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The simplest workaround for deleting your Wiki account
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You cannot delete a Wikipedia account due to restrictions in the MediaWiki software and the way Wikipedia content is licensed, but there is a " Courtesy vanishing " process where you can have all of your user (and, in rare cases, talk) pages deleted, your username changed, and your account locked so that it cannot be used to edit pages. This wikiHow will teach you how. [1] X Research source [2] X Research source
Steps
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Make sure that your account is in good standing. To prevent vanishing from being use to hide vandalism, disruptive editing, or conflicts of interest, you can only have your account vanished if there are no current discussions about your behavior (or arbitration cases), active sanctions, or blocks (temporary or permanent) on your account. Check the administrator noticeboard , the arbitration requests page , and your talk page for current discussions. Check the block list and editing restrictions for currently active sanctions.
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Place the "{{retired}}" template on your user and user talk pages on Wikipedia (or Meta-Wiki). This will inform users leaving messages that you are leaving Wikipedia permanently (This step only works for the English Wikipedia, if you are registered on other Wikimedia wikis, you may want to skip this step)
- To do so, go to your user page and talk page and click on "Edit". Copy the template tag from above, paste it at the top of your user page on Wikipedia, and click on Publish changes .
- You can place "{{db-u1}}" template instead on your user page if you want it to deleted instead of showing a retired message. Note that your talk page will not be deleted unless there are exceptional circumstances. In most cases, you might need to contact the Arbitration Committee if you really want to have your user talk pages deleted.
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3File a vanish request. To do so, go to this page , verify your current username, and enter a reason for your request. Once the request is approved, your account will be randomly renamed to a randomly-generated string of characters, such as "Renamed user 157yagz5r48a5f1a1f", and locked. Please note, that the courtesy vanishing procedure is for users that want to leave Wikipedia PERMANENTLY. If you sign up for a new account at any time after the procedure is carried out, and are then discovered, the vanishing procedure may be reversed.
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Remove your email address from your preferences. To do so, go to this page and choose Remove email address . Enter your password. You can also change your password to a random string and throw it away (that will cut you off the account, and it is impossible to recover it afterwards). Once you are done, log out.
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5Scramble your account's password. To ensure that no one can log into the account, go to this page , log in again, and change the password to a long, random string of numbers, letters, and characters.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionHow can I delete a Wikipedia account totally?Top AnswererYou cannot delete a Wikipedia account totally due to restrictions on the MediaWiki software. This article shows you the closest you can get to 'deleting' your account.
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QuestionOn Step #4: File a rename request, are you supposed to rename your username literally to "Vanished user #######"? Since it says that # are any number, it doesn't matter what numbers are put? just 5 #?Top AnswererNo, you are supposed to fill ###### with a random number. For example: Vanished user 1030285.
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QuestionWhy can't people delete their Wikipedia account completely?Top AnswererBecause many MediaWiki wikis require attribution for their work, usernames cannot be deleted. Otherwise, it would violate the terms of the license.
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- Your request may be denied at any stage. If you think you want to return to Wikipedia, you may want to follow the clean start procedure at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Clean_startThanks
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