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== Title ideas ==
== Title ideas ==
*Single-User Login:Access to All Wikis
*Single-User Login:Access to All Wikis
−
*
...
+
*
One account, one wiki world
==Summary==
==Summary==
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==Body==
==Body==
[[File:A handshake.png|thumb|A collaboration is formed.]]
[[File:A handshake.png|thumb|A collaboration is formed.]]
−
A
little over fourteen years ago
,
on
16
March
2001
, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced and launched the first Wikipedia projects to be [https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html written in languages other than English], the [[:de:Wikipedia:Hauptseite|German]] and [[:ca:Portada|Catalan]] Wikipedias. With these creations the future Wikimedia movement would be given an exciting and motivating direction to move in to: a truly global movement with truly global free educational content. The Wikimedia Foundation now hosts over 900 wikis in hundreds of languages, [[Complete_list_of_Wikimedia_projects#Core free knowledge projects|covering ten subject areas]] as well as Meta-Wiki, the global community site, and MediaWiki.org, the website for development and documentation of the software the runs the Wikimedia wikis.
+
On 16 March 2001, a
little over fourteen years ago
and
just
two
months after Wikipedia's creation
, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced and launched the first Wikipedia projects to be [https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html written in languages other than English], the [[:de:Wikipedia:Hauptseite|German]] and [[:ca:Portada|Catalan]] Wikipedias. With these creations the future Wikimedia movement would be given an exciting and motivating direction to move in to: a truly global movement with truly global free educational content. The Wikimedia Foundation now hosts over 900 wikis in hundreds of languages, [[Complete_list_of_Wikimedia_projects#Core free knowledge projects|covering ten subject areas]] as well as
[[m:Main Page|
Meta-Wiki
]]
, the global community site, and
[https://www.mediawiki.org
MediaWiki.org
]
, the website for development and documentation of the software the runs the Wikimedia wikis.
The rapid growth and expansion of the various projects presented a problem very early on, and one that is [[Single User Login finalisation announcement|finally being solved to completion]] this month: accounts created on one wiki stayed on one wiki. If you wanted to edit a different wiki, you had to register a new account. Sometimes, and with growing frequency over the years, your account name was already registered by someone else on that different wiki. Lack of single-user login required you to register a different account name, splitting your identity across the wikis. This has caused a great hinderance to the potential of software development, from being able to develop [[mw:Echo_(Notifications)|global notifications]] or [[phab:T5525|global watchlists]], as just two examples. The lack of assured persistent identity across the wikis also caused problems with users being mistaken for other users, users blocked on one wiki were sometimes assumed to be the same person on another, the list goes on. As of last month, out of 84 million accounts, there were 2.8 million with conflicting, identical usernames.
The rapid growth and expansion of the various projects presented a problem very early on, and one that is [[Single User Login finalisation announcement|finally being solved to completion]] this month: accounts created on one wiki stayed on one wiki. If you wanted to edit a different wiki, you had to register a new account. Sometimes, and with growing frequency over the years, your account name was already registered by someone else on that different wiki. Lack of single-user login required you to register a different account name, splitting your identity across the wikis. This has caused a great hinderance to the potential of software development, from being able to develop [[mw:Echo_(Notifications)|global notifications]] or [[phab:T5525|global watchlists]], as just two examples. The lack of assured persistent identity across the wikis also caused problems with users being mistaken for other users, users blocked on one wiki were sometimes assumed to be the same person on another, the list goes on. As of last month, out of 84 million accounts, there were 2.8 million with conflicting, identical usernames.
−
As early as May of 2004, in proposing [[Wikimedia Commons]], the free media repository, [[User:Eloquence|Eloquence]] put [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Commons&oldid=34181#Commons_as_basis_for_single_sign-on.3F forward the idea] of using Commons as a place to unify all usernames. In June of 2005 the first proposed [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Single_login_specifications&oldid=171755 specifics were put into proposal] for establishing and using "global accounts." The Wikimedia Foundation, then only two-years-old at the time, committed software architect and engineer [[User:Brion Vibber (WMF)|Brion Vibber]] to work on the project. Due to various complications in timing, technical complexity, and testing, the resulting global log-in system, [[mw:Extension:CentralAuth|CentralAuth]], was not ready for general, and opt-in, use until 2008 and only in 2009 were new account name requests checked against those that registered their global name. Following a [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Forum&diff=next&oldid=3619272 community request in 2012] to compete single-user login and make all accounts global, with no local conflicts, the Wikimedia Foundation, now almost ten-years-old, renewed resources into the task. In the spring of 2013 James Forrester was tasked with unifying and globalizing all accounts, and early planning begin. Dan Garry took over the project at the end of 2013, and throughout the summer of 2014 he [[phab:T37707|organized the engineering resources]] to complete the task. I, the author, took over the project once most engineering challenges had been met at the end of October 2014.
