Wikipedia talk:Username policy
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Username policy page. |
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Titles as potential violations of username policy
Does the use of legally protected titles such as "Dr.", "doctor," "dentist," "surgeon," "lawyer," "engineer" and "architect," which require licensure or sufficient education, violate username policy when the user is not legally entitled to describe themselves as such? One issue besides the law is that these imply a level of professional knowledge that might give them an advantage in a content dispute. In a similar vein, "professor" might be part of this list, though it is not a protected occupational title as far as my knowledge goes. Air on White (talk) 22:17, 25 May 2024 (UTC) edited Air on White (talk) 00:27, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
- Let's see, I can call myself "doctor" or "Dr.", as I have an earned PhD. I used to listen to Dr. Demento's radio show. "Engineer" is commonly used to describe someone who operates a locomotive. "Software engineer" is a common job title. We can call someone an "architect of ..." without them holding a specific degree or license. I do not see any legal restraint on someone using one of those titles in a username. We have had users who claimed expertise and qualifications that they did not actually have. Things have not always gone well for them when they were found out. But that was because of what they falsely and explicitly claimed, not because of some title they used in their username. Donald Albury 00:25, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
- A straight-up violation, no. As Donald says, there are many times when it could be used with humour or otherwise without intending to "give an advantage". Someone claiming to be an expert and not actually being one is usually quickly shut down anyway, but WP:RFCN is always available if there are issues. Primefac (talk) 11:47, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
- I don't believe Dr. Dre holds a PhD, nor Dr. J; the licensing issue refers to attempting to practice, not merely identifying one's self. Fairly sure if there were legal issues with people identifying themselves as a "doctor" the Foundation would have told us by now. 331dot (talk) 15:23, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
- A straight-up violation, no. As Donald says, there are many times when it could be used with humour or otherwise without intending to "give an advantage". Someone claiming to be an expert and not actually being one is usually quickly shut down anyway, but WP:RFCN is always available if there are issues. Primefac (talk) 11:47, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
Editing Bot-reported usernames?
The bots are pretty good, but you do occasionally see false-positives sneak in. Is it appropriate for non-admin editors to edit the list and remove the ones they feel are not problematic? Or do admins need to do that (such as adding the username to a whitelist or something of the sort). For example, User:CharaIOnlyMadeThisToFixOneError was reported by a bot. Their one edit was non-controversial and there's nothing really problematic about the username (it was triggered by having a long number of characters without a space). As an uninvolved non-admin, could I just wipe that out? Matt Deres (talk) 20:15, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Point #7 in the UAA instructions says
Patrollers are asked to remove reports that [...] are bot-reported false positives
, so feel free to remove bot reports if you're confident that they're false positives (like the one you mentioned). DanCherek (talk) 20:20, 31 May 2024 (UTC) - Since I have over 300 edits at UAA/Bot I can say from personal experience that non-admins are welcome. But be sure to check the accounts for other issues as well. Block evasion, LTA, vandalism-only, spam-only are common issues with the accounts that show up there. Nobody (talk) 07:18, 3 June 2024 (UTC)
You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard § HBC AIV helperbot5 and AdminStatsBot. This is related to the bot that clerks WP:UAA. –Novem Linguae (talk) 14:26, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
Issue at WP:UAA/BOT
The bot reports section no longer has a link for direct editing. I can't seem to pinpoint when this happened. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 16:01, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- Fixed, someone moved the header onto a previous line. Primefac (talk) 16:19, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- Courtesy ping to Mdann52, as it looks like the bot did it in Special:Diff/1235461185. Primefac (talk) 16:21, 22 July 2024 (UTC)