At the suggestion of Essjay, I'm trying to publicize the
[[Wikipedia:Usurpation]]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Usurpation> proposed policy;
it's a useful extension to the current user renaming system which
would allow beaucrats to rename active users in good standing to
already existing but totally unused (no edits or actions of any sort)
accounts.
There are probably hundreds of thousands of usernames which have never
been used in the slightest, and a lot of good short names have been
locked up because we don't allow them to be deleted or renamed to
something else (thus freeing up the original name). Quite a few users
have specifically asked for this despite the dim prospects; something
like 30 by now, I think.
Anyway, the proposals has gotten a fair bit of support, but it doesn't
seem to have been commented on by a lot of people, so the bureaucrats
I've talked to, like Essjay, aren't willing to simply declare it
policy or guideline because they are worried the community doesn't
really know about it. It'd be pretty good if people would go read it
and comment; it's rather unfortunate when good, consensus approved
proposals stagnate and die just because they don't reach whatever
magical number people are waiting for.
--Gwern
I've posted a version of this message to some other places to try to
drum up some interest or discussion. My apologies if you see this
multiple times.