+
As early as May of 2004, in proposing [[Wikimedia Commons]], the free media repository, [[User:Eloquence|Eloquence]] put [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Commons&oldid=34181#Commons_as_basis_for_single_sign-on.3F forward the idea] of using Commons as a place to unify all usernames. In June of 2005 the first proposed [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Single_login_specifications&oldid=171755 specifics were put into proposal] for establishing and using "global accounts." The Wikimedia Foundation, then only two-years-old at the time, committed software architect and engineer [[User:Brion Vibber (WMF)|Brion Vibber]] to work on the project. Due to various complications in timing, technical complexity, and testing, the resulting global log-in system, [[mw:Extension:CentralAuth|CentralAuth]], was not ready for general, and opt-in, use until 2008 and only in 2009 were new account name requests checked against those that registered their global name. Following a [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Forum&diff=next&oldid=3619272 community request in 2012] to compete single-user login and make all accounts global, with no local conflicts, the Wikimedia Foundation, now almost ten-years-old, renewed resources into the task. In the spring of 2013
[[User:Jdforrester (WMF)|
James Forrester
]]
was tasked with unifying and globalizing all accounts, and early planning begin.
[[User:Deskana (WMF)|
Dan Garry
]]
took over the project at the end of 2013, and throughout the summer of 2014 he [[phab:T37707|organized the engineering resources]] to complete the task. I, the author, took over the project once most engineering challenges had been met at the end of October 2014.
−
The move to all-global accounts has been taking place in stages over the past eight months. August 2014 started with migrating all local accounts that [[phab:T71291|did not conflict with another local account or a global account to be global]]. In September 2014 the ability to rename accounts was moved from local requests to a global group to prevent local renames that would separate an account from its global owner. In January 2015 [[Special:GlobalRenameRequest]] was deployed on all wikis. This page allows users to request a new name from the wiki that they are logged in on in localized, translated text. The form is short and allows global renamers to smoothly process rename requests from all wikis. Following that step was preventing the ability to create an account that conflicted with a global account by anyone in February 2015, as well as [[phab:T73241|contacting over 80,000 accounts]] with unconfirmed email addresses to request confirmation. Of all remaining clashing accounts, a script was ran in mid-March 2015 based on [[Single User Login finalisation announcement/Schema announcement|a rename selection scheme]] to determine global accounts and which accounts need to be renamed.
+
The move to all-global accounts has been taking place in stages over the past eight months. August 2014 started with migrating all local accounts that [[phab:T71291|did not conflict with another local account or a global account to be global]]. In September 2014 the ability to rename accounts was moved from local requests to a
[[Global renamers|
global group
]]
to prevent local renames that would separate an account from its global owner
. November and December 2014 saw testing of new global rename processing tools
. In January 2015 [[Special:GlobalRenameRequest]]
, and the special queue requests are sent to for processing,
was deployed on all wikis. This page allows users to request a new name from the wiki that they are logged in on in localized, translated text. The form is short and allows global renamers to smoothly process rename requests from all wikis. Following that step was preventing the ability to create an account that conflicted with a global account by anyone in February 2015, as well as [[phab:T73241|contacting over 80,000 accounts]] with unconfirmed email addresses to request confirmation. Of all remaining clashing accounts, a script was ran in mid-March 2015 based on [[Single User Login finalisation announcement/Schema announcement|a rename selection scheme]] to determine global accounts and which accounts need to be renamed.
−
On 17 March the process of contacting the 2.8 million accounts being renamed began. It took a little under a week to deliver all the messages, after some fixes had to be made to the script and the text as results of the messaging started coming in. Since being contacted, over [[mw:User:Legoktm/graph|1.4 million accounts have attached]] to the their global
one
and will no longer be renamed, and over 10,000 accounts have been renamed to a new global account name of their choosing. This week the process of renaming the remaining 1.4 million accounts will begin, and is expected to take up to a week to two weeks, depending on complications that may occur. Once renamed, account owners will still be able to log in using their old credentials and will be shown information about the renaming. At any point after being renamed all affected accounts are free to request a new name of their choice using Special:GlobalRenameRequest.
+
On 17 March the process of contacting the 2.8 million accounts being renamed began. It took a little under a week to deliver all the messages, after some fixes had to be made to the script and the text as results of the messaging started coming in. Since being contacted, over [[mw:User:Legoktm/graph|1.4 million accounts have attached]] to the their global
ones
and will no longer be renamed, and over 10,000 accounts have been renamed to a new global account name of their choosing. This week the process of renaming the remaining 1.4 million accounts will begin, and is expected to take up to a week to two weeks, depending on complications that may occur. Once renamed, account owners will still be able to log in using their old credentials and will be shown information about the renaming. At any point after being renamed all affected accounts are free to request a new name of their choice using Special:GlobalRenameRequest.
Once finalization is complete every account on Wikimedia projects will be unique to all projects. Identity confusion can help be resolved by setting up a [[global user page]] for your account in the unified world, and software developers can begin projects that have been put on hold for over a decade due to this languishing issue. Cross-wiki collaboration, communication, and work has the potential for vast improvement, which should help the health of the overall Wikimedia movement. I'm looking forward to sharing this new, unified wiki experience with the rest of you. The wait and the work should all be well worth it.
Once finalization is complete every account on Wikimedia projects will be unique to all projects. Identity confusion can help be resolved by setting up a [[global user page]] for your account in the unified world, and software developers can begin projects that have been put on hold for over a decade due to this languishing issue. Cross-wiki collaboration, communication, and work has the potential for vast improvement, which should help the health of the overall Wikimedia movement. I'm looking forward to sharing this new, unified wiki experience with the rest of you. The wait and the work should all be well worth it.