresses.

If you own both accounts, please fix it! Or your Wikia account will be renamed.

• Llwy-ar-lawr
• Shabidoo
• Zana Dark
• Mattsnow
• Nacky
• Meganew
• Mnidaydwisww
• Zim ulator
• Dr. Skullthumper
• Pocketthesaurus
• Trar
• Codeine (wait, Codeine edited??)
• Gamma287
• Tom mayfair (Tom too?! Tom! come back to me!)
• Gwax
• Readmesoon

I am not SPIKE on any other Wikia wiki. Codeine was not only here, he raised hopes he would be a celebrity judge on a future writing contest, which should start soon. Spıke Ѧ 19:27 1-Jun-15

I will leave a reminder on all the above user talk pages. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 22:24, June 1, 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Romartus

SPIKE, you soon will be :) Your account "wins" with the criteria set, so it will be the global-wikia account that's renamed -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 16:10, June 2, 2015 (UTC)

Fixed the email address on my Wikia account (was I too late? it says the changes begin on 3 June...). ❦ Llwy-ar-lawr • talk • contribs • 03:28 4 June 2015

The date was changed to the 10th so you should be ok. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 08:05, June 4, 2015 (UTC)

Is it another Spike I know on TeaWiki? Jackiespeel (talk)

Must be; I have not gone there. Spıke Ѧ 13:17 8-Jun-15

You're welcome to have a look round there and take part (and any other of the wikis I am involved in). Jackiespeel (talk) 13:23, June 8, 2015 (UTC)

Yep, SpikeToronto is a different person (and a great guy). He doesn't have an account here so won't be affected by (or affect) the merge -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 14:14, June 9, 2015 (UTC)

People who have more edits on Wikia-global than Uncyclopedia (and have more than 1000 edits on Uncyclopedia) and do not have matching email addresses

Here's the next interesting lot on my impossible-to-manage spreadsheet:

Get those emails addresses updated please!

• Kjhf
• Qscgu9-bot
• Proxima Centauri

Done. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 21:58, June 2, 2015 (UTC)

People who have less than 1000 edits on Uncyclopedia, have been active this year, and do not have a matching email address

These are currently down to have the Uncyclopedia account renamed (as their Wikia account covers more wikias, and they are not highly active now or in the past)

There's a lot of these Romartus, so you may not want to leave messages for all? -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 22:06, June 2, 2015 (UTC)

• Dalar - Messaged
• Thetoastman - Messaged
• Anidnmeno - Messaged
• Jftsang - Messaged
• UltraJohnny - Messaged
• Numanoid - Messaged
• Ervinpospisil - Messaged
• Taco Wiz - Messaged
• LordWolf - Messaged
• Mh96 - Messaged
• Limulus - Messaged
• Evilgidgit - Messaged
• OneWeirdDude - Messaged
• ProkopHapala - Messaged
• Arutoa - Messaged
• Owen1983 - Messaged
• T3canolis - Messaged
• T42 - Messaged
• Dominik528 - Messaged
• 用戶 (No user pages)
• Boudica (No user pages)
• PennyDreadful - Messaged
• T3hl33tsnake (no user pages)
• TheEditingMan - Messaged
• EditorE - Messaged
• 3hunna - Messaged
• Jackson14 (no user pages)
• Chinaski77 (no user pages)
• Sutthiphat Borworncharuphat (no user pages)
• Bruce246 - Messaged
• Gslurp (no user pages)
• Reddyfox (no user pages)
• McLennonSon - Messaged
• Hubacub1! - No user page
• Owais Khursheed - Messaged
• DoctorFosterGloster - no user page
• Portzebie - Messaged
• Richardson j - Messaged
• Satrain18 - Messaged
• Spaghetti Lee - No user page
• Impshum - Messaged
• IndoManiak - no user page
• CheeseTime - Messaged
• RockoRocks - Messaged
• Ad48hp - no user page
• YouTubeFan43 - no user page
• Xianos - Messaged
• Lord Cake - no user page
• Red412 - no user page
• Bartkudel - no user page
• Kazimi - no user page
• Elcmaeed5 - no user page
• The9thBit - no user page
• Karkos - no user page
• Sebagomez - no user page
• Anonymous123 - no user page
• Tyciol - Messaged
• Lysdexia - no user page
• GhostTracker - No user pages
• Yrtneg - Messaged
• Qaz123 - Messaged
• Stoyns619 - No user page
• Mouse555 - No user page
• Frode Fenis - trying to message (user page acting weird)
• WiiKend - Messaged
• Photons - Messaged
• Cfmilazzo - no user page
• Fonchezzz - Messaged
• A123bs - Messaged
• RSCakeBomb - Messaged
• Tomboy - no user page
• Ubarun - no user page
• DeviantSerpent - messaged
• Gethomas3 - no user page
• Unununium - Messaged
• Typhoon393 - no user page
• Ironman24 - Messaged
• Darthrai - no user page
• Sendator - Messaged
• Aaronaraujo2013 - Messaged
• Zyniker - Messaged
• Uboaaaa - no user page
• Unedible - Messaged
• Berek - Messaged
• 黑底屍 - Messaged
• Jokerman - Messaged
• Lucifuge Rofacale - Messaged

