Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 October 18

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October 18[edit]

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)[reply]

 Fixed Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to memy contributions) 00:13, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Usernames that violate BLP[edit]

This came up at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion#Binksternet-related trolling.

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[1]), 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)[reply]

@Guy Macon: 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. TeraTIX 10:36, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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. — regards, Revi 11:59, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The username you mentioned is within oversight policy and would be suppressed everywhere it appeared. ~ GB fan 12:27, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]