tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (How do I merge 2 accounts?)

Scott Morrison comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6433)

Scott Morrison — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:18:49 -0700

I just looked at the SVN repository, and it appears to be safe to make it public, so I've done so. If you, @Andrew, or anyone else, would like write access email me with a username/password.

Jacques Carette comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6397)

Jacques Carette — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:03:22 -0700

The 'old' account definitely seems to have disappeared. Of course, I can't find any of the comments I had left under that one (I'm not claiming they are gone, just that I can't seem to find them).

Andrew Stacey comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6393)

Andrew Stacey — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:10:27 -0700

Is that publicly available? I might steal it for my own installation (not that I've needed it yet, but you never know).

Scott Morrison comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6376)

Scott Morrison — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:01:01 -0700

There's now a little SQL script in http://tqft.net/svn/mathoverflow/VanillaMergeUsers/merge.sql. You need to modify it to set the @newID and @oldID variables. You can run it on the correct database just by executing merge.sh in the same directory (but would have to know the appropriate password, so this is really just for me and Anton).

I've done this for Jacques -- let me know if it worked out.

Scott Morrison comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6373)

Scott Morrison — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:34:56 -0700

Okay, for future reference, the relevant TABLE/COLUMN pairs for the UPDATE commands are:

LUM_CategoryBlock UserID
LUM_Comment AuthUserID
LUM_Comment EditUserID
LUM_Comment DeleteUserID
LUM_CommentBlock BlockingUserID
LUM_Discussion AuthUserID
LUM_Discussion LastUserID
LUM_IpHistory UserID
LUM_OpenID_OpenId UserID
LUM_Style AuthUserID
LUM_UserBlock BlockingUserID
LUM_UserBlock BlockedUserID
LUM_UserBookmark UserID
LUM_UserDiscussionWatch UserID
LUM_UserRoleHistory UserID
LUM_UserRoleHistory AdminUserID

Jacques Carette comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6335)

Jacques Carette — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:30:48 -0700

Please do it. I don't like leaving such untidyness around. Not urgent, naturally ;)

Scott Morrison comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6259)

Scott Morrison — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:42:24 -0700

Okay Jacques --- I think I can do this, but I'm not going to bother unless I hear again that you actually want it to happen. (Laziness :-)

Andrew Stacey comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6232)

Andrew Stacey — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:29:50 -0700

I don't know of a way to do it using the software itself (I did a quick check and there's a plugin to delete a user, but not one to merge two. Deletion removes all that users' posts as well, which can be irritating.) However, if you have access to the mysql database itself, either via the commandline or some online tool (eg phpmyadmin, if I remember its name aright) then it's not too hard. The key is to remember that users are referenced by their UserID so in all tables except LUM_User (assuming you've gone for the standard install, modify to suit) then you need to replace all references to the old id with references to the new one:

UPDATE LUM_X SET column = NewID WHERE column = OldID;

To see all the tables, use

SHOW tables;

To see the columns in a table, use:

SHOW columns FROM table;

Then look for columns like UserID, AuthUserID, and so forth. You're not using whispers so you should be able to safely ignore all references to such. Once that's all done, you can simply:

DELETE FROM LUM_User WHERE UserID = oldid LIMIT 1;

The LIMIT 1 is not necessary, but is a precaution. Needless to say, you should back-up your database first!

Scott Morrison comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6224)

Scott Morrison — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:20:58 -0700

@Jacques,

sorry, I didn't read your first post very carefully. Unfortunately, I see no way to merge accounts on this forum. Perhaps Andrew Stacey (who knows this software much better than I do) is listening and can suggest something?

Harald Hanche-Olsen comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6221)

Harald Hanche-Olsen — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:17:42 -0700

Even better, send it from the registered email address for the account(s), so we don't even have to pause to check it's kosher.

Of course, anyone can send email looking like it is from any email account, whether they own it or not. To be reasonably sure, you'd have to reply with a request for confirmation. (Sometimes the included Received headers will tell you what you need.)

Jacques Carette comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6220)

Jacques Carette — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:58:33 -0700

What I meant is that I have 2 accounts on meta.mathoverflow.net - not 2 on mathoverflow! I've emailed you directly, with links.

Scott Morrison comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6214)

Scott Morrison — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:22:56 -0700

And for any future viewer of this thread -- emailing a moderator, ideally with links to both accounts, is the most efficient way to get accounts merged. Even better, send it from the registered email address for the account(s), so we don't even have to pause to check it's kosher.

Scott Morrison comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6213)

Scott Morrison — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:21:37 -0700

Hi Jacques,

I actually can't find the first account. Could you post a link to the user page? The second account is at http://mathoverflow.net/users/3993/jacques-carette.

It will be easy to merge once we've found them!

Jacques Carette comments on "How do I merge 2 accounts?" (6211)

Jacques Carette — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:52:00 -0700

On meta, I accidentally have JacquesCarette and Jacques Carette. Could the one without-a-space be merged into the second? [Or, at worst, deleted?]