Lucifuge Rofacale is a recent regular. Unununium, Ironman24, and Aaronaraujo2013 have done stuff here. WiiKend is a Bureaucrat of desencyclopedie.wikia.com and submits translations and stuff (His pages are semi-protected). RockoRocks is notorious for begging for awards. Thetoastman recently cleared out his locker for a second time after a 3-year absence. Ubarun is a recidivist edit-warrior from South America. Jokerman is an UnNews writer who this year vowed to get active again. Yrtneg I thought Romartus notified in a previous round. Sorry for not remembering others if I should. Spıke Ѧ 22:15 2-Jun-15

A lot of these will have one or two edits that just happen to have been this year, so no reason you should recognize most. I've just listed them so you can poke any that should be poked. Remember we can still merge accounts if they are renamed, it's just easier all round if those that are likely to be active or whatever are fixed before then :) -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 03:18, June 3, 2015 (UTC)

I will contact them all. This is one of the reasons why I have the hat. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 05:17, June 3, 2015 (UTC)

Done. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 08:44, June 4, 2015 (UTC)

I don't see instructions for what is expected from me. I have a different name on the rest of Wikia; any other Unununiums are not me. Calling oneself Unununium is kinda stupid for any site that isn't Uncyclopedia though, in my opinion.◄► Tephra ◄► 11:09, June 4, 2015 (UTC)

You can have different names here and Wikia but you need to keep the same email address to make sure your edit history doesn't disappear. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 13:23, June 4, 2015 (UTC)

I don't think that's true; Wikia will regard them as different users. Edit histories never disappear. Given the opening of this section, "our" Unununium is to have his account renamed to "Un-Unununium" (!!!) in favor of the more active pan-Wikia impostor. If you reply to Sannse, she may be able to equate your account to your pan-Wikia account with the same email address — if you even care to show that certain Uncyclopedia edits were made by the same person as certain Wikia edits. Spıke Ѧ 13:41 4-Jun-15

I don't know how the other Unununium is more "active" than me, it appears they've only made 10 lifetime edits. I must say though, the name Un-Unununium does have a certain ironic appeal...◄► Tephra ◄► 22:28, June 4, 2015 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I didn't explain it well above (I tried to do better in the titles here). The cut-off is 1000 edits. If you have less than 1000 edits on Uncyclopedia (you look to have around 675) and the other person with your name has more than 0 edits, then they keep the name on the basis that they may have less edits, but their account spans 300,000 or so wikias.

You have a few options. You could change to Un-unununium, which would be able to edit on any wikia (although you could choose to use it only on Uncyc of course); you could change to a new name, for one or both accounts (as long as that name doesn't currently exist on Uncyclopedia or on Wikia-global); or you could have your current non-Uncyc account merged with your Uncyc one so that you edit under that name on all wikias. Let me know what you want, and I'll try and work it out

In all cases, email addresses only have to match if they are the same name and you own both accounts. Nothing will happen to your Wikia-global account, unless we do something specific to get all your edits in the one account -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 00:10, June 5, 2015 (UTC)

I guess I'd rather be renamed to and merged with Tephra, which is my Wikia name ("our" emails match). Tephra doesn't have the same un-comedic ring, but if I must be striped of my undentity, I might as well fuse with my better half.◄► Tephra ◄► 00:46, June 5, 2015 (UTC)

Okay, I've put a request in for the Uncyc-you to be renamed to Tephra. Although the other Unununium will have that name, I would say that there will be absolutely no problem with setting up a redirect from User:Unununium to User:Tephra here. The chances of the person who will log in with that name after the merge actually wanting the uncyc page are low. Redirecting the page on one wikia that they won't be editing on will make no difference to anyone - except that it will keep your past sigs pointing to the right place. -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 21:01, June 7, 2015 (UTC)

The others

The ones that are left either have no Wikia account (so will just be made global), have matching email addresses (will be merged), have no edits on either wiki and no matching email (so will have their Uncyc account renamed), or have less than 1000 edits here and no matching email and have been inactive for all of this year (also Uncyc account renamed as above)

There are way too many of those to list, but I am still picking out any that I can manually resolve. -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 22:11, June 2, 2015 (UTC)

Nope. Don't like it. Can you put it all back now? -- Sir Mhaille  (talk to me)

What? And make Sannse cry?? Lord Stoneheart. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 20:45, June 4, 2015 (UTC)

