Wikimedia login comes to Wikimedia Space

Wikimedia login has been successfully deployed on Wikimedia Space. This feature allows users to log in to Space directly with their Wikimedia accounts, no Phabricator account required. Logging in or creating an account is now just as simple as a few clicks. This feature is critical to improving the accessibility of Space, and greatly facilitates the process for anyone who’s interested in joining.

Enabling Wikimedia login has been the first step, and there is more:

Username conformity and formatting

The vast majority of usernames will be identical between Wikimedia projects and Space. The small exception is that Discourse (the software powering Discuss Space) has a set of characters forbidden in usernames that differs from MediaWiki’s, such as parentheses and spaces. Usernames in different scripts should work, but if you find a problem please report it.

When a new user creates a Space account, their username automatically reflects their Wikimedia username, with an option to input an additional alternative name if desired. Username conformity between Space and Wikimedia projects is critical for accountability and community building, and also greatly simplifies our interactions with one another. 

Enforcing username conformity for users with an existing Space account

If your current Space username differs from your Wikimedia username, it will be automatically modified on October 28. The goal is to align all Space usernames with their respective Wikimedia usernames, as described above. If your Space username is different from your Wikimedia username and you have concerns about this automatic renaming, feel free to contact the Space moderators. 

Details for existing users whose usernames will be changing:

• Discourse, the software powering Discuss Space, relies on the “user_id” to for user associations in Discourse. This means a change in username will have minimal effect.
• Any username changes that result in a conflict, we can opt to handle in one of the following ways:
  • Automatically change a conflicting username to a new one (i.e. “username” becomes “username1”
  • Suggest a list of alternates to the user
  • Deny account creation

Feedback on how to best handle this is welcome.

Thanks, all, for your involvement in this process so far. We look forward to continuing to make the process of joining and accessing Wikimedia Space easier for everyone.