User:FT2/RTV

This page in a nutshell:

Right to vanish means the right of any user, upon leaving Wikipedia forever, to request renaming of your account and deletion or blanking of pages in your userspace and various pages or discussions related to your conduct that will cease to be relevant to the project when you leave for good. Other contributions are not usually removed.

Right to vanish is not a temporary leave or a method to avoid scrutiny or sanction, is not a "fresh start", does not guarantee anonymity, and may be refused if ever abused. Subsequent return should be notified to ArbCom. Return leads to the "vanishing" being fully reversed, any old account linked to any new account, and any outstanding sanctions or other matters being resumed. ArbCom may be consulted if this is a problem.

Right to vanish means the right of any user, upon leaving Wikipedia finally and forever, to request renaming of your account and deletion or blanking of pages in your userspace and various pages or discussions related to your conduct that will cease to be relevant to the project when you leave for good. Other contributions, logs, signatures relating to normal routine editing, and some user page templates (eg related to reasons for ban, or past sock-puppetry) are not usually removed.

Right to vanish is available as a discretionary courtesy to anyone leaving for any reason, but may be refused if ever abused. It is not intended as a temporary leave or absence, or as a method to avoid scrutiny or sanction over one's past behavior, and does not guarantee anonymity, nor is it a basis for an eventual "fresh start".

Editors who invoke this right should expect that, should they return, their previous identity will be fully restored and may be linked to their new one if required for communal scrutiny, and any open sanctions and outstanding administrator or arbitration matters may be resumed.^[1]

The return of a "vanished" user under any account or IP should be notified to ArbCom. ArbCom may also be consulted if a user wishes to return and linking to the old account would be a problem.

Overview of right to vanish[edit]

Leaving Wikipedia[edit]

The usual way to leave the Wikipedia project is simply to stop editing. Your contributions remain in Wikipedia. If you wish to resume editing at a later date, you can start again by logging into the same account. Old accounts that have any significant edits are never deleted or recycled to new users.

A user who has decided to leave Wikipedia finally and forever, and who also wishes to sever (as far as possible) their connection with the site, may request their "right to vanish". Right to vanish is not a "cure-all" and is modest in scope. It involves removal of certain limited information (such as discussions of their conduct) that has no use once a user permanently departs, and their account will also be renamed on request to an anonymous name. Other project contributions and signatures on other discussions will not be affected. Right to vanish is also not a means of anonymity or a fresh start and despite its name it is completely discretionary - it is a courtesy that is traditionally made available to users who want to leave forever.

What right to vanish is not[edit]

Vanishing does not imply the dissociation of the account from the edits made from that account. With a very few exceptions, all edits made to Wikipedia will remain part of the database indefinitely even if the editor chooses to "vanish". The right to vanish is also not a right to a fresh start under a new identity. Vanishing means that the individual is vanishing, not just the account. Vanished users have no right to silently return under a new identity or as an IP and will be considered to be abusing the right if they later return without disclosing the fact.^[1]

Alternatives[edit]

Users in good standing are free to request a change of username at any time.

The deletion of personally identifiable information about users (such as name, phone number, or street address) is always available on demand. Such information can be deleted on request, subject to practicality and little or reasonable disruption.

Return after vanishing[edit]

The right to vanish relates to permanent departure only; users who exercise their right to vanish are not expected to return in future. The community appreciates that sometimes retired users may change wish to return, or banned users who have changed may want to edit properly. A user who wishes to edit after they have vanished (whether as an account or IP) should expect their "vanishing" to be reversed, and should contact the Arbitration Committee to confirm the situation.

What is and is not removed[edit]

Unless there is consensus to refuse, any steps that are practical will be identified and there will be discussion of which pages are not needed for community purposes and are reasonable to delete, blank, or collapse, after checking they do not contain any entries that need to be kept. Even where the right to vanish does not apply, there is often scope for some blanking. However there are limitations:

Your userspace	As a rule pages in your userspace can be removed. Your main user talk page will almost never be deleted by convention but may be blanked. Certain ban, sockpuppetry and similar templates (but not most other content) which can be useful to the community will usually be retained if applicable.
Other pages, sections, and threads	As a rule pages and page sections must be about you to be removed. This may include discussions and threads at sockpuppet investigations (SPI), arbitration (RFAR), requests for comments (RFC), various administrator's noticeboards (3RR/edit warring, ANI, etc), and other pages and threads about you and your conduct. Your contributions of other kinds are usually not removed.
Your account	For reasons related to licensing, accounts themselves cannot be deleted, nor can most other forms of contribution; it is not possible for your edits to be removed entirely and account deletion would potentially violate copyrights by allowing for inaccurate attribution and authorship claims. Accounts can be renamed but this should not be relied upon as a means of anonymity. As part of vanishing, a bureaucrat can change the username of the account.^[2] All contributions made under the old username will be reattributed to the new username, including deleted contributions. References to the former username on key pages discussing that user may be replaced with references to the replacement username if deletion is not practical. Old signatures embedded in historical revisions cannot be changed due to technical limitations of the Mediawiki software, although in some cases collapsing or blanking is possible.

Pages remain licensed for reuse even after deletion, and may occasionally be cited or deemed to contain useful content. Pages of value to the wider community or whose deletion is opposed by other users might be undeleted during a deletion discussion. Deletion and removal are limited by practicality and scope; typically a user will have participated in many discussions and it would be unreasonable to expect all of these to be manually amended.

Anonymity[edit]

Vanishing is not claimed to be a means of anonymity and as with clean start if a connection is made to an old account there is usually very little that can be done about it.