Can't put back what I haven't moved yet. Also, Mhaille! -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 00:14, June 5, 2015 (UTC)

p.s. Mhaille, if you know where any of the old crew are who are on this list, can you let 'em know? Several don't have any email address in preferences, which will mean they won't get notifications an all that -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 00:19, June 5, 2015 (UTC)

ScottPat's own special section

Sorry about this but I ignored this forum because I thought it only applied to old users on the site (that's what I understood from the intro) but I see my username is on neither list above. Does this mean someone on Wikia has the same username as me and I need to be worried? I have not got a Wikia account myself, just an Uncyclopedia one. SirScottPat VFH NotM WotM WotY UotM 08:15, June 5, 2015 (UTC)

If you don't have a wikia account, you won't be affected. It is for people who have in the past registered for both wikia and uncyclopedia websites in the past with the same user name but not the same confirmation email address. Something I had to correct myself. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 09:34, June 5, 2015 (UTC)

OK cool. This shouldn't affect me then. SirScottPat VFH NotM WotM WotY UotM 10:45, June 5, 2015 (UTC)

Well you are half right. It won't affect you, but that's because you have the same email address in both accounts. Does this hansom fella ring any bells? http://inciclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Usuario:ScottPat -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 21:16, June 7, 2015 (UTC)

Ah yes, you're right I do have another one. Thanks, Sansee. Completely forgot, so long since I've used it and I can't even remember a password for it. That is me though. SirScottPat VFH NotM WotM WotY UotM 12:39, June 8, 2015 (UTC)

Then it will affect you in a minor way - if you can't remember your wikia-global password, you'll have to request a new one with the "forgot my password" link. If you have any problems with that, let me know and I'll change it manually.

This relates to the worst issue people might have (talked about above). For some older users, their password will not be preserved over the merge (because of an idiosyncracity of MediaWiki's old password system). They will need to hit that "forgot my password" link to get a new one... and if they don't have an email set...

I'll work individually with anyone affected by this, but please, everyone, make sure there is an email address in your account -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 14:14, June 9, 2015 (UTC)

Update

Okay, it's the 10th and we are ready to go. We have changed the way we are doing this to avoid read-only time. It turns out that moving 170,000 accounts takes quite a while! Way longer than we were prepared to lock the wikia. So instead we are merging with a method that is actually slower, but that means the main database doesn't need to be locked. We will be stopping people from creating new accounts, so that we don't have a situation where user database is changing at the same time we are changing it ourselves. But otherwise you can continue editing as usual. Puppy, I think it was you who asked about reversibility? This method is also reversible (although not easily) so we have that extra security.

Hopefully most of you will see nothing of this process. All that will happens is that if you go to another wikia, you will still be logged in.

For others, if your Uncyclopedia password stops working, This could mean:

1. Your accounts have been merged and you Wikia-global password will work instead
2. You have been renamed to un-YourName and your Uncyclopedia password will work for that account
3. You need to contact Sannse to get help (you have an old account with a mediawiki issue related to passwords, or there is another issue)

Let me know if you aren't sure of anything here -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 21:49, June 10, 2015 (UTC)

Any ideas how this is going to take Sannse? Also, am I correct in reading that no new accounts can be created on Uncyclopedia for the moment? --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 07:54, June 11, 2015 (UTC)

The estimate is about 28 days. Yes, that's days, not hours. But we figure that's better than going read-only for several days. Yes, account creation will be shut down for that time, but everything else, including editing, will continue to work. People will be able to create accounts on Wikia-global (don't ask me how that works) and those new accounts will automatically work on Uncyclopedia once the accounts are migrated and the switch-over done -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 20:36, June 11, 2015 (UTC)

28 days...err...we all turn into zombies...yes? --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 21:17, June 11, 2015 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia is shut down (to anyone who isn't already inside) for 28 days??? Can you refresh me on why we needed to do this in the first place, given that last fall when I suggested it, y'all explained all the things that could go wrong and we dropped it? Spıke Ѧ 02:07 12-Jun-15

Perhaps we need to add that 28 days advisory for people wanting to create accounts here and instead point them at Evil HQ? --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 08:54, June 12, 2015 (UTC)

You should also add that it's absolutely fine to edit logged out. It is only creating a new username that's locked, and you can go reserve that name on Community Central or any other wikia until then.

The ideal situation would be that we did this long ago, but we didn't. We should probably have insisted during the various discussions about it over the years, including during the last one you started... but, you know how it is, hindsight is whatever. This time we have reason to say it's gotta be done. But yeah, it's no going to be the relatively painless procedure it would have been if we'd done it 10 years ago. I can only throw up my shoulders philosophically at that, and welcome in our extra temporary anons -- sannse<staff/> (talk) 16:48, June 12, 2015 (UTC)