This help page is ahow-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels ofconsensus.

It is not possible to delete a Wikimedia account because all contributions must be licensed under theCC BY-SA 4.0 License andGFDL. However, the closest equivalent is torequest courtesy vanishing. When your account is vanished:

• Your username is changed to a randomly generated string of characters.
• Your edits and contributions will be re-attributed to the randomly generated username, but will not be removed.
• Youruser page and user talk page are moved to the new name.
• Signatures on discussion pages will not be changed.
• The account islocked to prevent logging in.

Courtesy vanishing is discretionary and may be refused. It is not intended to avoid scrutiny or sanctions, and it is not intended to be a temporary measure—editors who are vanishing are expected to be leaving Wikipedia permanently. Courtesy vanishing may be reversed if you return to editing under a new account or requested vanishing inbad faith. Courtesy vanishing is generally refused for users who areblocked or have activesanctions.

1. Request deletion of youruser pages by adding the{{Db-u1}} tag at the top of each page to be deleted. Your user talk page will typically not be deleted; seeWikipedia:Courtesy vanishing § Deletion of user talk pages.
2. If you have edited other Wikimedia wikis, you may request deletion of your user pages on other Wikimedia wikis usingSynchbot.
3. Submit your vanishing request using one of the following methods:
   • Navigate toSpecial:GlobalVanishRequest, then submit a request for vanishing. Your request will be automatically granted if your account has not made any edits on any wiki. Otherwise, it will be submitted into a queue for review. Requests submitted in this way cannot be cancelled.
   • Email the global renamers team by using theemail form or by emailingrenamerswikimedia.org, using "Request for courtesy vanishing" as the subject. If you email directly, include some sort of verification that you own the account.

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