Update temporary username format
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	• Niharika
	Sep 7 2023, 2:43 PM

Description

Motivation

Based on the outcome of T332805: Decide the prefix character for temporary usernames we decided to move forward with changing the username format. The new format is: ~YYYY-n. This format has been decided after a series of usability tests (see findings).

Spec

The prefix for temporary usernames will be ~YYYY-n where YYYY indicates the year when the temporary username is created
The identifying temp user # n is broken into groups of 5 separated by hyphens. If the numbers don't neatly divide into groups of 5 then the very last group on the right can have fewer numbers.
At the end of every year n is reset and the counting starts all over.

Example format: ~2023-23126-086

Related Objects
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Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
In Progress		• Niharika	T324492 Temporary accounts - MVP
Open		• Niharika	T345760 [Epic] Temporary username format
Open		None	T345855 Update temporary username format
Resolved		STran	T349486 Change temporary user pattern configuration on beta to match the updated prefix
Resolved		Dreamy_Jazz	T354619 Support multiple patterns for matching temporary user account names
Declined		None	T349488 Rename temporary users on beta to the new format
Resolved		Dreamy_Jazz	T349489 Investigate: What would be needed for renaming temporary accounts on beta
Resolved		Tchanders	T349494 Update the format of temporary user names to include the year and hyphens
Resolved		Tchanders	T349501 Update temporary user names to start their counter again each year
Resolved		STran	T349503 Update the serial mapping config for generating temporary user names on beta
Resolved	BUG REPORT	Dreamy_Jazz	T353390 Handle collisions in autogenerated temporary account username provided by TempUserCreator::acquireName
Resolved		Tchanders	T353545 Allow plain-numeric serial mapping to avoid conflicts when generating temp user names
Resolved		Dreamy_Jazz	T349506 Set temporary user pattern configuration on production ahead of testwiki deployment
Open		sgrabarczuk	T349507 Rename user accounts starting with ~2
Open		sgrabarczuk	T349509 Notify users with names starting with ~2 that they will be renamed.
Resolved	BUG REPORT	Tchanders	T361021 New accounts with names beginning with ~2 are created
Resolved		Dreamy_Jazz	T359335 Update $wgAutoCreateTempUser defaults with production settings

Event Timeline

• Niharika created this task.Sep 7 2023, 2:43 PM

• Niharika mentioned this in T332805: Decide the prefix character for temporary usernames.Sep 15 2023, 7:53 PM

Titore subscribed.Sep 16 2023, 1:31 AM

Titore unsubscribed.

Urbanecm_WMF removed a project: Epic.Sep 17 2023, 7:31 PM

Urbanecm_WMF subscribed.

Tchanders subscribed.Oct 20 2023, 5:25 PM

At the end of every year n is reset and the counting starts all over.

I'm assuming that T345255: Decide the numerical order for temporary accounts (Scramble/Serial) has been decided in favour of serial, or there would be no reason to do this.

@Niharika Are we able to we close that task with a summary of the decision?

@Niharika Could you provide a link to the user research that prompted this change in the task description?

In T345855#9413880, @Tchanders wrote:

@Niharika Could you provide a link to the user research that prompted this change in the task description?

Updated the task description.

Tchanders closed subtask T349488: Rename temporary users on beta to the new format as Declined.Jan 9 2024, 11:24 AM

Tchanders mentioned this in T354619: Support multiple patterns for matching temporary user account names.Jan 9 2024, 11:41 AM

Tchanders closed subtask T349503: Update the serial mapping config for generating temporary user names on beta as Resolved.Jan 30 2024, 4:50 PM

Tchanders closed subtask T349486: Change temporary user pattern configuration on beta to match the updated prefix as Resolved.

kostajh closed subtask T349501: Update temporary user names to start their counter again each year as Resolved.Feb 1 2024, 12:45 PM

Dreamy_Jazz closed subtask T349494: Update the format of temporary user names to include the year and hyphens as Resolved.Feb 2 2024, 12:22 PM

Tchanders merged a task: T345678: Don't let people register accounts that look like temporary accounts.Feb 7 2024, 2:23 PM

Tchanders mentioned this in T345678: Don't let people register accounts that look like temporary accounts.

Tchanders added subscribers: • Whatamidoing-WMF, AntiCompositeNumber, JJMC89.

@Dreamy_Jazz @STran @Tchanders I think we still need to do something here for de.beta wiki (T349486: Change temporary user pattern configuration on beta to match the updated prefix); I just created a temp account there with the name *Unregistered 35214.

In T345855#9535297, @kostajh wrote:

@Dreamy_Jazz @STran @Tchanders I think we still need to do something here for de.beta wiki (T349486: Change temporary user pattern configuration on beta to match the updated prefix); I just created a temp account there with the name *Unregistered 35214.

Per @Tchanders, it's possible I had a stashed username from before the username format change was deployed. In that case, I think that is edge-case enough to not warrant doing any special casing around, for now anyway.

Dreamy_Jazz closed subtask T349506: Set temporary user pattern configuration on production ahead of testwiki deployment as Resolved.Tue, Apr 23, 4:34 PM

Update temporary username format Open, Needs TriagePublicActions