Author: lar
Description:
We are seeing increasing numbers of cases where miscreants are taking up old account names (those that remain after a rename) and using them maliciously. On Commons, we have enhanced the [[Commons:MediaWiki:Renameusersuccess]] (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Renameusersuccess ) text to suggest that the account be recreated and either blocked (for bad names), or the password shared with the rename requestor (in the case of usurpations, the rename requestor needs the account created anyway, and we've had situations where vandals watch the rename log and grab names back as fast as we can rename them, preventing SUL unification by the good user)
I suggest that this functionality be built into the renameuser extension itself, and that the renaming 'crat (or steward) be offered the option of immediately creating the account (with a password specified) and also the option of blocking the account.
Putting this all in one handy dandy package would reduce inadvertant errors of omission, and prevent miscreants from grabbing names while the crat is dealing with the issue. This should be optional because in some cases (malicious names created to harass that are renamed away to harmless names) the account name is nasty enough that it should instead be SUL blocked instead of created locally.
I looked for related bugs.. I don't think this request has been made but I may be wrong. Possibly related codewise are:
13567 Improve log message for Renameuser
13912 Renameuser log entry oddity
but I don't think they really are, at least not exactly.