One case where a higher degree of removing traces may take place is when vanishing is not due to the fault of the user, but rather the old account suffered harassment or other hostile activity or faces a real-world peril such as outing. In such cases connections between old and new accounts may be removed to a greater extent where practical. However such users are cautioned that even then, if they voluntarily return to old topics and debates, or old interactions, or behave in a way that gets them noticed as a possible "reincarnation" of the old account, there is usually nothing the community can do to prevent it. Anonymity and separation from an old account cannot be, and is not, guaranteed.

How to exercise the right to vanish[edit]

It is suggested that you place a {{retired}} template at the top of your user and talk pages to indicate that you are no longer involved with Wikipedia. This tells other editors that you are no longer active and that messages should not be left for you. If you ever want to return to editing, simply remove the {{retired}} template. Retiring will not prevent you from logging in at a future date.

To leave more fully, you may wish to blank your userpage and any subpages in your userspace. To have them deleted entirely, add the {{db-user}} tag to the top of each page, and an admin will be along shortly to delete the page for you. Note that this will work on all of the pages in your userspace, except for your user talk pages – these are generally not deleted unless there is a specific reason that page blanking is insufficient. This specific reason needs to be established by nominating it via Miscellany for Deletion. In exceptional cases, where there is personal information you wish to have deleted without bringing attention to it by public discussion, you can use WP:Requests for Oversight.

If you wish to vanish to the fullest extent possible, it is probably best to contact the Functionaries mailing list, who will be able to advise on any privacy issues or specific pages of concern.

Community consent[edit]

Sometimes the community (or the functionaries team or Arbcom if inquiry is by email) will not extend the courtesy: for example, if the user is not certain to be actually leaving, or if the user's conduct is such that right to vanish is considered inappropriate. The right to vanish might at times not be extended to users who have been abusive or disruptive, who left when they lost the trust of the community, or who have been banned. Note also that the Wikimedia Foundation does not guarantee that an account's username will be changed on request. Decisions to rename an account or allow a Right To Vanish, if contested or in dispute, are determined by community consensus.

Handling of requests[edit]

Right to vanish is granted by consensus, based on estimates of the user's sincerity and whether their wish is genuinely final and forever. Past abuse of the right to vanish may mean that a future request will not be accepted.

Because right to vanish can be sensitive, this discussion may take place off-wiki, typically by the user emailing the bureaucrats' or the functionaries mailing lists to say they intend to leave permanently and forever, they would like to exercise their right to vanish, and summarizing the help they would like (accounts to rename, pages or sections they would like deleted or blanked if possible, etc). There is usually discussion to identify whether consensus exists and what can be done to help the departing user.

When the user confirms they are content to vanish, then the user usually tags their user talk page as "retired", the agreed pages will be deleted or blanked as appropriate and any agree renaming of the account will take place. A brief note may be posted on the user's talk page or a suitable noticeboard indicating that the account owner has left Wikipedia and asking that people not refer to the account by its former username. Users who have left Wikipedia may be added to Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians.

Right to Vanish is granted on the basis that the user wishes in good faith to cease editing and sever ties with the site; if the user does return these pages are likely to be undeleted or unblanked, and could be linked to any new account they create (if any). Of course the return of users in good standing or reformed "problem users" is welcomed if they happen to change their mind.

Philosophy of the right to vanish[edit]

The Wikipedia community works on the basis of individual reputations, which are built up by users' edits, and interactions. For example the community's right to know about and scrutinize an individual's editing history relevant to their current wiki activities usually has a high priority since other editors may need to know the past to evaluate and respond to their present editing. For example, whether the user is new or experienced and what if any past conduct issues may have existed.

The "right to vanish" is discussed at MeatballWiki's article of the same name. While many people enjoy and thrive on their online contribution to knowledge through Wikipedia, a minority change their mind over time concerning their editing of Wikipedia, the name they used, or their actions and contributions while editing. For example:

Real world issues - some peoples' real-world circumstances change over time such that their Wikipedia editing might be a source of discomfort, for example if their current career or social relationships could conflict with their earlier activities.
History of negative perception - some people who are leaving and have been involved in ugly conflict may wish their difficulties as an editor to be disassociated from their usual online name or real name, or to not have certain pages or discussions under their name left behind when they finally decide leave.
Privacy - some people become more privacy aware over time and wish to reduce the chances of their real or online name being looked up via a search engine.

The Wikipedia community will usually try to assist a user who is leaving (whether or not voluntarily) as a courtesy and to make departure easier and to reduce any concerns that may exist. Practical limits usually revolve around technical limitations, material of ongoing project value, and avoidance of disruption to the project. Since a number of users have attempted to use "right to vanish" as a way to shake off a poor reputation rather than for its intended purpose,^[1] the community has become less tolerant over time of "secret returns" (whether using an account or as an IP editor). Users are welcome to change their mind but should take care to notify the Arbitration Committee when they do, so to avoid concerns arising over gaming the system.

Notes[edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Right to vanish has been described at Requests for Arbitration as "a courtesy afforded to editors intending to withdraw permanently from editing Wikipedia. It is not intended as a temporary leave or absence, or as a method to avoid scrutiny or sanction over one's past behavior. Editors who invoke this right should expect that, should they return, their previous identity will be fully restored and any possible sanctions will be reapplied [.....] RTV is arguably one of the most misused processes on Wikipedia. It's the right to leave for good; if you don't, then none of the provisions (such as deleting past traces, renaming) apply and are rightfully undone. Likewise, it's not a 'get out of jail free' card...". [1]
^ The account must have made fewer than 200,000 edits. This is a technical limitation in the rename tool, not a policy limitation. Stewards may rename users with fewer than 2,000,000 edits. For further intervention, a developer is needed.