Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 October 18

= October 18 =

Jack Brooksbank
Please help   with  2  areas of concern - Firstly, there are  a lot of  red  words underneath the  refs. on this page. I am  unable  to  fix this up. - Secondly, I have  added  a  file in the  info  box  and it  is  all  wrong Thanks in advance. 203.132.68.1 (talk) 00:05, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me • my contributions) 00:13, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

Usernames that violate BLP
This came up at Miscellany for deletion.

If someone created a new account with the name User:example's real name is Larson E. Whipsnade and his social security number is 078-05-1120 (See), is it true, as claimed at the MfD above, that nothing can be done and the user name will remain visible forever? Or can oversight/suppression by applied, just as with any other serious BLP violation? --Guy Macon (talk) 08:38, 18 October 2018 (UTC)


 * According to Help:RevisionDelete at MediaWiki, it's technically possible to remove usernames from revisions. I don't see any policy-related reasons why usernames that are serious violations of WP:OUTING or WP:BLP wouldn't be removed.  Tera TIX  10:36, 18 October 2018 (UTC)


 * We have a policy for this: WP:BLPNAMEABUSE. Lourdes   11:23, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Accounts cannot be (technically) completely deleted, but local oversighters (locally) and stewards (globally) have ability to hide usernames that violates Wikimedia Oversight Policy, which makes it invisible to everyone but stewards, local OSes (if an account exist on their project), and certain number of WMF staffers. &mdash; regards, Revi 11:59, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
 * The username you mentioned is within oversight policy and would be suppressed everywhere it appeared. ~ GB fan 12:27, 18 October 2018 (UTC)