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Need for fair human arbitrage

Latest comment: 26 days ago18 comments4 people in discussion

Rigid automated guidelines mandated that I lost my username in SUL finalization.

The situation that arose, is that the username I had, now ended up being owned by a dead account that hasn't been touched in 12 years (see: my efforts to get in contact 2 years ago).

I immediately disputed the automated decision to take away my Sol username in favor of the dead account. I'm an active user and Sol is a personal brand of mine, that took 15 years to build and is known across the internet.

I want my Sol username back, please.

(See: the discussion arguments so far) --Sol451 (talk) 07:47, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Repeatedly making your request in multiple venues will not change the outcome. ~~~~
User:1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 12:57, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

User appears to have escalated the decline from the prior link. Making an appeal isn't completely out of line. That certainly doesn't mean that their underlying argument has merit. — xaosflux ^Talk 13:01, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Dear @1234qwer1234qwer4,

Your statement assumes, that my arguments were evaluated on their merit. I appeal because my arguments were only bypassed, people didn't have the authority, not their responsibility, go elsewhere (many times), etc. etc. Mechanical reasoning based on the flawed metric of "edits" does not do justice to my case. It's just mental laziness.

I'd like someone to really look at the merit of my arguments and fairly evaluate the interests of the persons involved and explain why one argument would have more merit over the other one. Sol451 (talk) 10:37, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

The normal venue for arguing for a usurp is Steward_requests/Username_changes#Requests_involving_merges.2C_usurps_or_other_complications; have you already requested there? — xaosflux ^Talk 13:06, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

During SUL finalisation multiple people happened to have local accounts named "Sol", but of course only one global account with that name can exist. That's why multiple users with the previous name "Sol" got notified about them being renamed, e.g. [1][2][3]. The account with most edits got to keep the original user name, which is dewiki user Special:CentralAuth/Sol with 1,670 global edits, while Sol451 got renamed just like the other local users called "Sol" due to having fewer global edits (258 global edits today). This has been explained multiple times and given that USURP is inadmissible for accounts with valid edits, there is no way we can grant them their previous user name. --Johannnes89 (talk) 13:59, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the research there @Johannnes89! — xaosflux ^Talk 15:25, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Dear @Johannnes89 thank you for compiling the list of all the places I tried to object to my mandated name change. I tried not to bypass any level before I got here. I couldn't access all the items in your list (especially the tickets), and would like to see what was written about me in those inaccessible entries. I tried to keep my appeal brief, please see my elaboration of arguments below. Sol451 (talk) 09:40, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

The tickets contain email communication between you and the stewards / support-team in 2015 and 2024, so you should have those mails yourself. I just linked them in case other stewards are not aware of those prior conversations. Johannnes89 (talk) 09:44, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Now that I know what USURP means, you wrote an interesting thing: "USURP is inadmissible for accounts with valid edits", but that is exactly what happened with me. My username was forcefully taken away, whilst my account had valid edits. Sol451 (talk) 09:50, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

That policy talks about current requests by other users. Your username had to be changed for technical reasons as part of SUL finalisation (which has been completed and no longer needs to be reflected in policy). ~~~~
User:1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 10:43, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Exactly. During SUL finalisation even accounts with valid edits got forcefully renamed if multiple local accounts with the same name existed and only the user with the most edits got to keep it, because there can only be one global account with that name. Today with SUL finalization finished years ago there is no policy which allows usurpation just because a user is inactive (except when they have zero or close to zero valid edits). Johannnes89 (talk) 11:00, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

I immediately objected to and am still disputing the automated decision that took place during SUL finalisation, that my account with valid edits got forcefully renamed. As I pointed out then and you can even see more clearly now in hindsight, that the automated decision was wrong, for the reasons that I provided below. I'm kindly asking to mend this situation by undoing the automatically forced rename of a live account and rename the dead account instead. Sol451 (talk) 07:18, 17 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Endorse decline, we're not going to forcibly rename that account with >1000 edits on a content project now. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:27, 9 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
Dear @Xaosflux,

Nobody else is being forced, because everybody was asked and nobody objected except for me. So the only one that is being forced is me. I strongly object against forcefully taking away my username.

Nobody weighted the merit of my arguments. All I got so far is mechanical reasoning, based on the flawed metric of "edits". I'm asking to look beyond that and really weigh my arguments against the complaints of the current holder of the Sol username, if any.

Everybody talks about USURP, but I don't know what USURP means? I'm NOT asking for the current holder of the Sol username to be deleted, just to add a small demarcation to the username of the dead account like Sol(DE) for example.

I tried to contact that user 2 years ago, but the account doesn't respond to anything. The account hasn't been touched in 12 years (that's the time a newborn grows up to puberty). It was already a dead account when SUL finalization took place. So the user apparently lost interest or doesn't care to object to resolving a username conflict.

Regarding the flawed metric of "edits". I'm the writer of a WikiBook. It took many hours and countless edits to put down my experience. That editing mostly wasn't done on-line. Editing was done off-line, in other environments and then uploaded to the book. On the other hand, I tried looking up the edits of the other Sol username holder and most of the time couldn't find them. The ones I did manage to find, appeared to be little in volume. The metric of "edits" for my WikiBook contributions is not comparable to the metric of "edits" by the Sol holder in WikePedia articles. The volume of my work is greater that his volume of work. Although the metric of the number of "edits" of the Sol holder is higher, his volume of work is smaller than mine.

It seams you have already made up your mind and "endorse decline", but please look beyond mechanical reasoning based on the flawed metric of "edits" and really weigh all of the interests of the persons involved. Sol451 (talk) 09:22, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
"Usurp" simply means to forcibly take something from somewhere else (in this case to take a username away from whomever could be in control of it now). Keep in mind, accounts do not have to be used to add contributions, some people use accounts for many read-only purposes. This is a discussion, so while I endorse the prior decline of your request - others could disagree. — xaosflux ^Talk 09:27, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
Dear xaosflux,

You wrote: "Keep in mind, accounts do not have to be used to add contributions, some people use accounts for many read-only purposes.".

That's why I contacted that user 2 years ago if he is still using the Sol username, but he never replied.

Does 12 years of inactivity hold more merit than an active user? Sol451 (talk) 10:00, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
You can use an account for more than just contributing, many people use an account just for reading. There is no way to tell, and there is no requirement that anyone respond to queries. Also, some people are idle for many many years, to one day return. — xaosflux ^Talk 10:06, 10 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

U4C announcement regarding user rights

Latest comment: 29 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Hello stewards and page watchers, the U4C has added its first announcement seeking feedback on the proposed list of local and global rights for the group. Your feedback is welcome! The intent is to do a formal vote after the community consultation. – Ajraddatz (talk) 23:31, 13 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

UTRS2

Latest comment: 5 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion

I made a global block appeal through UTRS2 but unfortunately I didn't write down the appeal key and now I can't log in to see the progress of my request. I don't know if this is the right place but I don't know where else to turn. Please help me. Thank you. 188.4.245.41 01:06, 7 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

For an IP block? Just open another request. Please note, appeals may take weeks to months to review. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:52, 7 October 2024 (UTC)Reply