Jimmy Wales wrote:
Timwi wrote:
Nevertheless, I suppose we could still create a
central user database.
Although users would have to log in for each domain, they would still
log in to the same account, retaining the same Wikimedia-wide
preferences, etc.
Right! Doesn't sound too bad to me.
It still leaves the problem, as someone already mentioned, of people who
want a localised user name. For example "Boris the Inquisitive Goat"
might want to be known as "Boris la Chèvre Investigatrice" on the French
Wikipedia.
We could tell them "tough luck". Or instead of a central database, a
user could have a collection of "linked" user accounts, with
synchronised preferences (incl. password) and automatically generated
interlanguage links on user pages. Implementing this in the current
scheme would be relatively simple compared to some of the other
suggestions made here. It would require the various wikis to be able to
connect to each others' databases. There could be performance issues if
users create *lots* of linked accounts, but if that becomes a problem we
can always update in batches to save on the connection overhead.
-- Tim Starling
<tst.ar.li.ngphy.sicsun.i.melbed.uau> (fix punctuation to email)