OpenWetWare:Username policy

We are attempting to move all usernames to use a person's full real name. Usernames should be the same as the name you use to publish, e.g. "User:Foo Q. Bar, Jr."

Implementation plan

• Special:Renameuser: move existing users
• ensure uniqueness of OWW accounts and email addresses
• allow login via email address
• have all newly created users use the new username format

Name Format: 'Foo Q. Bar' versus 'Foo Q Bar'

Pros Of the Period

• more similar to a journal citation

Cons of the Period

• the url would look like http://openwetware.org/wiki/User:Foo_Q._Bar with the period, and http://openwetware.org/wiki/User:Foo_Q_Bar without. I think the latter URL is much simpler - people are not used to periods outside of the domain names in url's
  • Austin Che 13:23, 3 May 2007 (EDT): It doesn't seem likely people will be manually entering in URLs and that we should decide based on this. Also, what about things like Jr. and Sr.? Note that there seems to be often comma separating name from Jr. which is another uncommon character in urls
• the period offers nothing extra - middle initials are already separated by a space
  • Austin Che 13:23, 3 May 2007 (EDT): One could make the argument the space adds nothing extra (separated by case), however I think it helps readability. I'm not sure if period helps with readability.