Wikipedia talk:Courtesy vanishing

Personally identifiable information

We should clarify that vanishing does not remove your access to an account, or the personally identifiable information associated with it. Whenever ppl ask to get their account deleted, we often point them here, but we never explain them how to remove their email or password access from this page. For gdpr reasons, they might be expecting their email adres not to be present in a potential data leak, after they vanished. maybe add it to the "What vanishing is not" section? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:49, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

I've added both as final instructions in the 'how to vanish' section. Special:Diff/1227204862. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 11:11, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

Why did "Vanished user" become "Renamed user"

On September 12 2024, "Vanished user" has been changed to "Renamed user" when accounts vanishing. See [1]. 1.129.111.66 (talk) 08:51, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Both were used interchangeably as requested by the user requesting a vanishing. Since late July there's a new vanishing process which standardises some of the process. The Renamed user option is now applied by default and the random string is generated automatically. The creation of redirects is automatic (so no more instances of renamers forgetting to select that option) and, if a user has made no contributions on any project, the whole process is fully automatic. Hope that helps, Cabayi (talk) 19:23, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Well, aside from that, it's actually impossible to really vanish. The contributions remain, just with a different username ("Renamed user XXXX") attached. In true internet vanishing, even that would go. Just as importantly, many of us are acutely aware that a very significant proportion of people who make a big deal of vanishing actually wind up returning. If people don't want to be here, all they have to do is stop logging in. Or if they need more self-discipline, they can scramble their password and detach email from their account. Risker (talk) 22:46, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

The issue is that users began getting blocked because of it, as shown in this example. (The reason, as translated from Portuguese, is an improper username) ـ ـ Cipher Nox (talk) 11:22, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

The report on ptwiki placed by Chronus and the block imposed by Igor G.Monteiro on Renamed user 3aa4fe0c77e1279e6d0fa928eac40011 were pointless as the vanishing process automatically applies a global lock on the account.

It appears you took a courtesy vanishing from SilverBullet X on 31 Oct but had already established your new account Cipher Nox (talk · contribs) on 14 Sept. Courtesy vanishing is for users who are quitting Wikipedia forever. It's not the same as a clean start.

Teles, I think this fits in your toolset? Cabayi (talk) 10:57, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

@Cabayi  Done! Chronus (talk) 20:31, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

@Cabayi, blocking was handled by Chronus. I think it would be nice a clarification to ptwiki about vanishing renamed since the chosen pattern is not according to that project’s username policy for regular accounts. I plan to do that soon. —Teles «Talk to me˱_{M @ C S}˲» 13:48, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@Cabayi Thank you kindly for your insight. To clarify, I did not mention a "clean start." This account was created for specific purposes like this one—initially, to contact ptwiki admins, though I did not receive a response. However, I believe my messages did reach the admin Chronus as per unblock.

My intention here was to shed light on how local wikis handle vanished users’ usernames differently. As you respectfully pointed out, the blocks imposed were and remain unnecessary, given that the account is locked globally.

On a global note, this is precisely why I contributed here about the matter—not only because it aligns with my principles but because I have a conscience and a heart. My aim was to advocate for a unified approach—one that aligns RTV policies across all local wikis, ensuring fairness and consistency.

Warm regards, ـ ـ Cipher Nox (talk) 12:40, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

Question about Special:GlobalVanishRequest

Does this process remove a user's email address and password hash from the database? -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 13:33, 18 December 2024 (UTC)