Wikipedia:Username policy/RFC 2024

Non-ASCII usernames
Should non-ASCII usernames, going forward, not be allowed on Wikipedia? By "not allowed", this would mean that users from now on who had non-ASCII characters in their username would be soft-blocked (not hard blocked). If they had a transliteration of the non-ASCII characters (e.g. in parentheses afterwards), this would not cause them to be soft blocked, but a lack of any ASCII text alongside the non-ASCII characters (e.g. the Unicode symbols with only numbers/symbols afterwards) would cause them to be soft blocked. thetechie@enwiki :  ~/talk/  $  01:52, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Support. Felt the need to mark it here as RFC questions should be neutral. I believe that non-ASCII usernames make it hard to find a user's page/talk page for future reference. Not everyone knows how to find specific language characters to do so. I think this would increase the ability to find users without having to worry about non-ASCII characters.  thetechie@enwiki  :  ~/talk/  $  01:52, 1 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Oppose. This smacks of something that could be construed as racism (albeit that would be a stretch). Also, it would be hard to implement this because we can't just block experienced editors on other wikis for coming here.  Liliana UwU  (talk / contributions) 02:09, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * @LilianaUwU: I really don't understand. They can just write their name in ASCII anyway.  thetechie@enwiki  :  ~/talk/  $  02:34, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but someone who has a non-ASCII username won't change it for just one wiki. Also, unified login is a limitation.  Liliana UwU  (talk / contributions) 02:35, 1 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Oppose Unified login. Curbon7 (talk) 02:15, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose - First, the second sentence doesn't follow from the first. ASCII is a subset of Unicode. But this is really just kind of a non-starter per Curbon7. &mdash; Rhododendrites  talk \\ 02:20, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * @Rhododendrites: Corrected, sorry. That was a typo. For users coming after this comment, a sentence mistakenly said "Unicode" instead of "non-ASCII".  thetechie@enwiki  :  ~/talk/  $  02:34, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Support - Per nom. As a Global renamer and an ACC admin, this has been to long coming. Communication is hindered by a username that includes a, just my opinion. -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 02:23, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Is not already prohibited via WP:NOEMOJI? Curbon7 (talk) 02:31, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * It's just an example.  thetechie@enwiki  :  ~/talk/  $  02:39, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * That does not answer the question. Curbon7 (talk) 02:42, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * What about non-Latin script usernames?  NW1223 &lt; Howl at me &bull; My hunts &gt; 02:31, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I do not support this proposal. As a single login is supported across Wikimedia sites, and Wikipedia is a global community of editors, users should not be restricted to writing systems that can be written in ASCII. isaacl (talk) 03:14, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Multilingual contributors, for example, should be allowed to use their preferred/native language/birth name when editing enwiki. Frostly (talk) 04:03, 1 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose Why would we limit ourselves to a subset of Latin characters? To inconvenience non-anglos? This in no way improves the English Wikipedia, and makes most natural names bannable. 207.212.33.88 (talk) 04:07, 1 May 2024 (UTC
 * Oppose You'd end up banning half of Wikipedia with this policy. Especially those active on other projects where a non ASCII username is normal (jawiki, arwiki, or just any other wiki with a language that doesn't use the latin script). The current WP:UN is more than enough. Deauthorized. (talk) 04:29, 1 May 2024 (UTC)