On Nov 11, 2004, at 03:27:00 UTC , Erik Moellererik_moeller@gmx.de wrote[1]:

Hi,there's been some movement forward on the Single User Login (SUL) issue. I

ask the Board to review this mail carefully as this has significant long-term implications and we need Board input to go ahead. I also ask otherdevelopers to correct me if I misrepresent anything.There are currently three competing strategies. Before I describe thesestrategies, let me point out that one important consideration for anysystem is scalability. That is, single login will be used on all existingand future Wikimedia projects, and potentially even on non-Wikimedia sites

which we allow to participate in our system.The three strategies are:

1. GLOBAL NAMESPACE, IMMEDIATE CONFLICT RESOLUTION

We try to move towards a single global user namespace for all Wikimediawikis. If a name is already taken in the global namespace, you have tofind one which isn't.For the migration, any names which clearly belong to the same user arecombined into one. If passwords and email addresses are different, theuser can manually link together any accounts which belong to him byproviding the passwords.For cases of true name conflicts between the existing wikis, there is aresolution phase, where factors like seniority, use on multiple wikis vs.a single one, etc., are weighed in - the "loser" has to choose a newaccount name.After the manual resolution phase, any remaining accounts are converted to

the new system automatically by making them unique, e.g. by adding anumber to the username. The transition is now complete. The old system nolonger exists.

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1. is very complex, and we may not find someone willing to deal with the

name conflict resolution issue and take the blame from annoyed users atthe same time. Naming conflicts will always be an issue in this scheme, as

e.g. all common first names will be taken, and any small wiki hooking upwith our SUL system would feel this impact. People can mutate theseusernames relatively easily to make them unique - Erik333 - and the system

can offer such mutations, but it's still a bit annoying.

This is now complete [2]. That wasn't too bad.

1.https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2004-November/061327.html2.https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2015-April/077576.html

--Keegan PeterzellCommunity Liaison, ProductWikimedia Foundation