Wikidata:Requests for comment/Defining account creators

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THIS RFC IS CLOSED. Please do NOT vote nor add comments.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

consensus has reached that

  • bureaucrats are allowed to grant/remove account creator flags
  • account creater flags should be granted for outreach/editathon events where accounts may need to be created en masse
  • account creater flags do not have to be removed after the outreach/editathon event has ended.--Pasleim (talk) 19:37, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

From Wikidata:Account creators:

The account creator user right grants access to a tool which permits trusted Wikidata contributors to make a large number of accounts for other people who request them.

This number does not include administrators, who all have the account creator user right by default.

Account creators' abilities

Accounts with the account creator user right have the technical ability to perform the following actions:

  • Create more than six accounts in a 24-hour period.
  • Override the "anti-spoof" check and create accounts that are similar to accounts that already exist (the 'override-antispoof' flag).
  • Override the "blacklist" check and create accounts that are otherwise blocked by the title blacklist (the 'tboverride-account' flag).

Following this request, I believe that we should revisit how we handle this.

Who should be able to grant the account creator flag?

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Allow bureaucrats to grant/remove account creator

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Allow bureaucrats and admins to grant/remove account creator

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Status quo (only stewards can grant/remove account creator

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When should the account creator flag be granted?

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For outreach/editathon events where accounts may need to be created en masse

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When should the flag be removed?

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When the outreach/editathon event for which it was granted ends the flag should be removed

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  •  Oppose same as ChristianKl. If someone needs to be account creator once, it could need to use it later. Extra process is not needed and is purely bureaucratic. Pamputt (talk) 06:55, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose; it seems simplest just to leave the flag in place. People who need it are reasonably likely to need it again and if we trust them enough not to abuse it for two weeks, then we probably trust them not to abuse it indefinitely. Andrew Gray (talk) 12:17, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

General discussion

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I have this right on en.Wikipedia (and on Wikispecies, where I'm an admin), because I regularly run editathons and training events. It's invaluable; not because I use it often, but because on the rare occasions I need it, I know it's there and can make use of it without delay. In that way it has saved more than one such event from failure.

That said, best practice is to ask attendees to create an account in advance of the event, where possible. Of course we don't always know who they will be, until the event itself.

Any editor in good standing who requests this right for an event should be granted it for a limited period; and anyone who can demonstrate that they regularly run relevant events should be given it indefinitely (with, say, an annual review to check that they are still active).

The Phabricator ticket requesting "The Event Organiser's Userright" is also relevant. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 08:48, 22 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to hear some examples where the need for this has come up. The statement above mentions three specific abilities this right gives. Do we have examples where we have had a need for one person to create multiple accounts the same day? Why does it not work for each person at an event to independently create their own account? Or do we have examples where the blacklist etc rules have been a burden? ArthurPSmith (talk) 08:49, 26 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I encountered this several times doing a series of Wikipedia outreach events in 2012-13, and on an occasional basis since then - I haven't encountered it with Wikidata-specific events yet, but I haven't run many WD-focused ones :-). It's not that there is generally a need for one person to create multiple accounts, but it's very easy to have more than six people wanting to create an account at an event, and as they tend to be using the same wireless network or same group of networked computers, then the account cap kicks in - since the blacklist can't distinguish between six different people or one person doing it six times. Getting them to create accounts in advance is ideal, but often not possible for various reasons, and IP-whitelisting is often also not possible. Having someone with account creator rights on hand has often been the only way we were able to get people set up. Andrew Gray (talk) 11:28, 26 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
We should decide whether when we grant the right to a person for an event the right will stay with the person after the event or whether we remove the right after the event is over. ChristianKl (talk) 18:00, 29 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.
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