Renaming and Deleting Users

Initial Suggested Best Practices

1. Removed - See "Renaming a User".

2. When merging/deleting a spam account or other completely bogus account, delete any existing User and User Talk pages in advance, and also check for any other pages created by user which would presumably also be deleted. Any pages edited by the user would presumably need to have the edits undone (or reversed manually if needed).

3. When merging/deleting a real user account into another account for that same person, be very careful if there are any existing User or User Talk pages for the old account. In some circumstances it may be better to merge/delete the new account into the old account, then rename the old account to the new account. Even better of course, if the user hasn't created the new account yet, is the straight rename.

4. If user just wants their account deleted, period, and there are no contributions, I see no reason not to merge/delete it into Zzzzzz. If there are contributions, merging/deleting into Zzzzzz are going to make those contributions appear to have been done by Zzzzzz. In this circumstance, I would suggest to the user to allow the account to remain and they just not use it any more. If they really, really, really want it deleted, then I guess still go ahead and merge/delete it into Zzzzzz (unless we want to create some other account for that purpose if/when this ever happens).

Renaming a User

Unless is a specific reason to do otherwise, always select the "Move user and talk pages (and their subpages) to new name" option. Otherwise if a new user account is created with the old user name, it will acquire those pages. If the user being renamed does not want those user pages, delete the pages. As with any page deletions, be sure to check for links to the pages using the "What links here" function in the left navigation column. If any user pages are moved, as with all page moves, a redirect page will be created under the old page name, pointing to the new name. It is strongly recommended to edit any links to the old pages (or assist the user to do so), then delete the redirects. Otherwise if a new user account is created with the old user name, it will acquire those redirect pages.

Function is at Special:Renameuser.

Note: You must click the Submit button to do the Rename. If you press Enter within the form, the "Block Log" function is executed.

Deleting a User

It is recommended to not use this function unless necessary until it has been tested for robustness and handling of edge cases.

Function is at Special:UserMerge.