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It is suggested that you place a {{tlx|retired}} template at the top of your user and talk pages to indicate that you are no longer involved with Wikipedia. This tells other editors that you are no longer active and that messages should not be left for you. If you ever want to return to editing, simply remove the {{tlx|retired}} template or replace the template with {{tlx|Un-retired}}. Retiring will not prevent you from logging in at a future date. |
It is suggested that you place a {{tlx|retired}} template at the top of your user and talk pages to indicate that you are no longer involved with Wikipedia. This tells other editors that you are no longer active and that messages should not be left for you. If you ever want to return to editing, simply remove the {{tlx|retired}} template or replace the template with {{tlx|Un-retired}}. Retiring will not prevent you from logging in at a future date. |
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To leave more fully, you may wish to blank your userpage, talkpage, and any subpages in your userspace. To have them deleted entirely, add the {{tlx|db-user}} tag to the top of each page, and an admin will be along shortly to delete the page for you. Note that this will work on all of the pages in your userspace, except for your [[WP:USERTALK|user talk pages]] – these |
To leave more fully, you may wish to blank your userpage, talkpage, and any subpages in your userspace. To have them deleted entirely, add the {{tlx|db-user}} tag to the top of each page, and an admin will be along shortly to delete the page for you. Note that this will work on all of the pages in your userspace, except for your [[WP:USERTALK|user talk pages]] – these should not be deleted even when a user is claiming to leave the project. |
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== Vanishing from Wikipedia == |
== Vanishing from Wikipedia == |
Revision as of 17:28, 27 March 2009
All Wikipedia editors have the right to leave. The usual way to leave the Wikipedia project is simply to stop editing. Your contributions remain in Wikipedia. If you wish to resume editing at a later date, you can simply start again by logging into the same account. Old accounts are never deleted or recycled to new users.
If you wish to leave permanently, and to remove any association with your past edits, you may exercise your right to vanish. It is not a requirement, but the Wikipedia community will typically accord the ability to vanish to users in good standing who exercise their right to leave and ask to "vanish" permanently.
How to leave
It is suggested that you place a {{retired}}
template at the top of your user and talk pages to indicate that you are no longer involved with Wikipedia. This tells other editors that you are no longer active and that messages should not be left for you. If you ever want to return to editing, simply remove the {{retired}}
template or replace the template with {{Un-retired}}
. Retiring will not prevent you from logging in at a future date.
To leave more fully, you may wish to blank your userpage, talkpage, and any subpages in your userspace. To have them deleted entirely, add the {{db-user}}
tag to the top of each page, and an admin will be along shortly to delete the page for you. Note that this will work on all of the pages in your userspace, except for your user talk pages – these should not be deleted even when a user is claiming to leave the project.
Vanishing from Wikipedia
Vanishing is the act of disassociating the identity of a user account from the identity of its owner, and typically involves:
- Having a bureaucrat change the username of the account,[1]
- Replacing references to the former username with references to the replacement username,
- Deleting the account's user page and subpages (talk pages are rarely deleted, and can be undeleted by community consensus), and
- (Note: Oversight should be used to remove personal information, subject to the oversight policies; user talks per convention are almost never deleted)
- Posting a brief note indicating that the account owner has left Wikipedia and asking that people not refer to the account by its former username.
Vanishing is not a right, it is a courtesy extended by the Wikipedia community to make it easy for users to exercise their right to leave. Sometimes the community will not extend the courtesy: for example, if the user is not actually leaving, or if the user is not in good standing. Note also that the Wikimedia Foundation does not guarantee that an account's username will be changed on request. Decisions to rename an account or allow a Right To Vanish, if contested or in dispute, are determined by community consensus.
For sensitive matters, you may contact an individual bureaucrat directly by e-mail.
What vanishing is not
The right to vanish is only available to users who are also exercising their right to leave. The "right to vanish" is not a "right to a fresh start" under a new identity. Vanishing means that the individual is vanishing, not just the account. Vanished users have no right to silently return under a new identity.
Users in good standing are free to request a change of username at any time. All contributions made under the old username will be reattributed to the new username, including deleted contributions, preserving the edit history.
The deletion of personally identifiable information about users (such as a phone number or a street address) is not "vanishing", and users do not need to leave in order for this information to be deleted. Such information can be deleted on request, provided it is not needed for administrative purposes, which are generally limited to dealing with site misuse issues.
Notes
- ^ The account must have made fewer than 200,000 edits. This is a technical limitation in the rename tool, not a policy limitation. Stewards may rename users with fewer than 2,000,000 edits. For further intervention, a developer is needed.